Cloud Runs: work that carries on while you are away

Hand a discussion's work to the cloud worker, then watch it, approve its commands and stop it from the web, the iPhone, the Mac or the terminal.

A cloud run is a discussion's goal handed to our dedicated cloud worker, so the work carries on with your Mac closed. It runs on a hosted API model paid from your account's credit, under the limits you approve, and you can follow and steer it from any device you are signed in on.

Cloud runs are off until you turn on Durable Cloud Goals in Settings, and they need the Pro or Team plan; the free plan has one trial run (see Your free trial cloud run). A team can switch them off for its members.

When the files you hand over hold an iPhone app, the start screen says that the cloud can edit it but not build it, and your Mac builds it when the work comes back (see iPhone apps in a cloud run).

Starting one

Mac: the discussion's ⋯ menu → Run in the Cloud…, or /goal cloud start TOKENS MINUTES PROVIDER/MODEL $CEILING in the composer. The Mac uploads the text files git lists in the checkout, leaving out binaries, ignored and classified files and anything that looks like a credential, and shows its usual card before anything leaves.
Web and iPhone: the ⋯ menu → Run in the Cloud…, or /goal cloud start in the composer. Work on chooses what it starts from: the discussion's project files, or a GitHub repository the GitHub App is installed on, at a branch you name or its default. From a repository, its work comes back as a draft pull request (see Cloud runs and git). To send a Mac's checkout, uncommitted changes included, start from that Mac.
Terminal: ltb cloud start "make the failing tests pass" in a checkout. It shows the limits and asks before anything leaves; in a script, add --yes.

The form asks for a hosted model, a token budget, how many minutes it may run (seven days at most) and a dollar ceiling, which every run has. Those limits are your approval: they are registered with your own sign-in on that device, and the worker can obtain a key for exactly them and nothing wider.

A CLI subscription such as Claude Code or Codex never runs in our cloud, and no credential of yours enters a worker machine.

Watching it

The worker reports each step as it happens. Each run has a card that shows its state (Queued, Running, Needs Your Approval, Paused, Done or Stopped), what it has spent against its ceiling, its tokens, and the last steps, with its buttons. Where the cards are:

Mac: Tools → Cloud Runs. While a run is going or waiting on you, a chip beside Running Tasks at the foot of the discussion says so (amber when it needs you) and opens the pane. A queued or finished run puts nothing in the discussion.
Web: the same chip; it opens Background Tasks at its Cloud Runs.
iPhone: the card itself, above the box, while the run is active; finished runs are under Background Tasks.

Each list has All Discussions for the rest of your account. /goal cloud status and ltb cloud status say the same. Your iPhone is notified when a cloud run needs your approval, and when it finishes, is cancelled, or stops and waits for you, under the same switches as a run on your Mac; you answer on the run's card.

Approving commands

Tests, builds and linters run without asking; any other command a cloud run wants to execute waits for you (your team can change which, see Cloud runs: commands, network and toolchains). The run pauses, its key is revoked, and the card shows the exact command with Approve and Decline. Approve on any device: that device registers a fresh approval with your sign-in for the run's own model and ceiling, and the run continues within its budget. Decline refuses it; the run stays paused until you resume it from the Mac, or stop it. From a terminal, ltb cloud approve HASH with the hash the card and ltb cloud status show.

Commands run in a sandbox with no credentials and a time limit, only on the copy in the cloud, and reach nothing on the internet but the package registries.

Stopping it

Stop on the card, /goal cloud stop, or ltb cloud stop RUN. The worker revokes the run's key and removes its machine. The work so far is kept for review, and on the Mac /goal cloud review shows its changes before anything touches your checkout.

What is kept

The web app keeps a short record of each run so every device can show it: its state, the step lines, what waits for approval and what it has spent. Step lines name the tool and the command or file path, never file contents. The worker keeps the workspace and the conversation encrypted, for seven days after a run finishes, or thirty when it is held. Deleting your account removes both.