Getting started

From install to your first port, one line at a time.

Port42 is a Mac desktop for your AI companions. Install it, bring Claude Code or Codex, and say what you want. It runs no model of its own. Bring Claude Code or Codex, and it becomes your companion. It uses your own Claude or ChatGPT account, and Port42 never sees your login.

01 · INSTALL

Install Port42.

A signed DMG for macOS 14 or later on Apple Silicon. Drag Port42 to Applications and open it. Windows and iOS are coming soon.

Download for Mac

macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon · signed DMG

first open setup
The opening sequence plays, then setup asks your name.

› what should we call you?
gordon
02 · PICK YOUR AI COMPANION

Pick your AI companion.

Claude Code and Codex work out of the box, and setup looks for both on your machine. You can also bring another CLI or agent framework as a companion; integration for those is still getting deeper.

  • Found one, and your companion runs on it.
  • Found both, and you pick.
  • Found neither, and setup offers to install one for you (it needs Node.js).
  • Sign-in happens in the CLI itself, the way it always does. Port42 holds no key and never calls a model provider.
claude code

Anthropic's CLI, signed in with your own account.

codex

OpenAI's CLI, signed in with your own account.

neither found · install one from setup
03 · MEET ECHO

Meet Echo, your first companion.

Setup ends in a Port42 terminal port running Claude Code or Codex. That is Echo. Ask what this place is (with Claude Code the line is already typed, so just press Enter).

  • Echo explains Port42 in a few lines, then gives you one thing to try.
  • Send it: make me a shader port. Echo builds it with Port42's API.
  • Zoom out, and the shader is live on your desktop, right beside Echo's terminal.
  • Then Echo hands you the two keys. ⌘I to imagine something bigger with a team, and ⌘K to find everything else.
  • If you brought a line from this page, Echo tells you it is waiting. Zoom out to your desktop and the ⌘I box opens with in it. Press Enter.
echo💬···⤢✕
› hey, i'm gordon. what is this place?
● port42 is a desktop of live surfaces called ports: a chart, a terminal, a shader, a doc. ask for what you need and it appears here as a real thing you can use, keep, or throw away.
i'm one of those ports, and i make the others. it's your machine and your agent.
now try this.
"make me a shader port"
asking in plain language is how you drive me.
› make me a shader port
⏺ port42 · port_create · web port "shader"
done. zoom out, and you'll see it beside me.
that was me alone. for something bigger, press ⌘I and imagine it. a lead and two engineers build it in a space of its own. try "a shader that reacts to your music".
⌘K finds everything else: spaces, ports, companions, and your other claude and codex sessions.
claude code · in a port42 terminal port
04 · ASK FOR A PORT

Ask for a port.

Every space and every port has its own chat. Ask in the one that fits, and a companion builds the port there. It shows up live on your desktop, a real surface you can click, type into, and keep.

a pomodoro timer
a chart of my CPU
a habit tracker for this month
a synth we can all play

Talk to the desktop, a space, or one port. Your companions choose where to answer too.

05 · /IMAGINE

Say it, see it.

Press ⌘I from anywhere, or type /imagine in any chat, and give it one line. Port42 writes the brief, opens a new space with a lead and two engineers, and briefs the lead. They split the work, talk it out in the port's chat, and build it while you watch.

  • The lead reads the port's console itself before it accepts a piece of work.
  • Step in any time. You are in the same chat.
  • Need an idea? The periodic table of software has more than 100, each one line you can imagine.
chat · space you
⌘I a shader that glows in the deep
new space · lead + 2 engineers
lead Lead here, to settle the direction so there is one brief.
eng2 palette is in, @lead ready for a look

Try one now.

Type a line or pick one, then open it in Port42. The ⌘I box opens with your line in it, and you press Enter. Not sure what to make? The first pick has Port42 look at how you work today.

⌘I
Browse the periodic table →

06 · DRIVE IT FROM ANY TERMINAL

Drive a port from any terminal.

Open Claude Code or Codex in any Port42 terminal and it can create and drive ports as itself. The port shows who is driving. Click the port and you are driving.

  • The first time a companion asks for something sensitive, like your screen or the clipboard, Port42 asks you.
  • Every client and what it can reach is listed in Settings, under Access. Revoke any of it.
  • If you changed a port first, a companion's write is refused and it picks up from your change.
settings · access clients
claude code · eng1 screen, terminal revoke
codex · eng2 terminal revoke
port42 cli ports revoke
07 · COMPOSE

Feed one port into another.

Ask for a port that reads another one. A data port feeds a chart, the chart feeds a gauge. Change the data and everything built on it updates, with no glue code in between.

a port that smooths the CPU chart
a gauge fed by the smoothed one
08 · ARRANGE

Arrange your desktop.

Zoom to move around, peek to pull work in, hover to focus, and hold space to talk. A new port takes a free spot and moves nothing, and a restart leaves everything where you put it. Closing a port archives it, and ⌘K brings any port back.

Zoom

From the galaxy of your spaces, into one space, into one port. Point and zoom.

Peek

A port that needs you peeks in from the edge, even from another space. Mouse over it and you are in.

type

Focus

Hover a port and start typing. It is already focused.

Park

Set a port aside in the rail, right where you drop it. Close never destroys, and ⌘K brings any port back with its chat.

Stays put

A new port takes a free spot and moves nothing. Restart, and everything is where you left it.

v1v2v3 · now

History

Roll any port back to an earlier version.

space

Voicenew

Hold space and talk. Your words stream into whatever has the keyboard (a chat, a port or a terminal), and letting go sends them. Brief a companion, answer the lead, or dictate a post without touching the keys. With Accessibility it works in your other apps too. The speech model runs on your computer and downloads the first time you use it, so your voice stays on it. Settings has a Voice tab.

09 · SHARE A PORT

Share a port.

Choose Share… on a web port and the link is copied in one click. Whoever opens it gets the port on their desktop, live on both, with one chat for it, so a change on either side shows up on the other and your companions and theirs can work on it together. If they do not have Port42, the invite opens in a browser. One invite grants one port. You stay in control. Stop sharing any time, and they lose that one port and nothing else.

your computer
abyssal bloom · portdriver: you
your companions keep working on it
one invite
the same port, live on both
their computer
abyssal bloom · portdriver: you
their companions can join from there
no Port42?The same invite opens in a browser, with nothing to install. Same live port, same door.

Not yet audited. Sharing is new in v1 and has not had an independent security audit. It is encrypted end to end, but until it is audited, don't share ports that hold passwords, customer data, or anything regulated.

What next

Go deeper.

The elements of software26 elements, more than 100 things they make, and the line for each. ArchitecturePorts, pipes, and the one door every caller uses. DocsThe API your companions call. WritingWhy Port42 is built this way. ReleasesWhat changed, version by version.