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Installation | Custom Environment Variables | Loading Prompts | Troubleshooting | FAQ

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Installation

The easiest way to get started is to install the CodeLayer IDE, which provides a full-featured interface for AI-assisted development.

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macOS (Homebrew)

brew install --cask --no-quarantine humanlayer/humanlayer/codelayer
Note: The OSS version of codelayer doesn’t have app signing, so you’ll need to use the --no-quarantine flag to brew install or manually bypass the macOS quarantine in Security and Privacy settings. Note: Optionally, opening from CLI rather than Spotlight/Raycast ensures CodeLayer inherits your shell environment including API keys and configuration. 
open /Applications/CodeLayer.app

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Updating

To update your existing install, you can run the same brew install command again. 
brew install --cask --no-quarantine humanlayer/humanlayer/codelayer
Releases and release notes can be found at https://github.com/humanlayer/humanlayer/releases

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Custom Environment Variables

If you need to set custom environment variables (e.g., for connecting to Bedrock or setting CLAUDE_BASE_MAINTAIN_WORKING_DIR=1), you can set them in the env block of the built-in Claude Code Settings File

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Loading Prompts

If you want to load the generic version of the HumanLayer prompts, check out this workshop gist

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Troubleshooting

  • Logs can be found at ~/Library/Logs/dev.humanlayer.wui/CodeLayer.log
  • If you see errors about missing mcp__codelayer__approvals tool, you’re missing the humanlayer CLI - you need to install with brew, copying the app from a DMG won’t work
  • If install fails, ensure you’ve cleaned up all previous artifacts. brew reinstall is worth a shot as well

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FAQ

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Where can I learn more?

There’s a super-thread of content we’ve shared on X: https://x.com/dexhorthy/status/1978676162495688719 You can collaborate with other codelayer users in the CodeLayer Discord

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How do I get all those fancy prompts I’ve heard about?

If you want to load the generic version of the HumanLayer prompts, check out this workshop gist

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How do I use custom claude config / bedrock / env vars?

If you need to set custom environment variables (e.g., for connecting to Bedrock or setting CLAUDE_BASE_MAINTAIN_WORKING_DIR=1), you can set them in the env block of the built-in Claude Code Settings File 
// ~/.claude/settings.json
{
  "env": {
    "CLAUDE_BASE_MAINTAIN_WORKING_DIR": "1",
    "BEDROCK_REGION": "us-east-1",
    "BEDROCK_MODEL": "us.meta.llama3-2-11b-instruct"
  }
}

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Do you support git worktrees?

There’s no built-in worktree management YET, but you can launch CodeLayer from any directory including worktrees. Claude is very good at making and configuring worktrees for you as well, so you can ask it to do that. tip - use the humanlayer CLI (or ask claude to use it) to launch a session in a newly created worktree: 
humanlayer launch -w DIRECTORY -m MODEL "PROMPT"

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How do I manage all the markdown docs

These features are coming to CodeLayer soon - in the meantime you can check out the HumanLayer Repo and ask claude how does the thoughts system work?. This will set you up with our v0 janky prototype of the thoughts system. More coming soon but there are at least a handful of highly-motivated engineers using the system as it exists today.

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Can I use CodeLayer from my Phone? Can I run claude sessions in the cloud?

Coming soon!

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How much does CodeLayer cost?

During the private beta, CodeLayer is free to use.