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You need a Mac or a Linux machine and a CLI token from the console.
Setting this up for a coding agent instead? Follow Set up a coding agent. It installs the envlink skill, which walks the agent through the same loop.
1

Install envctl

The script picks the build for your system, checks it against its published checksum, and puts envctl in /usr/local/bin, or ~/.local/bin when that isn’t writable. See Install for other ways.
2

Log in

In the console, open Settings → CLI tokens and create a token. Then:
The token is stored in ~/.envlink/credentials.json, readable only by you. On a CI runner, set ENVLINK_API and ENVLINK_TOKEN instead.
3

Make this machine the sandbox

From the folder you want to work in:
envd starts in the background and joins your organization’s tailnet. Share paths you use later are relative to this folder.
4

Lease a build box and share your folder

It prints the box’s name, such as linux-build-3f2a, once it’s ready, usually in three to four seconds. Your folder syncs to its /work. Files your .gitignore leaves out stay home, and so do secret files like .env.
5

Build there

Output streams back as it happens, and envctl exits with the command’s exit code. Anything the command writes to /work/out is on your machine by the time exec returns:
6

Release it

The container and its data are removed. An environment you forget stops on its own after its idle timeout, an hour for linux-build.

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Try a database

The database listens on your machine’s 127.0.0.1:5432, carried over the tailnet. “Ready” means it accepts connections. See Services on localhost.

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Concepts

Environments, templates, shares, projects and snapshots.

File sync

What travels, what stays home, and how to change it.