> The complete index of the Tonbo Yield docs is at https://yield.tonbo.io/llms.txt.

# Start with Yield

Yield captures your coding agents’ sessions on every computer you use, so you can ask why a file is the way it is, continue earlier work anywhere, and hand a session to yourself or a teammate. This page takes you from nothing to your first handoff.

Yield works with Claude Code and Codex, on macOS (arm64, x64) and Linux with glibc (x64, arm64). Yield Alpha is free and invite-only.

To let your coding agent do the setup, paste the one prompt in [Agent guide](https://yield.tonbo.io/docs/agents.md#setup) into Claude Code or Codex. To do it yourself:

## Install

```shell
curl -fsSL https://yield.tonbo.io/install.sh | sh
```

It needs no sudo and no Node.js: it uses your `node` when it is version 22 or newer, and otherwise installs a private copy under `~/.tonbo`. It writes the `yield` command to `~/.local/bin` and prints the line to add when that folder is not on your `PATH`. Run it again at any time to upgrade.

With Node.js 22 or newer you can install the npm package instead, which is also the way on Windows: `npm install --global @tonbo/yield`.

## Sign in

```shell
yield login
```

It opens your browser to sign in to your personal Tonbo account, registers this computer, and installs and starts the capture service. On a terminal the installer runs this step for you. `yield` and the `tonbo` CLI share one sign-in.

Over SSH, or on a computer without a browser, it prints a short code and `https://tonbo.dev/cli/device` instead. Open that page in a browser on any computer where you are signed in, enter the code, check that the computer name is the one you are logging in on, and approve. `yield login --device` asks for the code anywhere. A code works once, for ten minutes.

## Check it

```shell
yield status
```

One line per check: your sign-in, the connection to Tonbo, the capture service, each agent and its last captured activity, and whether a newer `yield` is out. A line that is not fine names the command that fixes it, and the command exits 1 when a check fails.

## Work as usual

Open Claude Code or Codex in a git repository and work. After each turn, Yield captures what the agent did and snapshots the repository’s files as git sees them, so `.gitignore` applies. The first run also captures the sessions you changed in the last 14 days. List your sessions on every computer:

```shell
yield ps
```

## Ask why a file is the way it is

```shell
yield why src/billing.ts
```

It prints the turns that changed the file, newest first: when, on which computer, the prompt that asked for the change, what the agent said it did, and the other files that turn changed. `yield session read <id> --turn <n>` prints a whole turn when the summary is not enough.

## Hand the session to yourself

A handoff carries a session, its recent turns and a snapshot of its files to whoever continues it. In the repository, connect it to a Project once (it stays in your personal account), then hand off the live session, here to yourself in Codex:

```shell
yield connect
yield --task "finish the refund webhook" --to codex
```

It prints a link, `https://tonbo.dev/y/<id>`. Wherever you continue, on this computer or another with a clone of the same repository, take it:

```shell
yield take https://tonbo.dev/y/<id>
```

It restores the snapshot into a new directory beside the repository, never touching the original, and prints the task, the files and the last turns for the next agent to read. When the work is done there, `yield done "<result>"` records it, and `yield pull <link>` brings the result back onto a branch of the original.

Without a link, describe the work instead: `yield continue "the refund webhook"` finds your best-matching earlier session on any computer or agent, restores it the same way and prints its last turns.

## Next steps

- [Personal loop](https://yield.tonbo.io/docs/personal.md): Everything you can do alone: continue, recall, pause, devices and the inbox.
- [Team loop](https://yield.tonbo.io/docs/team.md): Share a folder with your team and hand work to a teammate.
- [What your team sees](https://yield.tonbo.io/docs/what-your-team-sees.md): Read this before you share a folder.
