# Hive Code (Beta)

**Hive Code is currently in beta.**

Hive Code is CompactHive's in-portal coding agent, available at `/portal/code`. It lets you build an app by describing what you want in plain language, directly in your browser — no local dev environment required.

Prefer to use your own AI coding tool (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, …) instead of the in-portal agent? See the **Connect Your AI Agent** page in Guides & Reference — Hive Code and your own agent are two different ways to build on CompactHive, and you can use either or both.

## How it works
Hive Code manages its own repository-scoped Git credential; you do not supply
your personal CompactHive token to the browser agent. For your own local agent's
single-token MCP + Git setup, follow **Connect Your AI Agent**.


1. **Bring your own model credentials.** Before starting a session, connect a model: either an API key (OpenAI or Anthropic), or a connected ChatGPT subscription. CompactHive doesn't include model access as part of your plan — you're using your own credentials.
2. **Pick or create a repo.** You can point Hive Code at an existing repository in your built-in Forgejo instance, or have it create a brand-new one for you.
3. **Describe what you want.** The agent writes code against your repo, running server-side in your own tenant namespace.
4. **It ships itself.** When the agent finishes a piece of work, it commits and pushes the change back to your repo. From there, the normal CI/CD pipeline takes over exactly as if you'd pushed the code yourself: Woodpecker builds the image with Kaniko, and — if auto-deploy is on — it goes live. The same Pushed → Built → Deployed → Live timeline applies.

There are no extra buttons to click to "ship" what the agent builds — pushing is shipping, same as it is for humans on the platform.

## Current limitations

- Hive Code works against repositories in the built-in Forgejo instance. If your tenant is connected to GitHub (beta) instead, use the standard "Connect GitHub" flow in Settings to build and push manually; direct GitHub-backed Hive Code sessions are on the roadmap but not available yet.
- As a beta feature, expect the experience to keep evolving — if something feels rough around the edges, that's expected right now, not a sign you're doing it wrong.

Hive Code is included on all tiers; you only need to supply your own model credentials to use it.