Install on a server

Quick install

On a Linux server with systemd:

curl -fsSL https://hotline.dev/install | sh -s -- --server

It downloads the server build for your architecture, checks it against the release’s checksums, installs hotline to /usr/local/bin, creates the hotline account and the unit below, and starts the desk. It asks for the listen address and public URL, or takes them as --listen and --public-url. Once the desk is up it shows a pairing QR, so keep your phone handy.

The installer detects an existing install and reports its version and the available version. It asks before updating when a terminal is attached; --yes skips that question, as does running without a terminal. An install already at the requested version is left alone unless you pass --force. Pass --listen and --public-url again to change them (add --force when keeping the same version); if the desk won’t start with the new values, the previous unit goes back.

Update a server

For a server installed at /usr/local/bin/hotline with the hotline systemd unit:

hotline update --check              # report the installed and available versions
sudo /usr/local/bin/hotline update  # install the latest server release

To choose a particular release, including an intentional downgrade:

sudo /usr/local/bin/hotline update --version X.Y.Z

The updater downloads the server archive for your architecture, verifies its SHA-256 checksum, and replaces only the binary with an atomic rename. The room, pairings and systemd unit stay untouched. If the unit is running, it restarts and the updater checks that the desk comes back; a failed start restores the previous binary and tries to restart it. A stopped unit stays stopped. Without root, the command prints the exact sudo command to run; --check never needs root and never changes the install.

Rollback restores the executable, not room-data changes a newer release may have made. Keep an encrypted backup of the room, taken with the service stopped, before upgrading or downgrading. If recovery also fails, the updater preserves the old binary and prints its backup path; inspect journalctl -u hotline before recovering manually.

This command is only for the Linux server binary. Desktop installs use the app’s updater or their package manager; hotline update does not overwrite .deb, .rpm, AppImage, macOS app or Windows setup installations.

Older releases, including 0.26.0, do not have hotline update. For that first upgrade, rerun the installer once:

curl -fsSL https://hotline.dev/install | sh -s -- --server

It keeps the existing room, pairings and unit. Use hotline update after that. An older binary without --version may be reported as unknown when its running desk’s version is not readable; the installer still offers the upgrade.

Manual install

The rest of this page is the same install done by hand.

Get the binary

Each release from 0.26.0 carries hotline-server_<version>_linux_x86_64.tar.gz and hotline-server_<version>_linux_aarch64.tar.gz, each with the hotline binary and a systemd unit. To build it yourself instead:

cargo build --release -p hotline-cli   # target/release/hotline

Install it as a service

tar xzf hotline-server_*_linux_x86_64.tar.gz
sudo install -m 0755 hotline-server_*/hotline /usr/local/bin/hotline
sudo useradd --system --create-home --home-dir /var/lib/hotline --shell /usr/sbin/nologin hotline
sudo install -m 0644 hotline-server_*/hotline.service /etc/systemd/system/hotline.service
sudo systemctl edit --full hotline     # set --listen and --public-url, below
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now hotline

The unit runs as the hotline account with the room at /var/lib/hotline/room. It sets HOME, PATH and HOTLINE_DATA_DIR itself and reads no login shell, so add to its PATH what your teammates need: a Node install for harnesses run through npx, for example.

Listen address and TLS

--listen and --public-url are both required.

hotline serve --store file --listen 192.0.2.10:9443 --public-url https://desk.example:9443

• --listen is exactly one local IP and a fixed port. Wildcards (0.0.0.0), port zero and falling back to another address are refused. IPv6 goes in brackets: --listen '[2001:db8::10]:9443'. If the address isn’t up yet at boot, the desk waits for it.
• --public-url is where the phone connects: an https:// address with a DNS name or IP, or a TLS proxy in front of the desk. It goes into the pairing QR. Don’t put credentials or a query in it.
• TLS is self-signed unless you pass --tls-cert fullchain.pem --tls-key key.pem, which the service account must be able to read. --tls self says the default out loud. The phone trusts the server’s key, not its certificate, so rotating certificates never breaks a pairing.
• --store file keeps secrets as owner-only files under the room. Encrypt the disk, and its snapshots and backups. native uses the OS credential store, which a server usually doesn’t have.

Open the port in your firewall for the phones that will connect, and nothing else. Only a phone holding a pairing gets past the handshake; to anything else the port offers nothing but TLS and a closed door.

Check it’s running

sudo -u hotline HOTLINE_DATA_DIR=/var/lib/hotline/room hotline status

A fresh room says No teammate can run yet: connect a model provider. That is expected: pair your phone, then connect a model.