Running the daemon in the background¶

The daemon is an ordinary Python program. It runs until you stop it, and it does not install itself as a service. This page says how to have it start on its own, and which computer to run it on.

Which computer¶

Where	Good for	Watch out for
An always-on machine: a server, a NAS or a Raspberry Pi, in Docker	The Presto: it needs the daemon to be there whenever it polls	Claude's local activity logs, the Claude usage cache and Codex cannot be read from a container. Claude's quota can still arrive through a remote collector
Your own PC	Everything, including Codex and the local Claude readers, which read your user profile	When the PC sleeps or shuts down, the Presto shows Daemon offline

A remote collector is different: it is not a service and there is nothing to run in the background. Claude Code starts it. You need a collector only when Claude Code runs on a different computer from the daemon, and you do not need one on a computer that runs both.

Run it as a scheduled task that starts at your logon, as you. Do not make it a Windows service. Three things only your own account can reach: the encryption key file (Windows protects it for your account, so no other account can unlock it), the Claude and Codex readers (they read your profile folder), and the Codex sign-in. A service running as SYSTEM or any other account would start without any of them.

In a normal PowerShell window (not an administrator one), change the three paths to match your install:

$repo   = "D:\github\presto-ai-dash"        # where the project is
$config = "$repo\dash.toml"                 # your configuration file
$python = "$repo\.venv\Scripts\python.exe"  # the Python you installed it into

$action = New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute $python `
  -Argument "-m presto_ai_dash.app --config `"$config`" --admin" `
  -WorkingDirectory $repo
$trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -AtLogOn -User $env:USERNAME
$settings = New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet -RestartCount 3 `
  -RestartInterval (New-TimeSpan -Minutes 1) -ExecutionTimeLimit ([TimeSpan]::Zero) `
  -AllowStartIfOnBatteries -DontStopIfGoingOnBatteries -StartWhenAvailable
Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName "Presto AI Dash" -Action $action `
  -Trigger $trigger -Settings $settings

What this does:

It runs for the account that created it, only while you are signed in, with ordinary rights.
It restarts up to three times, a minute apart, if the daemon exits with an error, and it is never stopped for running too long.
-WorkingDirectory matters. database = "dash.db" is relative to where the daemon starts. A scheduled task starts in a Windows system folder by default, so without it the database and its key would be created there, not next to your configuration. You can also give daemon.database as a full path.
A console window opens at each sign-in and shows the daemon's log. Minimise it. Closing it stops the daemon.

Start it now, and manage it:

Start-ScheduledTask   -TaskName "Presto AI Dash"     # start it now
Stop-ScheduledTask    -TaskName "Presto AI Dash"     # stop it, the whole process
Get-ScheduledTask     -TaskName "Presto AI Dash" | Get-ScheduledTaskInfo
Unregister-ScheduledTask -TaskName "Presto AI Dash" -Confirm:$false   # remove it

Run one daemon at a time. The listeners bind exclusively, so a second one refuses to start. Stop the task before you run the daemon by hand, and after you edit dash.toml, stop it and start it again.

The first time it listens, Windows may ask whether to allow it through the firewall. Securing a deployment says how to allow only the Presto's address.

Hiding the window¶

pythonw.exe instead of python.exe gives no window, and Stop still ends it. It also gives the daemon nowhere to write its log. The Problems list on the admin page still collects warnings and errors, but a startup message such as a temporary token is lost. If you use pythonw.exe, set explicit tokens in dash.toml first so nothing you need is only in the log. Wrapping the command in a hidden PowerShell to capture the log is not recommended: stopping the task then ends the wrapper and leaves the daemon running.

If the Presto says the daemon is offline¶

An asleep PC is the most common reason. Check the power settings, or run the daemon on an always-on machine instead. The troubleshooting page has the rest.

Docker¶

The container restarts with the machine and has no window to close: see Install with Docker.

Linux and macOS¶

Use the system's own service manager (a systemd user unit on Linux, a launchd agent on macOS) to run python -m presto_ai_dash.app --config dash.toml --admin. The same rules apply: run it as the user who owns the files, set the working directory, and restart it on failure. The project tests the Windows task and Docker only, so there is no recipe to copy here.