Product·Cloud

Close the laptop.
Keep the agent.

A Continuum Cloud account is how you pair - sign in, and every surface speaks the same language. Managed Cloud Burst runners for entitled accounts. A GitHub App for short-lived repo access. Encrypted transcript history on your phone when the Mac is off. Live usage gauges mirrored to mobile. Hosted inference is optional; the free BYOK app stays free.

Download for Mac Read the docs
Cloud Burst GitHub App encrypted sync
CodeSettingsUsage
Continuum
burst 2 runners gcp · serverless
github 4 repos app installed
sync ~60s usage → phone
mac asleep · phone still readingAES-256-GCM

Sign-in is pairing. The cloud is the glue - not the landlord of your keys.

01 · Cloud Burst

Managed runners when you have no spare box.

Entitled Continuum Cloud accounts get managed GCP serverless runners - zero-setup cloud sessions. Spawn a Code session without enrolling a Mac Mini or SSH host. The runner boots, clones, runs the agent, and winds down.

The lifecycle is deliberately boring. You pick Cloud Burst as the host in the new-session sheet, the runner is provisioned, the repo is cloned with a credential minted for that job, the agent starts, and the session streams to whatever screen you started from. When the work is done the runner winds down. There is no box for you to patch, no Dockerfile to maintain, and nothing left running that you forgot about. It is the ergonomics of a headless run in CI with an interactive session on the other end.

Prefer your own metal? Enroll hardware or a BYO cloud box under Devices. Cloud Burst is the “I just need a machine” path - managed, short-lived, on Continuum’s fleet for accounts that include it. It is entitlement-gated, not an unlimited free compute pool, and it does not replace an always-on host you control. It is also not an autonomous engineer you hand a ticket to and walk away from - see Continuum vs Devin for that distinction.

Enrolled devices Code workbench
Code
new session
host
Cloud Burst
managed · gcp serverless · entitled
zero setup
this Mac
apple silicon · local
hetzner-arm64
enrolled device
select hostready
provision runnerqueued
clone repoqueued
spawn agentqueued
pick Cloud Burst to startfable-5
02 · GitHub App

Pick a repo. Credentials stay short-lived.

Install the Continuum GitHub App on the orgs and repos you authorize. When a cloud or enrolled session needs git, Continuum mints short-lived, repo-scoped credentials for clone, push, and PR - not a long-lived personal token sitting in a config file.

The difference matters more than it sounds. A personal access token is a long-lived secret with your whole account behind it, and once it is pasted into a config file on a runner you have to trust every future job on that runner. An app installation is scoped to the repos you ticked, and the credential handed to a job expires. That is the same reasoning behind scoping secrets in Claude Code GitHub Actions, applied to interactive sessions.

You choose which repos are visible. Revoke the app install and the path is gone. The agent can open a PR on a worktree it actually has permission to touch, and the org owner keeps a real audit trail instead of wondering which laptop a token is sitting on.

repo-scoped short-lived clone · push · PR
Settings
github
GitHub App · authorized repos
continuum / clawdmeter clone · push · pr ok
continuum / continuum-web clone · push · pr ok
acme / defx-frontend clone · push · pr ok
acme / internal-billing not authorized -
short-lived credentials per jobinstall · revoke anytime
03 · Sign-in is pairing

No codes to copy between screens.

Every remote-agent setup eventually asks you to type a token into a phone at 11pm. Continuum's answer is that the account is the pairing. Sign in on a Mac, a browser, the desktop client, or the iPhone app, and that surface joins the same mesh. New laptop, wiped phone, borrowed machine: sign in and your fleet is there.

What travels between them is a session control channel, not your source tree. Traffic rides an end-to-end encrypted relay that carries envelopes it cannot read, or your own Tailscale tailnet if you would rather have no third party in the path at all. Push notifications reach the device you are actually holding, so an approval does not sit unread on a sleeping desktop.

This is the layer that makes the rest of Continuum feel like one product instead of five installs. Details on Pairing; the threat model is on Security.

04 · Transcript + usage sync

History on the phone when the Mac is off.

Encrypted transcript sync uses AES-256-GCM per-member keys. Open a rolling window of Code history on iPhone even when the laptop is shut - you are not waiting for the Mac daemon to wake.

Usage gauges mirror every ~60 seconds so mobile Live / Usage stays honest with the desktop rate limits. Knowing you are 80% through a window before you start a big run is worth more than finding out mid-turn - see how the 5-hour and weekly caps work.

Transcript pages and usage envelopes are different pipes, and neither is a dump of your disk. The transcript window is a rolling one: recent pages of recent sessions, pruned on a schedule, not an archive of everything you have ever typed. Analytics history still lives locally on the machine that produced it, parsed from the logs your CLIs already write. The cloud is glue, not a filing cabinet.

AES-256-GCM rolling window ~60s gauges
Mobile Security
9:41continuum
Manila mac off
migrate the parser to actor isolation
Done - nonisolated static parsers, cache on the actor. Tests green.
synced · encrypted · rolling window
usage 42% · mirror ~48s ago
transcriptper-member AES-GCM
usage~60s cloud mirror
macasleep · not required
Settings
billing
App · BYOK$0

Your provider logins and API keys. Continuum adds no markup. Gauges, Code sessions, devices, voice, app shots - all included.

default
Hosted inferencefrom $25/mo

Optional Continuum-hosted models (Plus and above). Separate from the free app. Turn on only if you want us to supply tokens.

optional
05 · Hosted inference

Optional. Never the tax on the free app.

Continuum-hosted inference is a separate line item from the app. Plus is $25/mo, Max 100 is $100/mo, Max 200 is $200/mo, and Ultra is $500/mo. Each step buys a larger weekly hosted allowance: Max 100 is 4× Plus, Max 200 is 8× Plus, Ultra is 40× Plus. Bring your own keys and subscriptions and you never pay Continuum for tokens at all.

The whole app is free with your own logins on every platform, Code included. There is no plan gate on worktrees, on the workbench, on mobile, or on how many sessions you run. That is the opposite shape to a per-seat bundle like GitHub Copilot, where the tool and the model arrive as one bill you cannot separate. Cloud account features - pairing, sync, GitHub App, entitled Burst - sit next to BYOK rather than on top of it as a markup.

Most people land on a mix: subscription rails for the bulk of the work, hosted tokens for the overflow week. Continuum's analytics tell you which is which, because a prepaid subscription turn and a metered API turn look identical in a log file until something reads the auth mode. If the goal is a smaller bill rather than a bigger allowance, start with the changes that actually reduce agent spend.

06 · Where the line is

What the cloud does not hold.

Every "cloud" feature here exists to move a small, specific thing between machines you own. It is worth being precise about what that excludes, because most tools in this category are quietly the opposite.

Your provider logins and API keys stay on the host that uses them. Your analytics are parsed locally from logs already on your disk; no account is required to see your own numbers. The relay moves ciphertext it cannot open. A shared transcript is opt-in per session, redacted server-side against an allowlist, and revocable.

Cloud Burst is the one place Continuum's own hardware touches your code, and it is a deliberate, per-session choice with a short-lived, repo-scoped credential and a runner that winds down. If you would rather that never happen, run an enrolled box instead - your own hardware, or a VPS you already reach over SSH - and use the account purely as glue.

keysstay on the host
analyticsparsed locally, no account
relaysealed envelopes only
sharesopt-in · redacted · revocable

the account is glue, not custody

07 · Questions

The honest fine print.

Short answers here, long answers in the docs.

Local Mac sessions, gauges, analytics, voice, and App Shots work with your own provider logins. A Cloud account is how multi-surface pairing, encrypted history, GitHub App cloud clones, and entitled Burst runners light up.

Cloud Burst is managed GCP serverless compute for entitled Continuum accounts - zero setup. Devices are machines you enroll (old Mac, EC2, Hetzner, etc.) under your control. Many people use both: Burst for a quick run, enrolled boxes for always-on fleets.

No long-lived personal access token is the model. The GitHub App install issues short-lived, repo-scoped credentials for the clone/push/PR jobs that need them. Revoke the install to cut access.

No. The Continuum app is free BYOK. Hosted inference (Plus $25/mo and above) is optional if you want Continuum to supply model access. Provider subscriptions you already pay for keep working without it.

Only the repos you authorized on the GitHub App install, and only through a credential minted for that job. A runner cannot browse your account, and revoking the install cuts the path immediately. Repos you never ticked are not visible to it at all.

08 · Begin

Pair once.
Work from anywhere.

Download Continuum, sign in, and keep the agent when the lid closes.

Download for Mac Read the docs

cloud account · burst · github app · encrypted sync · BYOK free