| name | deploy-rw |
| description | Deploy remote-workstreams on this Mac — tmux + Tailscale checks, engine wiring (Claude Code / Codex), Deepgram/Cartesia keys into the macOS Keychain, pairing PIN, launchd install, tailscale serve, pairing QR, round-trip test. Use when the user wants to install, deploy, or repair a remote-workstreams service. |
Deploy remote-workstreams
You are deploying remote-workstreams: a persistent launchd service on this Mac, reached from the
user's iPhone over their tailnet. The end state is a running service, secrets in the
Keychain, HTTPS on the Mac's MagicDNS name, and a phone paired via QR code. This skill
runs the same from Claude Code or Codex — one deploy serves both engines.
Three helper scripts live in scripts/ next to this file. They print key=value lines
and are all idempotent — re-running any of them is safe.
Rules
- Confirm before changing the system. Before every command that touches system state
—
git clone, Keychain writes, launchctl, tailscale serve, installing Tailscale —
tell the user exactly what you will run and why, and get a yes. Read-only commands
(check.sh, tailscale status, --help, curl of healthz) need no confirmation.
- Secrets: never echo stored secrets back, never write the plaintext PIN anywhere.
- Re-runs are normal. This flow doubles as repair:
check.sh shows what is already
done; skip completed steps unless the user wants to redo one (e.g. rotate a key).
Step 0 — Assess
Run scripts/check.sh [REPO_DIR] (default checks ~/remote-workstreams). Read the output and
tell the user what is already in place and which steps remain. On a healthy install
(everything ok/present/configured), say so and ask what they want to change.
Step 1 — Preflight: macOS, uv, tmux, service repo
-
os=unsupported → stop; remote-workstreams runs on macOS only (launchd, Keychain, CoreAudio).
-
uv=missing → have the user install uv (https://docs.astral.sh/uv/) and re-check.
-
tmux=missing → tmux is a hard prerequisite: every agent session remote-workstreams
drives lives in the voice tmux session. With the user's OK run brew install tmux
(no Homebrew → https://brew.sh first), then re-run check.sh and confirm
tmux=/tmux_version= report a binary.
-
repo=missing → the service needs a durable git clone of remote-workstreams. Ask the user if
they already have one (re-run check.sh THEIR_PATH to verify); otherwise, with their
OK, clone the canonical remote to ~/remote-workstreams:
git clone https://github.com/ryan-scheinberg/remote-workstreams ~/remote-workstreams
Never run the service from the plugin's own marketplace clone — the host CLI replaces
that directory on plugin updates.
Everywhere below, $REPO is the resolved repo path and $TS is the tailscale binary
path printed by check.sh.
Step 2 — Engines
check.sh reports which agent CLIs exist (claude= / codex=) and whether Codex's
role-skill symlinks are in place (codex_role_skills=). The service launches codex
from launchd's Homebrew-aware PATH, so it follows the maintained CLI install without
depending on the ChatGPT app bundle. At least one CLI must be installed and logged in.
At runtime the model name carries the engine; three store
settings shape what this box offers:
engines — which engines the phone's picker shows (claude, codex, or both)
planner_model / injector_model — who runs + Workstream and Send latest.
The phone's PLANS menu row sets both from one pick and offers exactly opus
(thinks at high) or gpt-5.6-luna (xhigh); seed one of those two so the row
shows the selection (default opus; gpt-5.6-luna is the Codex equivalent)
Claude Code needs no wiring beyond login — the service hands its sessions the plugin
directory at spawn. Wiring Codex is three symlinks (it discovers skills globally):
mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills
for s in role-convo role-stint-plan role-inject; do ln -sfn "$REPO/skills/$s" ~/.codex/skills/$s; done
Settings are written with this one-liner shape (add set_setting lines as needed;
current model names live in remote_workstreams/engines.py):
(cd "$REPO" && uv run python -c "
from remote_workstreams.config import Config
from remote_workstreams.server.store import Store
store = Store(Config.load().db_path)
store.set_setting('engines', 'claude codex')")
Apply by what's installed:
- Both CLIs: ask the user whether to wire the second engine too, so both are
pickable from the phone. Yes → the symlinks above and
engines = claude codex;
no → engines = the CLI you are running in. If you are running inside Codex, also
set planner_model and injector_model to gpt-5.6-luna — the engine that installs
drives the planning; the other stays pickable for conversation and workstreams.
- Claude Code only: set
engines = claude. Defaults cover the rest.
- Codex only: the symlinks above, then
engines = codex, planner_model and
injector_model = gpt-5.6-luna, convo_model and workstream_model =
gpt-5.6-terra so the first boot doesn't try to spawn a missing claude binary.
role_root=missing in check.sh → no role skill exists to launch workstreams with (see
README); set store.set_setting('role_skill', '') so workstreams boot plain instead of
typing a dead command.
All of it is an easy flip later — re-run this step after installing the other CLI.
Step 3 — Tailscale
tailscale=missing → guide the install: download the Tailscale app from
https://tailscale.com/download (or the Mac App Store), open it, and log in to their
tailnet. Wait for the user to say it's done, then re-run check.sh. The app's CLI
lives at /Applications/Tailscale.app/Contents/MacOS/Tailscale; check.sh finds it.
tailscale_state must be Running — if not, have the user log in / toggle it on.
- Note the
magicdns= name (e.g. mymac.tail1234.ts.net). It is the service's public
name inside the tailnet; you need it in Steps 7–8. If it's empty, MagicDNS is off —
the user enables it in the Tailscale admin console under DNS.
Step 4 — Provider API keys
For each of deepgram-api-key and cartesia-api-key that check.sh reports
missing (or that the user wants to rotate): ask the user to paste the key
(consoles: console.deepgram.com, play.cartesia.ai), then with their OK store it:
printf '%s' 'PASTED_KEY' | scripts/store_secret.sh deepgram-api-key
Same command shape for the other name. Keys go only to the login Keychain (service
remote-workstreams, matching remote_workstreams/keychain.py) — never into files. There is no model
API key: all model use rides the CLIs' own auth.
Step 5 — Pairing PIN
Skip if secret_pin-hash=present and the user isn't changing it. Changing the PIN does
not invalidate paired devices — it only gates future pairings.
- Ask the user to choose a 4-digit PIN (verify it matches
^[0-9]{4}$).
- With their OK, store the hash only (the
--hash flag runs the server's frozen
remote_workstreams.server.auth.hash_secret — scrypt, salt voice-code-v1):
printf '%s' 'THE_PIN' | scripts/store_secret.sh pin-hash --hash "$REPO"
Note: 5 wrong PIN attempts lock pairing out for 10 minutes (server-side); a service
restart also clears the lockout.
Step 6 — Install the launchd service
Tell the user this will run uv sync in $REPO, write
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.remote-workstreams.server.plist (rendered from
$REPO/deploy/com.remote-workstreams.server.plist.template), and launchctl bootstrap the
service. With their OK:
scripts/install_service.sh "$REPO"
It fails fast if tmux is missing, then waits up to 30s for
http://127.0.0.1:8400/healthz. On healthz=failed, read the log files named in the
rendered plist, fix, and re-run the script.
At boot the service does the session bootstrapping itself — nothing to do here, but
verify it took: it writes ~/.remote-workstreams/workstream-settings.json (per-boot approval
hook wiring), creates the voice tmux session if absent, and spawns or resumes
the persistent convo session in window voice:convo. A healthy check.sh
therefore also shows tmux_session=voice and convo_window=alive; if either is off
while healthz=ok, read the service logs — the tmux bootstrap failed.
Step 7 — Expose over the tailnet
tailscale serve puts HTTPS (real Let's Encrypt cert) on the MagicDNS name and proxies
to the local service. The CLI syntax has changed across versions — run
"$TS" serve --help first and adapt:
- Modern form:
"$TS" serve --bg 8400
- Older form:
"$TS" serve --bg --https=443 http://127.0.0.1:8400
Confirm with the user, run it, then verify: "$TS" serve status shows the mapping, and
curl -fsS https://MAGICDNS_NAME/healthz succeeds. If serve complains that HTTPS is
disabled for the tailnet, the user enables "HTTPS Certificates" in the Tailscale admin
console (DNS page) and you retry. First cert issuance can take a minute.
Step 8 — Pair the phone
Print the pairing URL as a QR code plus plaintext:
(cd "$REPO" && uv run python -c "import qrcode; qr = qrcode.QRCode(border=1); qr.add_data('https://MAGICDNS_NAME/'); qr.print_ascii(invert=True)")
(Note: build a QRCode object — qrcode.make(...) returns an image with no
print_ascii.) Then walk the user through it:
- On the iPhone (on the same tailnet, Tailscale app connected), scan the QR or open the
URL in Safari.
- Share → Add to Home Screen, then open it from the Home Screen.
- Tap Pair this device, enter the 4-digit PIN.
- Approve the Face ID prompt (WebAuthn registration — the passkey is stored and used
for every later unlock).
The phone now holds a passkey; every app open is one Face ID tap (Unlock). After a
service upgrade that changed the credential schema, or a server restart, existing
phones just Unlock again — re-pairing is only needed if the server says the passkey
is no longer valid.
Step 9 — Final check and report
Run the audio round-trip test (synthesized speech in → transcript → reply audio out,
uses the live keys):
(cd "$REPO" && uv run python -m remote_workstreams.audio.roundtrip)
Report pass/fail. Finish with a summary: service state, tmux session state
(tmux_session= / convo_window= from a final check.sh), engines wired, MagicDNS
URL, pairing status, round-trip result, and the rollback notes below.
Rollback / uninstall
- Stop the service:
launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/com.remote-workstreams.server
- Roll back code:
git -C "$REPO" checkout PREVIOUS_TAG, then re-run
scripts/install_service.sh "$REPO"
- Stop serving:
"$TS" serve reset (or the equivalent shown by "$TS" serve --help)
- Remove secrets:
security delete-generic-password -s remote-workstreams -a NAME per entry
- Unwire Codex:
rm -f ~/.codex/skills/role-convo ~/.codex/skills/role-stint-plan ~/.codex/skills/role-inject