Quickstart

Pair one node with your machine and connect your AI client. It takes about five minutes.

        your machine                                     target machine
┌────────────────────────────────┐                 ┌──────────────────────────┐
│ AI client ──MCP (stdio)──► jump │──mutual TLS 1.3──►│ jump-agent (port 7420)   │
└────────────────────────────────┘                 └──────────────────────────┘

Binary	Runs on	Purpose
jump-agent	Each target machine	Executes requests from paired bridges, as the user who started it. Idles at about 5 MB RAM.
jump	Your machine	Pairs nodes (CLI) and serves the MCP tools your AI uses (jump mcp).

A node is a machine running jump-agent that your bridge has paired with: a server, a VM, a build box, a laptop. Each node has a name you choose when pairing (build-box below), and tools and commands take that name. (Nothing to do with Node.js.)

During the preview, builds go to early-access users. Signed installers come in Phase 2. Put jump on your PATH.

1. Start the agent on the node

jump-agent

On first run it creates its config and identity key, then listens on all interfaces, port 7420. Allow inbound TCP 7420 through the machine’s firewall (Windows usually prompts on first run). Leave it running; Ctrl-C stops it.

On a desktop, the agent puts a hop icon in the notification area (Windows), the menu bar (macOS) or the system tray (Linux). The icon is grey while idle and Jump Volt while a bridge is connected. Its menu shows the node’s name and how many bridges are connected, and has Pair this node…, Start at login and Quit Jump. Over SSH, on machines with no display, or with jump-agent serve --no-tray, the agent runs without an icon. On Windows, when started by double-click or at login, its console window closes once the icon appears; start it from a terminal to see its log.

On Linux the icon uses StatusNotifierItem, which KDE, Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE and most panels show. GNOME needs the AppIndicator extension (installed by default on Ubuntu); without it the agent keeps running with no icon.

To start the agent every time you log in, choose Start at login in the tray menu, or run:

jump-agent autostart enable

OS	What this sets up
Windows	A Task Scheduler task, “Jump agent”, that runs at your logon without admin rights. Where policy forbids that, the Run key in your registry.
macOS	~/Library/LaunchAgents/jump-agent.plist. launchd restarts the agent if it crashes, but not after you quit it.
Linux	A systemd user unit, jump-agent.service, tied to your desktop session. On desktops not started by systemd, ~/.config/autostart/jump-agent.desktop. On machines with no desktop, the unit starts with your user’s services; run loginctl enable-linger to start it at boot without logging in.

The entry runs the jump-agent binary from where it is now, with the same --config. If you move the binary, run jump-agent autostart enable again. The machine must be logged in for the agent to run: configure auto-login on test machines and VMs.

2. Pair

On the target, choose Pair this node… in the tray menu, or in a second terminal run:

jump-agent pair

Both create a one-time pairing code and show the command to run on your machine. The tray also shows the code in its menu until it is used or expires.

Pairing code: 7KQ2-M9XD  (single use, valid for 5 minutes)

On the machine running your AI, run:
  jump nodes add build-box <this-node-address>:7420 --code 7KQ2-M9XD

On your machine, run that command with the target’s IP address or hostname:

jump nodes add build-box 192.168.1.50 --code 7KQ2-M9XD

The code is never sent over the network. Both sides prove they know it, and that they see each other’s real keys, so pairing fails if anyone intercepts the connection. A code expires after 5 minutes or 3 wrong attempts. On success, jump prints the node’s fingerprint; to verify it, compare it with jump-agent identity on the node.

Check the connection:

jump info build-box

3. Connect your AI client

Claude Code:

claude mcp add jump -- /absolute/path/to/jump mcp

Codex (~/.codex/config.toml):

[mcp_servers.jump]
command = "/absolute/path/to/jump"
args = ["mcp"]

Other MCP clients: run jump mcp as a stdio server.

Then ask your AI something like “run the test suite on build-box and show me any failures”.