Modes

One installer. After install, choose where the Yoke core and its database live.

Local

Private on your machine. No signup. One human, as many agents as you want.

• Wizard: pick This machine, or run yoke init --local
• Data under ~/.yoke/
• The machine relay is installed here too, so the workbench sees which harnesses

this machine can start, reports session liveness, and can launch and resume sessions. It runs your installed Yoke and needs no account or API token.

• Open the workbench with yoke ui up (detached; yoke ui reports it, yoke ui down stops it)
• Members and Billing tabs do not apply (Cloud-only platform features)

Portable: yoke universe export dumps the universe; import it later into self-hosted or another local machine.

Yoke Cloud

Hosted core at upyoke.com. Collaborate from the web dashboard.

• Wizard: pick upyoke.com
• Sign-in, beta-code redemption, org founding, and machine approval happen in

the connect step

• Private beta: seats and tenant attached to the code; bring your own workers

and model credentials

• Members and Billing are platform-managed sections in the workbench

Self-hosted

Run Yoke core and Postgres on your own server.

• Wizard on the host: pick Set this machine up as a self-hosting server to

preview the loopback URL, bundle directory, port, Docker requirement, and networking responsibility before any write. It creates/starts the Compose bundle, captures first boot, waits until the server answers /v1/health, and activates the owner-only local connection.

• Wizard on another machine: pick A team server and enter its reachable URL

plus a token. The guided host screen teaches the handoff without configuring VPN/tailnet, LAN, port-forwarding, or TLS for you.

• Manual/operator path: yoke self-host init writes the same published Compose

bundle; docs/self-host.md remains the full reference.

• Same product surfaces as Cloud for Yoke-owned tabs; platform Member/Billing

sections depend on how you host the shell

Source available

Yoke is Fair Source (FSL-1.1-ALv2). Use, modify, and self-host; the license converts to Apache 2.0 after its fixed window. Public source: github.com/upyoke/yoke.

Switching later

Universes are portable between modes via export/import. The client reconnects; you do not re-author strategy or backlog from scratch.