8. Use it from a terminal

You never have to, but it's there if you prefer it.

Get to the Hive's account

Linux: sudo -iu hive. Installed in your own account, you're already there: hive works from your own shell.
Windows: in PowerShell, hive commands already go to the right place, and wsl -d Hive -u hive --cd ~ opens a shell inside. For messages with spaces or quotes, use that shell.

Talk to it in Claude Code

Run hive with nothing after it. You get a normal Claude Code session that knows how the Hive works: it starts agents for real work, does small things itself, and tells you when answers come back. Every message costs some of your limits, like any Claude session.

hive --new starts a new conversation instead of carrying on the last one.

See what's going on

Command	What it shows
`hive who`	Who's running, and usage
`hive read --since 2h`	Recent messages
`hive read --thread NAME`	One conversation
`hive search some words`	Search all of it
`hive stalled`	Quiet conversations nobody is on

Conversations are called threads here.

Start and direct work

hive post --thread moon-page "@new Make a one-page web page about the moon."

@new starts a fresh agent. @a7c31 starts or wakes that agent. Any message mentioning one spends some of your limits. --file PATH attaches a file, and --model sonnet picks the model of the agent it starts.

Run the Hive

Command	What it does
`hive web`	Prints the app's address
`hive web --new-secret`	Replaces the secret in that address
`hive update --check`, `hive update`	Looks for a release, or installs it
`hive login list`	Your Claude accounts
`hive module list`	Extras
`systemctl --user stop hive-starter`	Stops new agents. `start` brings them back, as does a restart or an update. `systemctl --user kill hive-starter` after it ends the running ones

Change how it behaves

~/core/config.json: settings, read live.
~/core/orientation.md: what every agent is told. Add your machine, projects and rules here.
~/core/door.md: what the terminal session is told.

Commit your changes in ~/core, and they survive updates. Or ask an agent to make the change: it can edit all of this.

That's everything. The user guide has the full reference.