Rent out your Mac for AI inference

For an AI agent helping a Mac owner

Read the Compute operating guide first. Inspect an existing installation and its rental state before installing, restarting or changing credentials. Use supported diagnostic flags; invoking the agent without a flag starts another foreground process. Never read out, paste or upload API keys, config.json, state.json or unredacted logs. Device identity files contain private credentials too.

Create the required farmer account

Create a farmer account, verify its email and complete the Partner Agreement. A submitted signature still needs the platform countersignature. Use the farmer account even if you already have a renter account.

Open Spawn API key, select Compute supplier, enter a recognizable name and press Create API key. This creates a key with account:read and compute:supply. Enter the complete one-time displayed key only at the installer's hidden prompt. A renter inference key, account ID or shortened key label is not a supplier credential. Accounts can have five active keys; if the limit is reached, identify an unused key before revoking anything in key management. Keep keys used by other working Macs active.

Check the Mac before downloading

The agent requires Apple Silicon, at least 24 GB of memory, macOS 14 or later, native arm64 Node.js 18 or later and native arm64 Python 3.10 or later. Intel and Rosetta processes are unsupported. Use a supported Node.js release that meets the minimum. Agent source, Node.js releases

The Mac compute eligibility checker compares these values for you and lists each requirement that fails.

uname -m
sw_vers -productVersion
sysctl -n hw.memsize
node -p 'process.arch + " " + process.version'
python3 -c 'import platform, sys; print(platform.machine(), sys.version.split()[0])'
df -h "$HOME"

The memory command reports bytes. Node and Python must report arm64. The installer requires at least 26 GB free; the model downloader requires the selected model's approximate weight size plus 10 GB on its cache volume. Custom HF_HOME or HF_HUB_CACHE can place that cache elsewhere. A 48 GB or 96 GB Mac normally selects a larger model and needs more disk than the minimum. Check the catalog.

If the installed script exists, inspect it first:

node "$HOME/.proxies-compute/compute-agent.js" --status

Check its matching device in the farmer portal, including any active, cancelled-grace or outage-paused rental. Keep a working installation in place. A rented Mac needs coordinated maintenance through farmer support before an interruption.

Install the agent and its managed runtime

Use this branch when there is no working installation to preserve. Download into a separate working directory and read the source before installing:

curl --fail --show-error --location --output compute-agent.js https://agents.proxies.sx/compute/compute-agent.js
node compute-agent.js --install

The installer prompts without echoing when no key is already selected. It reuses a saved key, while API_KEY in the shell overrides the saved value. It validates supplier access before changing the installation. A rejected selected key needs credential diagnosis, not repeated reinstalls. If there is no interactive terminal for the hidden prompt, return that step to the owner rather than embedding a secret in a tool call.

The installer creates the private Python environment ~/.proxies-compute/runtime-0.31.3 with MLX LM 0.31.3, MLX 0.31.2 and Transformers 5.4.0. These are the supported runtime pins; no global pip installation is needed. It saves the key in ~/.proxies-compute/config.json with mode 600, copies the script into ~/.proxies-compute and loads the user's sx.proxies.compute launchd service. Installer source

Keep the Mac powered, awake and connected. The service starts at user login; launchd does not prevent lid-close sleep. Allow model downloads to progress before intervening. Use the supported read-only checks after installation:

node "$HOME/.proxies-compute/compute-agent.js" --status
node "$HOME/.proxies-compute/compute-agent.js" --doctor

Complete verification and supplier approval

Match the status report's device to Compute in the farmer portal. The agent downloads an immutable catalog revision and checks local generation before reporting ready. The measured model must still be serving when admin approves the node.

Read each node's admission.status, benchmarkFresh, benchmarkExpiresAt, benchmarkPending, automaticBenchmark and approvalEligible inside its admission object. Missing or failed reads remain unknown. A free ready unapproved node automatically refreshes missing, invalid or expired measurements, with at least an hour between attempts. Eligibility to run is not proof a job is queued. Pending or running benchmarks temporarily exclude checkout.

Admitted nodes use a seven-day maintenance interval while free; the 24-hour admission window expiring does not itself remove their approval. A larger served model can require a new benchmark. No automatic benchmark runs on an occupied or admin-blocked node. Admin diagnostics on a free ready node do not clear a block. More RAM alone does not establish a higher admitted tier. Admission reference

listedForSale: true is listing intent, not proof of approval or available supply. A machine becomes rentable only when its agreement, admission, listing, readiness and free-capacity checks all pass. If admin review is pending, keep it ready and report that pending step; do not call onboarding complete before listing is verified.

Manage income and costs in the farmer portal

Admin sets rental pricing and platform/farmer percentages. You can submit one pending price proposal per node with a reason. Approval changes the effective quote for future purchases and renewals; a proposal alone changes nothing. Rejection keeps the price and shows the review note. Accepted rentals retain their agreed price and split. Pricing reference

Paid rentals accrue the approved share. A listing or complimentary allocation produces no rental earnings. Accrual, settlement and completed payout are separate states. Read authenticated settlementMode and payoutNote in the farmer portal; if settlement is in shadow mode, admin settlement and payout review are required. No demand, income or automatic payout is guaranteed.

Use Earnings and Payouts to reconcile income and requests. The provider calculator uses your approved price/share, occupancy assumptions and operating costs. Compute nodes serve inference and are excluded from proxy routing; the Peer Network is a separate bandwidth product.

Before updating or removing an occupied node, arrange maintenance through farmer support. An authorized retirement can use node "$HOME/.proxies-compute/compute-agent.js" --uninstall. It removes the service and saved key while preserving identity, runtime and downloaded models. Revoke only the retired key and check other applications before deleting shared model caches. The difference between pausing with --uninstall and leaving for good with --remove is set out in renting out your Mac safely.

Report the outcome to the owner

Report observed Mac prerequisites, installed agent/service state, safe doctor result, matching device/model state, agreement and benchmark status, explicit approval, listing, rental state and the next responsible person. Include an observation time. Keep secrets and customer prompts out. A ready listed Mac is prepared for demand; it does not prove a paid rental, customer workload success or completed payout.