License and trial

Downloads are public. A new install works fully for 14 days; after that the daemon needs a handup Personal license (one person, their own machines, perpetual). Buy a license.

Find your key

1. After checkout, Polar emails “Thank you for your purchase!” with your invoice attached. Under Included benefits it lists handup license key.
2. Click handup license key in that email. It opens Polar’s customer portal at Benefit Grants, where the key is shown under License keys.
3. Copy the key and activate it as below.

Lost the email? Open the customer portal and sign in with your purchase email; Polar sends a one-time code.

Activate

handup license activate HANDUP-XXXX-XXXX     # or: echo "$KEY" | handup license activate
handup license status                        # License: licensed (****-XXXXXX, you@example.com)

In the desktop, web and phone apps open Settings → License, paste the key and choose Activate. On a phone, each paired computer has its own row; activating there needs the device’s decide scope.

Activation sends the key once to https://gethandup.dev/api/license, which checks it with Polar and returns a license signed by gethandup.dev. The daemon verifies the signature with a public key built into handup and stores the signed license as license and the key as license-state.json in the data directory (both 0600). After that the license works offline.

Offline machines

A machine that cannot reach gethandup.dev can use the signed license file from an activated machine:

handup license import ~/license       # a copy of <data dir>/license from another machine

Settings → License → Import license file does the same. An imported license carries no key, so it is never rechecked online.

Trial

The trial starts when the daemon first runs and is recorded in the data and state directories; reinstalling does not restart it. handup license status shows the days left. The apps show an inline banner above the inbox in the last 3 trial days and while a license is required; it never covers the decision buttons.

When a license is required

After the trial ends without a license (or after the key is revoked):

• New requests are refused. handup ask exits 6 with license required: …; the daemon API answers HTTP 402 with {"error": "license required: …", "code": "license_required"}; MCP tools return the same message and code.
• Claude and Codex permission hooks and the omp extension fall back to the agent’s own permission prompt, as when the daemon is not running (omp without a UI blocks). They never allow anything on handup’s behalf.
• Pending requests can still be approved, denied or answered. History, settings, storage cleanup, handup uninstall and the license commands keep working.

Activate or import a license and new requests work again immediately, without a restart.

Rechecks and revocation

While the daemon runs it rechecks an activated key with Polar about every 3 days. Only a definite answer locks the license: the key is revoked, disabled, unknown, or for another product. Being offline, a Polar outage, rate limits or a malformed reply never lock it; the daemon retries an hour later. A refunded order’s key is revoked by Polar, so the next recheck requires a new license.

Commands and API

Command	API	Effect
handup license status [--json]	GET /v1/license	State, days left, masked key
handup license activate [KEY] [--json]	PUT /v1/license {"key": "…"}	Exchange the key for a signed license
handup license import FILE [--json]	PUT /v1/license {"license": "HANDUP-LICENSE-1.…"}	Install a signed license file
handup license deactivate [--json]	DELETE /v1/license	Remove the license and key from this machine

state is one of trial, expired, licensed, revoked or not_enforced (development builds, which never refuse requests); locked is true for expired and revoked. A rejected key answers HTTP 400 and an unreachable license server 502; the CLI exits 4 for both. Remote devices need the view scope to read the license and the decide scope to change it. See the OpenAPI reference for every field.