Getting Started
How to Set Up Nightshift: Run an AI Agent Fleet on Your Own Machine
Last updated: April 2026
Nightshift is a single binary you run inside your own project. This guide takes you from download to a fleet running on a schedule, and points out the two places where people usually go wrong.
Quick Answer
Download the binary for your platform from your BigIdeasDB dashboard, put it on your PATH, then run nightshift doctor inside your project to confirm your Claude Code or Codex CLI is ready. Run nightshift init with your goal to design a fleet, read and edit the generated nightshift.yaml, then nightshift serve to run it on a schedule.
- Requires Claude Code or Codex installed and signed in
- Requires git for isolation and safe merges
- Included with BigIdeasDB Pro at no extra cost
- Read nightshift.yaml before running anything unattended
On this page
What do people get wrong when setting this up?
Setup itself is quick. These are the mistakes that make a first run disappointing.
- Not reading nightshift.yaml. The generated fleet is a first draft, not a finished product. The planner does not know your project as well as you do, and a gate command it guessed may not exist.
- Gates that cannot fail. A gate like true or echo done looks like verification but proves nothing. Use your real test command, or a check on the output file.
How do I verify the download?
A SHA256SUMS file is published alongside the binaries.
- On macOS or Linux: shasum -a 256 -c SHA256SUMS
- On Windows: Get-FileHash .\nightshift-windows-amd64.exe -Algorithm SHA256, then compare the value by eye
Do I need MCP connectors to start?
The five local roles work immediately. Roles that reach email, a support inbox, social, ads or payments need an MCP connector, which you configure yourself in .mcp.json or your Codex config. Nightshift reads that configuration and never writes to it.
A role whose connector is missing skips and says so, so you can add connectors gradually rather than up front.
Where should I go after setup?
Once a role is running reliably, the documentation covers each subsystem in depth: the fleet file reference, how to write gates for non-code work, scheduling and budgets, and isolation and merging.
FAQ
Do I need a git repository?
Not to run at all, but you want one. Without git, Nightshift cannot isolate roles in worktrees, so it stays sequential and work happens directly in your working tree. Codex also refuses to run outside a repository unless explicitly told otherwise.
How long does the first init take?
Around a minute or two. It is a single agent call that reads your project and designs the fleet. If you would rather not spend a planning call, nightshift init --template scaffolds a default ten-role fleet you can trim.
Can I run it on a server instead of my laptop?
Yes, and that is the recommended setup if you want it running around the clock. It is a single binary with no dependencies, so a small VPS with your agent CLI signed in works well.
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