# Your agents run on your machines, not ours > Shuriken runs coding agents on your own computers and servers. Our cloud links devices and relays sealed messages. Why we chose local, and the trade-off. Source: https://shuriken.sh/blog/agents-on-your-machines Shuriken runs coding agents on your own computers and servers. Our cloud links devices and relays sealed messages. Why we chose local, and the trade-off. Story By Shuriken Updated 27 October 2026 3 min read **Contents** In Shuriken, your coding agents run on your own computers and servers. Your code and your chat history stay there too. Our cloud signs you in, links your devices, relays end-to-end encrypted messages between them and sends notifications. It runs no agents and stores no code. We decided that before we wrote the first line, and it shaped everything after. ## What runs where # | On your computers and servers | In our cloud | | --- | --- | | Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and every other agent | Signing in | | Your code and every chat's worktree | Linking your devices | | Chat history | Relaying sealed messages between them | | Your sign-ins and API keys, in your encrypted vault | Sending notifications | | Your MCP sign-ins, sealed when they travel between devices | Your email, first name and plan | The cloud can't read your chats, the queue, your changes, your voice prompts, your sign-ins, your API keys or your MCP sign-ins. It can't read your project or device names either. It does keep your email and first name, your plan, the terms you accepted, each device's kind, operating system and rough location, and the bug reports you choose to send. Your password locks your vault and never leaves your device. The full list, and how the encryption works, is on our [security page](https://shuriken.sh/security). ## Why we chose it # Your plans and keys are already on your machine. You pay Anthropic, OpenAI or Google directly. Your agents use those plans. We never bill model usage and we never need to hold your key to run anything. Your files are already on your machine. No uploading a repo, no cloning it into somebody else's VM, no second copy of your .env. The agent works in your real dev setup: your toolchain versions, your local database, the dev server you already run. When an agent needs to see the app, it opens the same dev server you do. Your machines are already paid for. That fast desktop under the desk, the old laptop, the home server you set up for something else. Shuriken uses all of them. A chat can move to another of your computers or a server, and it clones the repo there and carries on. Less for us to lose. Data we never hold can't leak from us. That's not a slogan either, it's just arithmetic. Shuriken runs Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and 64 more agents side by side, with your own sign-ins. [Try Shuriken](https://shuriken.sh/) ## The trade-off # The honest part is that the machine has to be on. If your laptop sleeps, its agents stop. In Shuriken's early versions, closing the app window stopped them too, so a lot of what we've built since is about keeping your own computers working. As of 22 October 2026: - Cocaine mode keeps a computer awake, and on a Mac that includes with the lid closed. See [keep Claude Code running with the lid closed](https://shuriken.sh/guides/keep-claude-code-running-lid-closed). - The background service keeps agents running when you close the app window. See [Background service](https://shuriken.sh/features/background-service). - Servers. Add a Linux, macOS or Windows machine and Shuriken runs on it headless, restarts on its own and updates itself. See [Servers](https://shuriken.sh/server) and [Run Claude Code on an always-on machine](https://shuriken.sh/guides/claude-code-on-an-always-on-machine). Adding a server: pick its system, run one command, and it joins your devices. The other cost: your agents get the CPU, memory and disk your machine has. Five agents building a big project on an 8 GB laptop will feel it. A hosted VM doesn't share your laptop's fan. ## When a hosted cloud agent fits better # Sometimes running in someone else's cloud is the right call, and we'd rather say so. Cursor's cloud agents "run in isolated VMs in the cloud with full development environments instead of on your local machine", in Cursor's own words. OpenAI's Codex docs describe giving Codex tasks "to work through in the cloud", where each task has its own workspace and "can keep working while your computer is asleep". That fits better when: - you don't have a computer that can stay on; - you want a clean sandbox for every task and don't mind setting up the environment there; - you want to start a task from a browser, close everything and walk away. It fits less well when the task needs your local setup, your own subscriptions across several providers, or several machines you already own. We go through the details in [Shuriken vs Cursor agents](https://shuriken.sh/compare/cursor) and [Shuriken vs the Codex app](https://shuriken.sh/compare/codex-app). And nothing stops you using both. If your machines are where your work already lives, [try Shuriken](https://shuriken.sh/) and let them do the work. 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Our cloud stores no code and no chats, except what you attach to a bug report. **Can Shuriken's cloud read my chats?** No. Messages between your devices are end-to-end encrypted. The cloud can't read chats, the queue, changes, voice, sign-ins, API keys or MCP sign-ins. **What happens when my computer is off?** Agents on that computer stop until it's back. Keep it awake with Cocaine mode, run agents in the background service, or move them to a server that's always on. **When is a hosted cloud agent the better choice?** When you have no machine that stays on, want throwaway sandboxes, or want to start tasks from a browser and close everything. Cursor and Codex both offer that. Every coding agent 67 coding agents, one harness. Run Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI and the rest on your own computers, with the sign-ins you already have. [Try Shuriken](https://shuriken.sh/) [How it works](https://shuriken.sh/features/coding-agents) ## Keep reading - [Claude Code and Codex in one project: Story 27 Oct 2026 3 min read How to use Claude Code and Codex together on one project: a chat per agent, one set of MCP servers for both, and each agent on its own sources.](https://shuriken.sh/blog/claude-and-codex-together) - [Point at the page: Design mode for coding agents: Update 27 Oct 2026 3 min read Click an element in your running app, write the change, and your coding agent gets its details and a cropped screenshot. No more describing buttons.](https://shuriken.sh/blog/design-mode-point-at-the-page) - [How to choose an app for your coding agents: Guide 27 Oct 2026 4 min read Picking an app to run Claude Code, Codex and other agents? Eight questions that separate them: where agents run, your plans, worktrees, limits and privacy.](https://shuriken.sh/guides/choose-a-coding-agent-app) - [Can you use your Claude plan in OpenCode or other tools?: Guide 27 Oct 2026 6 min read Not in OpenCode. Anthropic keeps Pro and Max sign-ins for Claude Code and its own apps, and OpenCode dropped its Claude plugins in 1.3.0. Use an API key.](https://shuriken.sh/guides/claude-subscription-in-other-tools) ## Free tools - [Claude limit reset tracker](https://shuriken.sh/tools/limit-resets/claude) - [Codex limit reset tracker](https://shuriken.sh/tools/limit-resets/codex)