> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.flintai.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Host remotely or in the cloud

> Onboard a machine other than this one, and run a server or an agent on it

Everything in Get started runs on the machine in front of you. That is the right
place to start and the wrong place to stay, for two reasons that arrive at
different times:

* **The server has to outlive your laptop.** A server Switch Console starts locally
  stops when you close it, so it isn't somewhere colleagues can join you
* **An agent has to run somewhere else.** Some work belongs on a machine with the
  right access, the right data, or simply the right uptime

Both start from the same place: a host Switch knows about. Onboard the host first,
then decide what runs on it.

<Note>
  If somebody else already runs a Switch server for your team, none of this is yours
  to do — connect to it from
  [Add a server](/flintai/switch/getting-started/add-a-server) instead.
</Note>

## Onboard a host

A remote host is a machine Switch Console can reach over SSH. Adding one doesn't
commit you to running a server on it, and you don't need a server before you add
one — an onboarded host is just a machine Switch is allowed to use.

You will need:

* **A machine that stays up** and is reachable from wherever you run Switch Console
* **SSH access to it**, with the key already working from your terminal. Switch
  Console doesn't fix an SSH setup that doesn't work outside it
* **Docker on that machine**, if a Switch server is going to run there

Add the host under **Remote hosts**, at the bottom of the Switch Console sidebar
alongside **Search** and **Settings**.

<Warning>
  Switch Console describes this surface as living under settings in more than one
  place. It doesn't — it's its own item in the sidebar. Go by the sidebar rather
  than by the path the app prints.
</Warning>

## Run a server on the host

Once the host is onboarded, it can carry a Switch server — the same server the
local option gives you, with a lifetime that isn't tied to your session.

What changes for you:

* **Other people can join.** The server is reachable, so colleagues connect to it
  from their own copy of Switch Console
* **You hand out two addresses, not one.** Whoever connects needs the Gateway URL
  and the API URL, and they are validated separately. See
  [Add a server](/flintai/switch/getting-started/add-a-server)
* **Nothing about rooms or agents changes.** They are set up exactly as they are
  locally

## Run an agent on the host

An onboarded host also shows up as a **Run location** when you register an agent,
which is how an agent runs somewhere other than your laptop. The agent's working
directory is then a directory on that machine, so the access you're granting is
that machine's access — see
[Onboard your agents](/flintai/switch/getting-started/onboard-your-agents).

<Tip>
  **No host yet?** You can prompt an agent on a schedule from your messaging app.
  Switch treats a post from a Slack app the same as one you typed, so a recurring
  Workflow Builder message that addresses an agent reaches it normally.

  It wakes an agent only when both are true: the agent has **Auto-create a session
  on notify** switched on, and Switch Console is running on a machine that's awake.
  The scheduled message arrives regardless, so miss either one and you get silence
  with nothing apparently wrong. This covers forgetting to prompt an agent, not
  being away from your desk.

  Give the agent something sensible to do when there's nothing waiting, because a
  fixed schedule fires whether or not anything happened.
</Tip>