Hosted agents and daemons

A hosted agent is a coding agent you can work with through Capacitor. It runs on a machine you connect: your laptop, a workstation, or a dedicated host. From the browser, you can give it work, follow its conversation, answer permission requests, and work alongside teammates.

The Capacitor daemon is the background process on that machine. It connects to your Capacitor server, reports which agent vendors are available, and launches their CLIs. Repository access, file changes, and commands all happen on the daemon’s host, using the vendor installed and authenticated there.

The server coordinates access and keeps the recorded session. The daemon keeps the agent running independently of the browser, so you can close a tab and return to the work later while the host and daemon remain available.

How this fits with sessions and flows

An ordinary local coding session can be recorded without a daemon. To launch and control an agent through Capacitor, use a hosted agent. Recording an existing local session does not make it remotely controllable.

Flows also use hosted agents. They give participants defined roles and coordinate their work across rounds. For everyday implementation, debugging, or exploration, you can work directly with a hosted agent.

Connect a machine

Install and set up the CLI on the machine where the work should run. Install and authenticate the agent vendors you want to use there, then start the daemon:

kcap login
kcap daemon start

Open Agents in the web UI to see the connected daemon and the vendors it can launch. If a vendor is missing, check its installation, authentication, and executable path on the host.

For a named daemon running in the background:

kcap daemon start --name laptop -d
kcap daemon status --name laptop
kcap daemon stop --name laptop

A name distinguishes daemons; the same name cannot run twice on one machine. The daemon’s local consent policy controls who may request launches on that host. Use kcap daemon consent show to inspect it. The CLI reference covers consent, logs, restarts, and diagnostics.

Keep it running (install as a service)

For a daemon that starts automatically and recovers after a crash, install a per-user service:

kcap daemon service install
kcap daemon service status

This uses launchd on macOS, systemd’s user service on Linux, or a Scheduled Task on Windows. Installation captures the active profile and current PATH, so install it from an environment that can find your agent binaries.

Use kcap daemon service stop and kcap daemon service start to control the service, or kcap daemon service uninstall to remove it. See Configuration & profiles for daemon settings.

Supported vendors

v1.1.1 supports hosted Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Antigravity, and Pi. The available controls depend on the vendor and daemon platform. The launch dialog shows the capabilities of the selected daemon.

If an executable is outside the daemon’s PATH, configure its location on the host:

Vendor	Environment override	Default executable
Claude Code	KCAP_CLAUDE_PATH	claude
Codex	KCAP_CODEX_PATH	codex
Cursor	KCAP_CURSOR_PATH	cursor-agent
Copilot	KCAP_COPILOT_PATH	copilot
Gemini CLI	KCAP_GEMINI_PATH	gemini
Kiro	KCAP_KIRO_PATH	kiro-cli
OpenCode	KCAP_OPENCODE_PATH	opencode
Antigravity	KCAP_ANTIGRAVITY_PATH	agy
Pi	KCAP_PI_PATH	pi

Claude and Codex also have profile settings:

kcap config set daemon.claude_path /opt/claude/bin/claude
kcap config set daemon.codex_path /opt/codex/bin/codex

Once the daemon is connected, follow Working with hosted agents to launch work from the web UI or terminal and collaborate with other people.