--- title: Without Docker summary: Run Vyre from npm on a Mac, or on a Linux server under systemd, with no containers. audience: users, operators owner: integrator status: stable --- # Without Docker A Mac, or a Linux server without Docker, runs Vyre straight from the npm package. There is one background process, running as your own login account (never root), with its data in `~/.vyre` in that account's home. Vyre's history reads the same `~/.claude/` as your own `claude`. The install line from the Vyre app installs a Linux server with Docker, or a Mac that stays on as a service, as in [Install](install.md); this page is for running Vyre from the package instead, and you pair it from your Vyre app. ## What you need - Node 22.5 or newer (`node --version`). - Claude Code: `npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code`. - On Linux: systemd. ## Install the package Vyre is not on npm yet, so install the same tarball the Docker box builds from: ``` npm install -g https://vyre.run/box/vyre.tgz ``` Once Vyre is published, this becomes `npm install -g vyre`. The package is about 6 MB. Search by meaning uses a local model of about 130 MB, which Vyre fetches into `~/.vyre` (`embedder/` and `models/`) the first time it indexes; until then search matches keywords. `vyre recall --setup` fetches it now. ## Run it ::: tabs ::: tab 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 ` 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](install.md#2-install-the-vyre-app). `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](install.md#5-add-a-server)): 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`). ::: tab 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](../concepts/network.md#pairing-a-device). 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. > [!SNAG] 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. ::: ## Back up and restore The same two commands as on a Docker box, run as the account itself: ``` vyre backup # vyre-backup-YYYY-MM-DD.vyre, in this folder; asks for a passphrase vyre down # restore needs Vyre stopped vyre restore vyre-backup-2026-09-27.vyre --force vyre up ``` Under systemd, stop it with `sudo systemctl stop vyre` instead of `vyre down`. The backup holds your settings, the store (`vyre.db`), the sealed vault, watchers, module data, certificates, names, artifacts, project files and session transcripts, sealed with the passphrase you typed. Keep the file somewhere only you can read, and the passphrase apart from it. ## Where to go next - [Your private network](../concepts/network.md): pairing, direct or relay, and your address. - [CLI reference](../reference/cli.md): every `vyre` command. - [Configuration reference](../reference/config.md): `role`, `network.port` and the rest.