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DeploymentLocal / Bare Metal

Local / Bare Metal Deployment

Deploy Pilot on local machines or bare metal servers with systemd (Linux) or launchd (macOS).

Binary Installation

Download the latest release from GitHub:

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -L https://github.com/anthropics/pilot/releases/latest/download/pilot-darwin-arm64.tar.gz | tar xz
mv pilot ~/.local/bin/
 
# macOS (Intel)
curl -L https://github.com/anthropics/pilot/releases/latest/download/pilot-darwin-amd64.tar.gz | tar xz
mv pilot ~/.local/bin/
 
# Linux (x86_64)
curl -L https://github.com/anthropics/pilot/releases/latest/download/pilot-linux-amd64.tar.gz | tar xz
mv pilot ~/.local/bin/

Verify installation:

pilot version

Configuration

Create the config directory and file:

mkdir -p ~/.pilot
touch ~/.pilot/config.yaml

Minimal production config:

version: "1.0"
 
gateway:
  host: "0.0.0.0"  # Listen on all interfaces
  port: 9090
 
adapters:
  github:
    enabled: true
    token: "${GITHUB_TOKEN}"
    repo: "your-org/your-repo"
    pilot_label: "pilot"
    polling:
      enabled: true
      interval: 30s
 
executor:
  type: "claude-code"
  auto_create_pr: true
 
autopilot:
  enabled: true
  auto_merge: true
  merge_method: "squash"
  ci_wait_timeout: 30m

systemd Service (Linux)

Create a systemd unit file for Linux servers:

sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/pilot.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=Pilot AI Development Pipeline
After=network.target
 
[Service]
Type=simple
User=pilot
Group=pilot
WorkingDirectory=/home/pilot
Environment="HOME=/home/pilot"
Environment="PATH=/home/pilot/.local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
Environment="GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx"
Environment="ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-xxxx"
ExecStart=/home/pilot/.local/bin/pilot start --github
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
 
# Security hardening
NoNewPrivileges=true
ProtectSystem=strict
ProtectHome=read-only
ReadWritePaths=/home/pilot/.pilot
PrivateTmp=true
 
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

Enable and start:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable pilot
sudo systemctl start pilot

Check status:

sudo systemctl status pilot
journalctl -u pilot -f  # Follow logs

For production, store secrets in a secure location and reference them via EnvironmentFile=/etc/pilot/env instead of inline Environment directives.

launchd Service (macOS)

Create a launchd plist:

tee ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.pilot.agent.plist << 'EOF'
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.pilot.agent</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/YOU/.local/bin/pilot</string>
        <string>start</string>
        <string>--github</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/pilot.log</string>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/pilot.err</string>
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
        <key>GITHUB_TOKEN</key>
        <string>ghp_xxxx</string>
        <key>ANTHROPIC_API_KEY</key>
        <string>sk-ant-xxxx</string>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>
EOF

Load and start:

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.pilot.agent.plist

Check status:

launchctl list | grep pilot
tail -f /tmp/pilot.log

Unload (stop):

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.pilot.agent.plist

Replace /Users/YOU with your actual home directory path. macOS launchd runs as your user, so paths must be absolute.

Managing Secrets

Linux (systemd)

Use an environment file:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/pilot
sudo tee /etc/pilot/env << 'EOF'
GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-xxxx
EOF
sudo chmod 600 /etc/pilot/env
sudo chown pilot:pilot /etc/pilot/env

Update the service file:

[Service]
EnvironmentFile=/etc/pilot/env
# Remove inline Environment= lines

macOS (Keychain)

For macOS, you can use Keychain Access or a .env file with restricted permissions:

touch ~/.pilot/.env
chmod 600 ~/.pilot/.env
echo "GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx" >> ~/.pilot/.env
echo "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-xxxx" >> ~/.pilot/.env

Then source it in a wrapper script referenced by launchd.

OverviewDesktop App