Your Macs and the captain

Your Macs links the Macs you own so they share folders and history, answer each other's approvals and run each other's automations.

It lives in Team, under Your Macs. Messages between your Macs are end-to-end encrypted and go Mac to Mac, or through a relay that sees only ciphertext. Nothing widens what an agent may do: each answer settles one request.

Until your Macs are linked, the page offers Start with this Mac, Pair with a Mac you already use and Restore from a recovery kit, and the Team sidebar shows a Your Macs row. Once they are linked, the page lists them and shows what each may do, and the sidebar row shows how many Macs there are.

On the Mac you use most, open Team › Your Macs and press Start with this Mac.

This Mac makes your account key and vouches for every Mac you pair with it. It is tagged Holds the key. Only the Mac that holds the key can pair a Mac, remove one or make a recovery kit. When it is done, Bandicot says Your Macs are ready to pair.

Team › Your Macs lists every linked Mac with when it was last heard, and a card beside the list shows what your other Macs may do here.

Each row gives the Mac's name. Your own row says this Mac. For the others the row says direct or via relay (hover for the round trip time) and seen followed by how long ago, or not seen yet. The Mac that holds the key carries the tag Holds the key. A line under the list says whether this Mac holds the key, is vouched for by it, or must pair and remove Macs from the Mac that holds it.

Once Macs are linked, the card Working across your Macs appears. It shows who the captain is, the four switches under Choose what other devices may do, the schedules a Mac is running for another while it sleeps, and a Start on {mac} row for each Mac that has automations.

Under the card the last three happenings across your Macs are listed with how long ago they were; Show all followed by the count lists the rest, and Show less folds it back. The same lines record what your Macs did for each other, and the table shows the ones you will meet.

Copy the pairing link from the Mac that holds the key, paste it on the new Mac and confirm that the six digits match on both screens.

A pairing link works once, for ten minutes, and the card counts down. Copy copies the link. A paired Mac's certificate lasts a year.

After you press The digits match, pair, the new Mac shows the same progress page as joining a team. It appears in the list when the Mac that holds the key admits it.

1. 1On the Mac that holds the key, open Team › Your Macs and press Pair a Mac. The card then shows a pairing link, six digits and a countdown.
2. 2On the new Mac, open Team › Your Macs, choose Pair with a Mac you already use and paste the link. The new Mac shows its own six digits once it has read the link.
3. 3Check that both screens show the same six digits, then press The digits match, pair.

When an agent on one Mac asks for permission, the ask shows on your other Macs under Your other Macs, and an answer there settles it.

Each row reads {mac} wants to run {tool} with Allow once and Deny, a risk tag when the step is not low risk, the command or a summary of it, and the seconds left. A command too long to show says Answer it on {mac}, where the whole command shows. and offers only Deny here. If nobody answers in time, it is denied on its own Mac.

Anywhere in the app, a quiet message reads {mac} needs you with Allow once. A command that the sandbox stopped and that asks to run once outside it is never answered from a message: the row offers Run once outside the sandbox and Keep it inside, and the message points you to Your Macs.

After you answer, Bandicot says Allowed {tool} on {mac} or Denied {tool} on {mac}. The Mac that asked only honours the answer while its switch Answer this Mac's requests from my other Macs is on.

Start an automation on another Mac with Start on {mac}, and a sleeping Mac's schedules run on an awake Mac that holds the same project.

On the Working across your Macs card, each Mac with automations has a Start on {mac} row that says awake or asleep; it starts when the Mac wakes. Press the automation's name; Bandicot says Asked {mac} to run {automation}. The other Mac runs it under its own rules, and only if its switch Let my other Macs start automations here is on.

The covering Mac shows Running {label} for {mac} while it sleeps, and hands the work back once the sleeping Mac answers. The sleeping Mac shows {mac} is running {label} for this Mac. Switch on Keep working when Bandicot is closed to make a Mac start at login; see Keep working when Bandicot is closed.

The captain is the one Mac whose sessions your other Macs, your phone and your agents follow; press Make this Mac the captain on it.

The card says This Mac is your captain: your other Macs, phone and agents follow it. on the captain, with its epoch beside it, and {name} is your captain or No captain yet on the others. After you press the button, Bandicot says This Mac is now your captain.

Your other Macs hear the change within a minute. Each change raises a number called the epoch, and the higher number wins, so a Mac that slept through a change steps down the first time it hears another Mac. There is no step-down button: to move the captain, make another Mac the captain.

The captain is not the team coordinator. The coordinator is the Mac that admits people to a team; see Team channels.

On a Mac that is not the captain, press See sessions on {name}, open a session, and type in the box under it to continue it on the captain.

The list shows the six newest sessions with their project and age; Show all lists the rest, Refresh reads again and Close folds it away. An open session shows its newest messages, and Earlier adds older ones. It is read again every ten seconds, and every two seconds for a minute and a half after you send. Your message runs on the captain in that same session, and Stop ends it while it works.

A message may hold up to five thousand characters. Each message carries a receipt the captain writes down before it starts, so a message sent twice runs once. The captain's switch Let my other devices send chats here decides whether it takes chats at all. Text that starts with !, &, / or $ is turned away, because commands start on the Mac itself; write it as plain words.

1. 1Open Team › Your Macs on a Mac that is not the captain.
2. 2Press See sessions on followed by the captain's name.
3. 3Pick a session. Its newest messages appear, marked You, Thinking, Tool or Agent.
4. 4Type in Message {name} and press ⌘Enter or Send.

Four switches on each Mac decide whether your other devices may reach it, answer its approvals, start its automations and send it chats.

They are Let my other devices reach this Mac, Answer this Mac's requests from my other Macs, Let my other Macs start automations here and Let my other devices send chats here. All are on by default. When reach is off, the other three are off too, and work sent there is turned away with the reason. The card then says Off: work your other devices send here is turned away, and they are told why.

On the Mac that holds the key, press Remove {name}; the removed Mac stops reading anything new, answering approvals and sending work, even while it is offline.

Removing a Mac revokes its certificate and moves your other Macs to new keys it never sees. Press Remove beside the Mac, then Remove {name} to confirm or Keep to cancel; Bandicot says the Mac is removed and can no longer read or send anything new. This Mac's own row has no Remove. If the removed Mac was a paired phone, its Face ID key and notifications are forgotten too.

A recovery kit is a set of recovery words and an envelope that restore your account key if you lose the Mac that holds it.

Press Make a recovery kit on the Mac that holds the key. It shows Recovery words and a Recovery envelope, each with Copy. Write the words down; Bandicot does not keep them and cannot show them again. The envelope holds your account key locked by those words, so without the words it opens nothing. Keep in your account stores only the sealed envelope in your website account, which needs you to be signed in, and then reads Kept in your account. Done closes the kit.

To restore, press Restore from a recovery kit on a new Mac, enter the words, and paste the envelope or press Use the envelope in your account, then Restore. Bandicot says Your account key is on this Mac.

A message for a Mac that is away waits sealed to that Mac's key, at bandicot.app, until it comes back.

The site holds only ciphertext and forgets it once the Mac reads it. If the mailbox is out of reach, messages wait on the sending Mac until it answers.

The page stays quiet about this unless something is parked, read or failing. Then a small line under the list reads Offline mailbox with how many messages are waiting to park, parked or read, and when it last checked. When the mailbox cannot be reached it says The offline mailbox is out of reach. Messages for Macs that are away wait on this Mac until it answers.