Guide & tips

1. Install & first launch

The public desktop installer is available for Windows x64. The browser app runs at app.crimecode.cc, and the CLI quick install supports terminal workflows on macOS and Linux.

Windows

1. Download the current Windows x64 installer.
2. Run it. Windows SmartScreen will say "Unknown Publisher" — click More info → Run anyway. (We're in the process of getting a commercial code-signing certificate.)
3. The installer creates a Start Menu shortcut and auto-launches.

macOS and Linux CLI

Run curl -fsSL https://crimecode.cc/install | bash in a terminal. The installer selects the correct CLI binary for your platform.

Web

No install. Open app.crimecode.cc. Browser sessions connect to a configured backend, while the Windows desktop app includes the local terminal sidecar.

2. Start the 2-day free trial

On first launch you'll see the Subscription gate — a full-screen page with three plan cards (Monthly, Annual, Lifetime) and a big Start 2-day free trial button.

1. Click Start 2-day free trial.
2. The gate disappears and you're in the editor. No sign-up, no card, no email.
3. The trial lasts 48 hours per device. If you re-install the app or switch devices, the trial does NOT reset — we track the trial-consumed flag in the local license store.

3. Pay for a plan

Three USD-priced plans — Monthly $20, Annual $200, Lifetime $500. You can pay by card through Stripe or use BTC, LTC, or ETH through the Telegram bot.

Card

1. On the pricing section, choose Pay with Card.
2. Sign in or create an account so the license has a delivery address.
3. Complete payment on Stripe's hosted checkout page. CrimeCode never receives your card number.
4. The license is delivered to your account email after Stripe confirms payment.

Crypto

1. On the Subscription gate, click Pay via Telegram bot under the plan you want.
2. Telegram opens at @CrimeCodeSub_bot with the order pre-filled.
3. The bot replies with three wallet addresses and the exact amount to send on each chain (the last digits are a unique discriminator so we can match your payment to your order without you quoting anything).
4. Send the exact amount to ANY one of those addresses from any non-custodial wallet.
5. Wait 1–15 minutes. The bot's on-chain poller detects your transaction and DMs you the license token (format: CC2-...).
6. Back in the app, click I have a license token on the Subscription gate, paste the token, click Activate. Done.

4. Sign in

Sign-in is optional during the trial, but it unlocks cloud sync, teams, and cross-device license portability. Use a Telegram one-time PIN, or create an email, username, and password account from the web checkout.

Telegram one-time PIN

1. Menu → File → Account / Sign in… (web: click the account icon in the workspace dock).
2. Click Sign in via Telegram.
3. An 8-character PIN appears (e.g. ABCDEF12). The app also opens the bot at t.me/CrimeCodeSub_bot?start=auth_<PIN>.
4. On Telegram, tap Start. The bot replies "Signed in as @handle. You can close this chat."
5. The app auto-detects within 2–4 seconds and shows "✓ Signed in" with your customer ID.

5. Open and create projects

A project in CrimeCode is just a directory. No .crimecode config file, no special format.

Open an existing project

Menu → File → Open Project… (Ctrl+O / Cmd+O), pick a folder. The project becomes your default workspace for sessions, terminals, and AI chats.

Create a new project

Menu → File → New Project… (Ctrl+N / Cmd+N), pick where to create it, give it a name. The app creates the directory and opens it as a project.

6. Integrated terminal

Toggle the terminal panel with Ctrl+`. Each terminal runs inside a pseudo-terminal (PTY) managed by the sidecar — so it survives an app restart as long as the backend keeps running.

• New terminal: Shift+Ctrl+` or the + button in the terminal panel tabs.
• Next / previous terminal: Alt+↑ / Alt+↓ on the terminal panel.
• Kill terminal: click the × on the tab. The PTY is torn down and the tab removed.

7. AI assistants

CrimeCode ships with multi-provider AI support out of the box — you connect whichever accounts you already have.

Supported providers

• Anthropic (Claude) — API key or OAuth via console.anthropic.com.
• OpenAI (GPT-5, GPT-4 family).
• Google Gemini.
• GitHub Copilot — authorize with your GitHub.com or Enterprise account.
• Local models via Ollama, LM Studio, any OpenAI-compatible endpoint.
• Full list: Cerebras, Cohere, DeepInfra, Groq, Mistral, Amazon Bedrock, Vercel AI Gateway, and more.

Add a provider

1. Settings → AI providers.
2. Pick one, click Connect. For OAuth providers a browser-style flow opens (or a device code if the provider doesn't support redirect).
3. Select a default model and you're done.

8. Teams — create, invite, roles, ownership transfer

Teams are shared workspaces with role-based access. Annual and Lifetime plans include up to 20 members per team.

Create a team

1. Sign in (teams require a real account).
2. Workspace dock (bottom-left) → click the workspace switcher → ⊕ Create Team.
3. Type a team name, click Create Team. You become the owner automatically.

Invite members

Open the team in the switcher → click the ⚙ gear → Add Team Member. Two identifier formats:

• @telegram-handle — invite via Telegram. If the user isn't registered yet, the invite is saved and auto-accepted the moment they sign in.
• email@example.com — pending invite that matches on sign-in if the user has linked that email.

Roles

Transfer ownership

Open the team's Manage dialog → next to any non-owner member click 👑. A confirmation lists what you lose (delete team, further transfers, changing admins). Once confirmed, you're demoted to admin and the new owner has full control.

9. Live collaboration & cursors

When you switch to a team workspace, a green "N live" badge appears in the workspace dock whenever another member is active. The collaboration layer is powered by Server-Sent Events — changes propagate in under a second.

Publish your session

Open a project, start working. The team workspace can "advertise" your session (title + state JSON) to other members. When you do, your cursor is visible to everyone else on the team who's viewing the same workspace.

Watch someone else

With the team workspace active, other members' cursors appear as coloured arrows with their usernames. Each user gets a deterministic hue so you recognise them instantly. Cursors fade out after 4 seconds of silence.

10. Cloud sync

Once signed in, two snapshots are synced to our cloud key-value store:

• client.settings — your full settings.v3 blob (theme, editor prefs, AI defaults).
• client.recent-projects — deduped list of your last 30 opened projects.

Manual backup / restore

Account dialog → Cloud sync section:

• 📤 Backup to cloud — push both snapshots immediately.
• 📥 Restore from cloud — pull down and merge; settings apply on next restart.
• Last synced: N minutes ago shown next to the buttons.

11. Offline mode & the 7-day cache

CrimeCode is designed to work offline. The license is cached locally for 7 days after the last successful online validation:

• Activate a token online → license stored locally with expiry timestamp.
• Background check every 7 days (or on app start if last check > 7 days ago).
• If the server says "revoked" or "expired", local copy is updated.
• Network errors during background check leave the cached state alone — you stay productive.

12. Keyboard shortcuts

The most useful shortcuts across the app. Swap Ctrl for Cmd on macOS.

13. Privacy hardening tips

• Choose the sign-in and payment rail that fits your threat model. Email/password, Telegram, Stripe, and public blockchains expose different metadata to different processors.
• Use the local desktop sidecar for sensitive engagements. Hosted backends retain session content so it can be resumed; local storage keeps that state on your machine.
• Review your model provider. The provider you select receives prompts, attachments, and tool context needed to answer.
• Review the admin session list periodically. Account → Sessions. Revoke anything you don't recognise.
• Turn off cloud sync if you prefer. Sync is opt-in through the Account dialog. This prevents preference and recent-project snapshots from being copied to the sync service, but it does not change how your selected backend or model provider processes an active AI session.
• Disable error telemetry. Set SENTRY_DSN= empty in your local desktop env vars (create a .env in the opencode config dir). The default build ships Sentry enabled but it can be turned off.

14. Troubleshooting

Subscription gate won't go away after activation

Usually a token typo — re-paste the full token (starts with CC2-) making sure there are no trailing spaces. If the server says "unknown", the token wasn't issued by our instance (double-check you copied from the right bot).

"Unknown Publisher" / "Gatekeeper blocked"

Expected — we haven't paid for a commercial code-signing certificate yet. Windows: More info → Run anyway. macOS: right-click → Open → confirm.

Payment sent but no token arrived

Check the transaction has ≥1 confirmation (BTC/LTC) or ≥6 confirmations (ETH) on a block explorer. If yes but still no bot message: DM @OpCrime1312 with your order ID + tx hash.

Terminal shows "404 Not Found" repeatedly

The server redeployed and forgot your in-memory PTY state. The app self-heals by cloning each dead terminal into a fresh one — just wait a few seconds and the panels come back. Your scrollback is preserved locally; the live process is gone (same as if you closed the terminal).

Web app says "Failed to connect"

Our backend might be mid-deploy (usually resolves in 60–90 seconds). If it persists, check the public API health endpoint or ping @OpCrime1312. For self-hosted users, verify your server URL is correct in the Self-hosted tab of the AuthGate.

Desktop auto-update isn't working

Force-check: Menu → Help → Check for updates…. If nothing happens, uninstall and re-download the latest Windows installer.

Still stuck?

Telegram: @OpCrime1312 or @JollyFraud. Include your order ID (if any), operating system, and a screenshot of the error.