Latch

Latch lets your AI agents use a machine you trust: its files, programs and browser, your Google account through it, and on a Mac its Messages and Contacts. That machine runs a Latch host. Your agents call it from wherever they run. The host's gatekeeper checks each call against your rules and what you told the agent in Plow. The host keeps a sealed audit log of every call.

Latch runs on macOS 13 or later and on 64-bit Linux (x86_64 or arm64). You need a Plow account.

Install

curl -fsSLO https://releases.plow.co/latch-cli/install.sh && sh install.sh

• On a Mac, this installs the Plow Latch app and the latch command.
• On Linux, it installs the latch command.
• latch goes in ~/.local/bin. If that folder isn't on your PATH, the installer adds it in your shell's login profile and prints the line for the terminal you are in.

Check it worked:

latch --version

First run

The first install starts setup for you. On macOS 26 or later it opens the Plow Latch app instead, which takes you through the same steps. To run setup again at any time:

latch setup

Setup logs this machine in to Plow: you text a code from your phone. It then connects Google, turns on Messages and Contacts on a Mac, and offers to start the host.

Then run latch alone to see this machine at a glance.

Connect an agent

• An agent that runs on Plow starts when you text Plow's number from your phone: latch agents start-by-text says what to send, and the Mac app's New Agent shows it as a QR code. It has its own credential in its environment. If its machine has no Latch yet, install it there with sh install.sh --client-only, then run latch login.

• An agent you run yourself gets its own credential from Plow:

  latch agents new --own --name NAME --line LINE --credential-file FILE

  Give FILE to the agent. It sets PLOW_API_BASE and PLOW_AGENT_TOKEN: load it into the agent's environment (Docker Compose's env_file, or set -a; . FILE; set +a), then run latch login there.

• Never copy your own login to an agent. A host treats your login as you, so it would not judge the agent's calls as the agent's.

Agents learn how to use Latch from latch skill.

Read more

• Getting started: install, log in, start a host, call it, connect an agent.
• How Latch works: hosts, owners and agents, the gatekeeper, trust and limits.
• Guides: browser, vault, Google, macOS, Docker, the JSON an app reads.
• In the terminal: latch --help, and latch help COMMAND --examples.
• Security and contributing.

License

Apache-2.0: see LICENSE and latch/NOTICE. Copyright 2026 The Plow Collective, Inc. Code adapted from other projects keeps its own license, named in NOTICE beside its text (latch/LICENSE-*). Release archives and Plow Latch.app carry LICENSE, NOTICE and those texts.

"Plow" and the Plow logo are trademarks of The Plow Collective, Inc. The license grants no trademark rights.