A real run happens wherever your coding agents are signed in: on your own computer, through relay connect. Relay Cloud, a machine Relay makes for you, is an invite-only beta that this studio does not offer; it is described below so you know what it is.
Your computer, in detail
| What differs | Your computer | Relay Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Setting up | Install the CLI, then run relay connect inside a repository. It prints a link that pairs this browser. | None. Press Make my machine and it is made for you, in about five minutes the first time. |
| Who starts it | You, at your keyboard. | Relay, when you press Run. |
| When it is there | While relay connect is running. Close the terminal, or the lid, and there is no runner. | Always. It wakes for a run, sleeps when idle, and keeps every sign-in between runs. |
| Where your code is | In a worktree beside your own checkout. Your working copy is only read. | In a worktree on that machine’s disk, from the repository you name on the run. It stays there between runs, and goes with the machine when you remove it. |
| Where the sign-ins sit | In the CLIs' own files on this computer — the Claude and Codex you already signed in to. | In the CLIs' own files on that machine, signed in once through the browser and kept. Relay's code has no route that reads them. |
| Who holds your code | Only on your computer. Nothing of yours is copied onto Relay infrastructure. | On your cloud machine, and nowhere else: one VM per person, holding your checkout and your sign-ins. Relay operates the machine; your code and credentials sit on it until you remove it. |
| Needs an account | The studio does. The computer itself needs none: Relay never registers it, or knows it exists. | Yes. Relay Cloud verifies your session, so the machine is yours and nobody else’s. |
| What it costs you | Nothing but your own hardware. Model usage counts against your Claude and ChatGPT plans. | Nothing is billed to you during the beta. No API fees either, as on your own computer: model usage counts against your own plans. |
| Limits | Whatever your computer can take: each run has its own worktree. | One run at a time, on a small Linux machine. Places are limited during the beta: when every machine in a region is awake, yours waits for room. |
| Local-only work | Xcode builds, simulators, local services, private networks, localhost dependencies. | The Linux command line and the repository. No Xcode, no local services, no private network. |
| Who can reach it | 127.0.0.1 only, and only a studio holding the token from your terminal. | No public address. It dials out to Relay, and only your own signed-in studio reaches it. |
| Runs nobody is watching | Not yet: nothing can reach a computer that is switched off. Exported workflows on GitHub Actions run unattended. | Not yet: waking a machine from an event comes later. Exported workflows on GitHub Actions run unattended. |
The same either way
Work that starts by itself has two more places, neither with a Relay server in it. On a machine of your own, relay workflow serve keeps an exported workflow’s trigger (a webhook, a schedule, a label, an app’s own events) and runs every step. On your repository’s own GitHub Actions minutes, a label on a GitHub issue starts the pipeline.
So which one?
Pick your computer if…
you work on macOS, need Xcode or a private network, or want your code and sign-ins to stay on hardware you own.
Connect your computer →Pick Relay Cloud if…
you want to start a run from any browser, keep working while it runs, or never install anything at all.
Set up Relay Cloud →Pick either if…
the work is just “open a reviewed pull request”. You can set both up and switch between them; each run remembers where it started.
Switch in Settings →