First Run

Outcall is intended to have one normal path: install it, choose an agent, and let the CLI prepare an isolated project container.

curl -fsSL https://outcall.dev/install.sh | sh
cd /path/to/project
~/.local/bin/outcall run codex

The absolute path works immediately after installation. Add ~/.local/bin to your shell PATH once you are ready to use the shorter outcall command.

On macOS, install and start Docker Desktop first. Outcall runs the daemon and agent containers in Docker Desktop's Linux runtime. On Linux, it uses the native Docker runtime.

Authenticate Claude or Codex

Outcall distinguishes provider configuration from a portable credential. Codex can normally copy ~/.codex/auth.json. Claude on Linux can copy ~/.claude/.credentials.json, but a macOS Claude /login stays in Keychain and cannot authenticate a Linux container.

For Claude on macOS, either start it interactively once:

outcall run claude
# Complete /login inside the managed container.

That writes a Linux credential into the ignored, owner-only .outcall/home/claude/ directory. Later claude -p and detached runs reuse it. For unattended subscription use, run claude setup-token on the host and export CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN. API users can export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN.

Default copy mode copies only portable credential files into .outcall/home/<recipe>/. --include-global-config opts into bounded selected settings, instructions, agents, commands, or hooks; review host-only MCP and hook paths because macOS executables do not run in Linux. mount is an explicit read-write opt-in for the complete provider directory (~/.claude or ~/.codex), never the complete host home. Batch and detached runs fail before building when no portable credential is available.

Repair prerequisites

Use the explicit repair command when Docker is not ready or a project has not been initialized:

outcall doctor --fix codex

It may open Docker Desktop on macOS, wait for Docker, pull a missing verified daemon image, write missing project scaffolding, and create the managed daemon and network. It only performs those changes when --fix is supplied.

Add only the access the agent needs

Every project is default-deny. Recipes supply named grants for their normal provider endpoints and GitHub. The convenience commands edit the ordinary project YAML rule file; there is no hidden policy store.

outcall allow codex github
outcall allow codex https://api.sentry.io
outcall policy explain codex

The commands update .outcall/rules/codex.yaml, retain existing rules, and reload the daemon when it is available. Anything not listed remains blocked.

Run and manage agents

outcall run codex
outcall run codex --name review-1 --detach
outcall ps
outcall logs review-1 --follow
outcall stop review-1

outcall stop removes the stopped agent so the name can be reused. Add --keep only when you need postmortem logs or inspection.

Without --name, containers are named from the project directory: foobar-1, foobar-2, and so on. The project workspace is mounted into the container; files outside it are unavailable unless you deliberately declare and expose a host resource.