Use harnsy on your phone as an app

What you need

• harnsy Max on the computer where your agents run (the License page).
• A phone with a screen lock: Android 9 or newer, or an iPhone (iOS 16.4 or newer for notifications).
• Safari on iPhone, Chrome on Android.

Step 1. Turn on the relay (on your computer)

1. Open harnsy on the computer.
2. Go to Settings › Reach from outside › “The dashboard on a phone or laptop”.
3. Choose “harnsy relay” and press “Apply”. There is nothing to fill in. Within about 15 seconds the step says the relay is connected and shows your address, like https://k3f9q2.n.harnsy.app. No restart.

The address stays the same as long as your computer keeps its key. If you later change to another way in, the address changes, and the passkeys and phones bound to the old one must be added again.

The relay passes encrypted traffic on to your computer without decrypting it; by design, the certificate key and the passkey check stay on your computer.

What the relay records: see Privacy: the harnsy relay.

Step 2. Pair the phone

1. On the computer, under “Add your phone or laptop”, press “Make a code”. A QR code appears. It works once and for 5 minutes.
2. Scan it with the phone’s camera and open the link. You are in, but only to read.

Step 3. Create the passkey

1. On the phone, press “Create a passkey” and confirm with your fingerprint, face or PIN.
2. Do it within the time the phone’s timer shows (60 minutes by default in 0.11.0). If the phone says “QR sign-in ended”, make a new code.

From now on you sign in with the passkey: no name, no password.

Step 4. Put it on your home screen

iPhone (Safari). Tap Share, then “Add to Home Screen”. Open harnsy from that new icon and sign in there once more with your passkey: the app keeps its own sign-in. Then turn on notifications (see below). Android (Chrome). In Chrome’s menu choose “Install app” (or “Add to home screen”). harnsy opens in its own window. Or, inside harnsy, open Settings › Notifications and press “Install harnsy”.

Step 5. Turn on notifications

In the installed app: Settings › Notifications › “Notifications even when harnsy is closed”. On iPhone this works only in the installed app. You can set quiet hours. A notification comes for a question (its first words), a permission request, an agent waiting for your answer, a blocked task, a usage limit, and a reminder if you have left something waiting for about 20 minutes. A tap opens that item.

What works on the phone

• Read agents, teams, tasks and Home (“Needs you”).
• Decide and comment on tasks; answer agents’ questions and permission requests (allow once or reject).
• Send messages to agents and teams; ask an agent to hand over or go to sleep.
• Watch a terminal live.

What needs “full control from outside”

Typing into a terminal, starting or waking an agent, stopping one at once, “always allow”, settings, license, keys, connections and writing in an agent’s chat. This is off by default. You turn it on only on the computer itself, and it turns itself off after 2 hours (you can set 1 to 24).

What does not work from outside, by design

Update, writing files, signing in to outside services, the Assistant’s actions, and making a new pairing code.

Changes ask for your passkey

Reading needs only the session. Changes ask for your passkey; one check holds for 15 minutes.

How long you stay signed in

Signed out after 7 days without use, and 30 days after signing in at most. A session from the QR code alone lasts only until the passkey time is over.

If you lose the phone

A phone signed in from outside can give orders to your agents, so treat it like the keys to your computer: it needs a screen lock. If you lose it, sign it out at once on the computer: Settings › Reach from outside › Devices.

If something goes wrong

• “Create a passkey” is refused, or “QR sign-in ended”: the time ran out or the code was used. Make a new code.
• The passkey no longer works after a long time: the relay name comes from your computer’s own key; if that key changed, the name changed, and the passkey must be made again.
• Too many tries: a phone without a session may make up to 20 requests a minute.