Cardinal by RAMCOREOpen Cardinal
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Set up on a Mac

Setup on your computer · Mac. Install Cardinal's runner and Claude telemetry on macOS with one line in Terminal, then test it.

Setup takes three steps on the Setup page. The app opens once the test passes.

Before you start

  • The Claude Code CLI, installed and signed in by you. Run claude once to sign in with your Claude plan. Cardinal never installs it or signs in for you.
  • Node.js 20 or later. The installer checks for it. If it is missing, install it from the Node.js website or with brew install node.

1. Your computer and Claude

Choose macOS, and tick every way you use Claude: the Claude Code CLI, the Claude Desktop app, Cowork. Then Continue.

2. Install

Press "Show my install line". Open Terminal, paste the line and press Enter. It looks like this, with your own Cardinal address and key in place of the dots:

curl -fsSL .../join.sh | CARDINAL_URL=... CARDINAL_TOKEN=tmr_... sh

The line holds a new key for this computer and is shown once. Copy the whole line; the script stops if either value is missing. If you want to read the script first, use "View the script".

What it does, stopping at the first problem:

  1. Checks you are on macOS, finds your claude and checks it is signed in with a Claude plan, and checks Node.js. A missing or signed-out claude is a warning, not a stop.
  2. Downloads the runner to ~/.config/cardinal/cardinal-runner.mjs.
  3. Writes ~/.config/cardinal/runner.json (readable only by you) and adds Cardinal's telemetry settings and session-end hook to ~/.claude/settings.json. A backup of your old settings is kept.
  4. Starts the runner as a login item, dev.ramcore.cardinal.runner, which launchd keeps running and restarts if it stops. Its log is ~/.config/cardinal/runner.log.
  5. Checks the connection to Cardinal.

It ends with: "Done. Now open Claude and ask it one question, then press 'Test my setup' in Cardinal."

3. Test my setup

Open Claude, ask it one question, then press "Test my setup". It turns green when the runner has checked in and Claude's first event has arrived. See "What Test my setup checks" if it stays on Waiting.

Running the line again is safe. It replaces Cardinal's hook instead of adding a second one.