Support
Something not working, or a question the FAQ does not answer? Write to support@offshoot.cloud.
What to include
- Your Offshoot version (Offshoot ▸ About Offshoot) and your macOS or iOS version.
- What you did, what you expected, and what happened instead.
- What Settings ▸ Doctor reports, if it is about the Mac app.
- Connecting your iPhone to your Mac
- The sign-in email
- “The host is not running”
- Updates
- Requirements
- Deleting your account
Connecting your iPhone to your Mac
From anywhere, through the relay
- On your Mac, open Settings ▸ Account & Devices and sign in with your email address.
- In the same place, show the code under “Sign in your iPhone”.
- In Offshoot on your iPhone, tap Scan and point it at the code (or use the Camera). The code works once and changes every two minutes; no email needed.
Your Mac must be on and awake. Keep “Start host at login” on in Settings so your Mac stays reachable after a restart. The connection is end-to-end encrypted; the relay cannot read it.
On your own network or over Tailscale, without an account
- On your Mac, let the host listen on the local network or on Tailscale (Settings ▸ Advanced).
- Open Settings ▸ Account & Devices ▸ Pair a device… to show a pairing code.
- On your iPhone, choose “Add a host by its address instead…”, enter your Mac's address and the code.
If your iPhone cannot reach the Mac, run Settings ▸ Doctor on the Mac: it checks the listen address, Tailscale and the macOS firewall.
The sign-in email
- The email comes from login@offshoot.cloud. If it does not arrive within a minute, check your spam or junk folder.
- Make sure the email shows the same code the app shows, then open its link. The link is valid for 15 minutes; after that, send a new one.
- After several attempts in a row, sign-in pauses briefly. Wait a minute and try again.
“The host is not running”
The host is the part of Offshoot that runs your workspaces and agents in the background on your Mac. If the app cannot reach it:
- Quit Offshoot and open it again; it starts the host when it needs it.
- Open Settings ▸ Doctor and run it. It checks the Command Line Tools and git, each agent and its sign-in, the optional GitHub CLI and Postgres tools, the host's data folder, port and database, and says what to fix.
- If the Doctor reports something you cannot fix, email us what it says.
Updates
The Mac app checks for updates by itself and installs signed, notarized builds from updates.offshoot.cloud. To check right away, choose Offshoot ▸ Check for Updates…. If an update fails, download the latest build from the home page and replace the app in your Applications folder.
The iPhone and iPad app will update through the App Store.
Requirements
| Mac | Apple silicon, macOS 26 |
|---|---|
| Tools | Command Line Tools and git; Claude Code or Codex, installed and signed in |
| Optional | GitHub CLI for pull requests; Postgres tools for Postgres databases; Tailscale for direct connections away from home |
| iPhone and iPad | iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 |
Deleting your account
On your Mac, open Settings ▸ Account & Devices and choose “Delete account…”. On your iPhone or iPad, open Settings and choose “Delete Account…”. This deletes your Offshoot account, its sign-in sessions, the hosts and devices registered to it and the Linear connection. Your Macs, repositories and chats are not touched.
You can also email privacy@offshoot.cloud from the address you signed in with, and we will delete it for you. What we store and why is in the Privacy Policy.