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Quickstart

This page installs the CLI, signs you in, starts Claude Code on your repo in a cloud sandbox, and shows the sandbox in the console. You need macOS or Linux and a git checkout whose origin is on GitHub.

  1. Install the CLI.

    Terminal window
    curl -fsSL https://droneship.run/install | sh

    The installer puts droneship on your PATH, usually in ~/.local/bin. If your shell then says command not found, add the line the installer printed, or:

    Terminal window
    export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

  2. Sign in.

    Terminal window
    droneship login

    The CLI opens your browser. After you approve the sign-in there, the terminal prints:

    Opening your browser to sign in.
    If it doesn't open, visit:
      https://...
    

    Signed in as you@example.com (profile: default)
      scopes: <scopes>
      account: <account-id>
      project: <project-id>
      control plane: https://api.highflame.ai

    On a machine with no browser, such as a dev box over SSH, run droneship login --headless and approve the code it shows from any device.

  3. Push your branch, then start Claude Code from your repo.

    Terminal window
    cd ~/src/my-repo
    git push
    droneship run claude

    The sandbox clones your repo’s origin at your current branch, so uncommitted work and unpushed commits are not in it. The CLI tells you when you have either.

    The agent’s model calls are paid with your own Claude Pro/Max plan or your own Anthropic API key. If you saved an API key on the console’s Settings page (under Model keys), the CLI says Using your saved Anthropic key and uses it. With no key sent and none saved, the CLI says No key sent: sign in to your Claude Pro/Max plan inside the sandbox, and you run /login in Claude Code. A background task (-p) has nobody to sign in, so it uses your API key or a claude setup-token token (Hand off a task). To use an API key instead, export it and name it with --byok. The CLI remembers the name for later launches:

    Terminal window
    export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
    droneship run claude --byok ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

    With your key, the launch looks like this:

    Repo: https://github.com/you/my-repo @ main
    Creating Claude Code sandbox (terminal)...
      usually under a minute; longer the first time an image is built
      code at /workspace/my-repo @ <commit>
      isolation: KERNEL

    Claude Code then opens in your terminal, running inside the sandbox. Give it a task as you would locally. It doesn’t ask before each command, because the sandbox is the boundary. Pass --ask to turn those prompts back on.

    If the repo is private and you haven’t connected GitHub yet, the CLI opens the GitHub authorization page in your browser and continues after you approve.

  4. Find the sandbox in the console.

    Open droneship.run/console. The Sandboxes page lists your sandbox with its harness (claude-code), repository and branch, status, how long it has been running, and when it will auto-stop. From the terminal, droneship list shows the same sandboxes.

    The Sandboxes page listing your sandboxes with their status and auto-stop times

  5. Stop the sandbox, or let it stop on its own.

    Terminal window
    droneship kill <id>
    Terminated sandbox <id> (local SSH key discarded)

    droneship list shows the id. Killing it is optional: with nobody connected, the sandbox shuts down after 30 minutes idle, and it shuts down after 8 hours regardless. In both cases its workspace is saved, and the next droneship run claude on this repo resumes from it.

What happened

Section titled “What happened”

droneship run claude asked the hosted control plane for a sandbox, cloned your repo into it, and started Claude Code with the default egress policy (baseline-secure). Model calls go through the Highflame gateway. With --byok, your key stays in a sidecar outside the sandbox. Your laptop holds only your Droneship sign-in token, and no cloud credentials.

Running droneship run claude in the same repo reattaches to that sandbox instead of starting a new one. --new --ephemeral (or a -p prompt run) starts another alongside it. See Core concepts for what a sandbox, harness and workspace are, and droneship run for every option.

Next

Section titled “Next”