Without Docker

On this Mac

vyre up                  # role local: this Mac talks to your box
vyre up --box            # or: this Mac is the box
vyre up --connect https://alex.vyre.run   # a box you already set up

A Mac's role is local by default. vyre up starts Vyre on this Mac, asks where Vyre should run (or saves the address you gave with --connect; it pairs nothing and asks nothing, and pairing is vyre link pair <code> with the code the box shows), offers once to add Vyre's line to Claude Code's status line, and builds and opens the Lumen (--no-capsule skips that). The full walk-through is Install.

vyre up --box sets the role to box and prints the pairing line (wink.server.code), which you pair from your Vyre app. The Mac then serves your phone, so it has to stay awake for the phone to reach it. For a Mac that is the always-on server, use the Vyre app's install line (Install): it installs Vyre as a service that starts when the Mac does, which vyre up --box does not.

There is no login item. vyre up starts Vyre, and restarts it when the installed version or the role has changed. Some commands, such as vyre recall, vyre start and vyre capsule, also start it when it is not running; others, such as vyre status, only report. The rest:

vyre status              # is it running, and what is it running
vyre down                # stop it
vyre modules             # every module and whether it started

Its output goes to ~/.vyre/logs/vyred.out, and its log to ~/.vyre/logs/, one file per day (2026-09-27.log).

On a server

npm install -g https://vyre.run/box/vyre.tgz
sudo vyre up --system --user alex
vyre up

This installs Vyre under systemd. --user names the account it runs as; it can never be root. Under sudo it defaults to the account that ran sudo. Add --dry-run to see every change without making one.

vyre up --system does this, and running it again changes only what differs:

1. Creates ~/.vyre for that account, mode 0700.
2. Sets up what watchers run behind: bubblewrap and, where Ubuntu restricts user namespaces, its AppArmor profile.
3. Writes vyre.service in /etc/systemd/system/. It runs Vyre as the account with Restart=always and NoNewPrivileges=yes, VYRE_HOME set to ~/.vyre, and optional environment from ~/.vyre/env. Vyre opens no listener of its own on the network: its built-in network and the relay carry every connection.
4. Runs systemctl daemon-reload, systemctl enable vyre.service and systemctl restart vyre.service.

Then pair it from your Vyre app: vyre call wink.server.code '{"qr":true}' on the server shows the QR code and the long code, and you pick the three words the app shows. Pairing is described in Your private network.

Without Docker there is no Headscale or node program in the package, so the network reports "no binary" and the relay carries every connection. That still works. To get the direct path, put headscale 0.29.4 and wink-forwarder on the server and set VYRE_HEADSCALE_BIN and VYRE_WINK_FORWARDER_BIN (the network looks for those two). The Mac server installer carries both; a plain npm install does not.

If this happens

vyre up --system says systemd is required#

Without systemd there is no system install. Run vyre daemon (Vyre in the foreground) as the account under your own supervisor, with VYRE_HOME set, and restart it when it exits.

Upgrade#

sudo npm install -g https://vyre.run/box/vyre.tgz && vyre up

vyre up sees an older version running, stops it, and systemd starts the new one. If an upgrade changed the units, vyre up prints the line to rewrite them: sudo vyre up --system --user alex.

Remove#

sudo vyre uninstall --system
sudo npm rm -g vyre

vyre uninstall --system disables and removes the vyre.service unit. ~/.vyre (the vault, memory and config) stays unless you add --purge, which deletes it and cannot be undone. --dry-run works here too.