Install the agent

The agent is a single native binary, wt-agent. It has no runtime dependencies — no Java, no Python, no container.

Supported platforms

Platform	Status
Linux (x86-64, ARM64)	Supported. Logon sessions read via logind
Windows 10/11 and Server	Supported. Logon sessions read via the Windows Terminal Services API
macOS	Builds and runs. Logon-session collection is not implemented

Getting the binary

Not yet available

There are no prebuilt downloads or package-manager installs yet — no .msi, no .deb, no Homebrew formula. Until those exist, the agent is built from source.

Email support@watchtower.page if you need a build for a platform you cannot compile on.

Building from source needs a Rust toolchain:

git clone https://github.com/parkview-gh/wt-nextjs.git
cd wt-nextjs
cargo build --release -p wt-agent

The binary lands at target/release/wt-agent (wt-agent.exe on Windows). Copy it wherever you keep local binaries — /usr/local/bin and C:\Program Files\Watchtower\ are both reasonable.

Build a release binary, not a debug one

Always build with --release for a machine you actually want to monitor. Debug builds contain development-only features — synthetic machine generation, behaviour simulation — that are compiled out of release builds entirely. A debug binary pointed at a real account can create machines that do not exist.

Configure it

The agent is configured entirely through environment variables. There is no config file and there are no command-line flags.

The minimum to connect:

export WT_API_KEY="wt_your_key_here"     # from Account Settings → Security
export WT_APP_URL="https://watchtower.page"
export WT_BROKER_URL="wss://broker.watchtower.page/ws"

See Configuration for the full list.

Run it

wt-agent

It logs what it is doing. On a first run you should see it register, write its credential, connect, and send a first snapshot.

Once it works, set it up to start at boot — see Running as a service.

Upgrading

Stop the agent, replace the binary, start it again. The credential file survives, so the machine keeps its identity and its history in the console. Do not delete the credential when upgrading — that would register the machine a second time.

Uninstalling

1. Revoke the machine in the console so its credential stops working — Revoking a machine.
2. Stop the agent and remove the service entry, if you created one.
3. Delete the binary and the credential file.

Revoking leaves the machine's record in the console, with its history and labels intact, marked as no longer enrolled. Removing the record entirely is a separate action.