Getting started

Install Guardrail, start it, then connect a supported tool and set a budget. Free needs no email or activation; activate a code only for a trial or paid plan.

1. Install

The installer downloads the release for your platform, verifies its checksum, and puts the guardrail binary on your PATH.

curl -fsSL https://neatproxy.com/install.sh | bash

macOS and Linux run it natively. On Windows, run it inside WSL2 while a native build is in progress.

2. Activate a Pro trial or paid plan (optional)

Activation attaches your plan to this machine. Get a code from the get page— the page explains whether the code is shown inline or delivered by email, and the 7 day clock starts when you activate, not when you request it.

guardrail activate <code>

On a Free plan you can skip straight past this; the local firewall, policies and dashboard work without an account.

3. Start the proxy

guardrail start

This runs the daemon in the background, bound to 127.0.0.1:4000, and serves the dashboard at localhost:4000. Use guardrail status to check on it and guardrail stop to shut it down.

4. Connect a tool

Connecting edits that tool’s own configuration file to point at Guardrail. It preserves the file’s permissions, and guardrail disconnect restores what was there before.

guardrail connect claude-code
guardrail connect codex

Step by step for each: Claude Code and Codex.

5. Set a budget

Tracking alone changes nothing. Open protectionsin the dashboard and set a per-session spend cap — that is the point at which Guardrail starts refusing calls instead of only counting them. See budgets and policies.

Useful commands