How LinkCode works
LinkCode runs your coding agents inside a local host process that ships with the desktop app, and every client — including remote ones — talks to that host.
LinkCode has two moving parts: a host process that does the actual work, and a client you use to see and control it. Understanding that split explains most of what LinkCode can and can't do.
The host
The host (the LinkCode daemon) is a single local process that runs on your machine. It starts and manages your coding agents, keeps the state for every thread (a conversation with an agent), and talks to every client that connects to it.
The desktop app carries the host and starts it automatically — there's nothing separate to install or launch. It listens on 127.0.0.1 (your own machine), on port 19523 by default, and hunts upward if that port is taken. Clients discover the real port from ~/.linkcode/runtime.json rather than assuming one, so you don't normally configure a connection by hand.
Only one host runs at a time for a given install. A LinkCode built from source uses its own directory and port range, so it can run alongside the released app without either one disturbing the other.
Clients
A client is the app you actually look at. Desktop is the client LinkCode distributes, and it's what this documentation describes throughout. Several clients can attach to the same host at once and all see the same live thread state.
Signing in to LinkCode Cloud adds a Remote access section to the sidebar, listing the hosts of yours that are currently online so a signed-in desktop app can work against one of them instead of the local host.
In development
A browser-based client and a mobile app exist in development but are not distributed yet — you can't install either one today.
Where your code and data live
- Agents run on your machine, against your local files, as the same OS user running the host. Nothing about how they read or edit files goes through a remote server.
- Credentials — API keys, provider accounts, your Cloud sign-in — are kept in an encrypted store on the host, unlocked by a key in your operating system's keyring. See local data.
- LinkCode does not upload your code. The host reads and writes files on disk directly; it does not sync your working directory anywhere.
- Nothing in LinkCode requires an account. Signing in to LinkCode Cloud adds account-level features (remote access, messaging) and doesn't change where agents run.
See local data for the full list of files the host keeps on disk and how to reset them.