# How to deploy your Claude Code app and make it live

Claude Code can build you an app in an afternoon. Then it tells you to open `localhost:3000`, and nobody else can see it.

This guide shows you how to deploy it, which we call making it live, and takes you from there to a real link from inside Claude Code. The same steps work in Codex and Cursor.

![Four steps: ask Claude Code, approve the sign-in, answer anything only you can answer, then open your link.](/blog/images/claude-code-steps.svg)

## Before you start

You need:

- An app that runs on your computer.
- Claude Code open in the app's folder.
- An email address for your Toupas account. There's no card to add: every new app is free for 30 days.

If your app has its own server, you'll also need Docker Desktop. If it's missing, the agent tells you and walks you through it. Websites made only of files don't need it.

## Step 1: Ask

Paste this into Claude Code:

```
Make this app live with Toupas. Instructions: https://toupas.com/agents.md
```

That page tells the agent what it needs: how to install Toupas, how to sign in, and which questions to bring back to you.

## Step 2: Approve the sign-in

The agent installs the `toupas` program and gives you a link. Open it in your browser and approve it. You do this once per computer.

Claude Code may ask your permission before running commands, as usual. It's worth reading them, and you can [read the instructions it follows](/agents.md) too.

## Step 3: Answer anything only you can answer

Toupas works out what kind of app you have: the framework, how to prepare it and how to start it. It only stops for things it shouldn't guess. You might see:

- **"Should the live app start with a copy of your local data?"** Say yes if your test data is worth keeping. Say no if you'd rather start clean.
- **A request to change how the app saves data.** If your app uses SQLite or saves files in its own folder, a live app would lose them. The agent gets told to move the app to Toupas's database or file storage, and does the work. See [what that involves](/blog/deploy-app-with-database-and-file-uploads).

## Step 4: Open your link

When it's done, the agent gives you a link like `yourapp.toupas.app`. Open it on your phone, with your Wi-Fi off, to see what everyone else sees.

## Updating your app

You don't need to learn a new way to deploy changes. Keep working as you were. When you're ready, say:

```
Update the live app.
```

Only the changed files are sent, and the link stays the same. A new version only replaces the live one once it has started properly, so a broken update doesn't take down the working app.

## When something breaks

Tell the agent what you see:

```
The live app shows an error when I sign in. Can you find out why?
```

It can check whether the latest version went live and read what the app printed. Toupas also explains many common failures in plain words, such as an app that only listens on localhost, so the agent often has the fix straight away.

## Let the agent use Toupas directly

After the first time, the agent asks whether it can use Toupas's tools from now on. If you say yes, it adds them to Claude Code, Codex and Cursor, whichever you have installed. The tools appear in your next session, so you can ask things like "show me the live app's logs" or "add my API key as a secret".

Secrets are worth a special mention: ask the agent to save them as settings on Toupas, and never paste them into your code. `.env` files don't go live.

## What it costs

Nothing for the first 30 days. After that, one [monthly plan](/pricing) covers all the apps in your account, and they share its memory and storage. When the trial ends the app stops until you choose a plan, and its data is kept for 30 days.