1. Getting started
Three things happen here: you make an account on the web, you put the app on a computer, and the app signs in to that account. All three work today, and this page says what each one involves and where it can stop.
Create your account
Go to app.cloutlabs.co. There is no sign-up form. Signing in for the first time is creating the account. The sign-in card says so:
Use Google or Telegram. There is no password to forget, and this is how you set up an account too.
There is no email field and no password field anywhere in the product. Your Clout account has no password to set, forget or leak.
Press Continue with Google, pick your Google account, and you land on the Apps screen.
Two limits worth knowing before you try:
- It only works on
app.cloutlabs.co. Google compares the redirect address byte for byte against the one address registered for it. A different host, a staging copy or a local build, fails. - The consent screen is in testing mode. Only Google accounts that have been added as test users can sign in at all, however correct everything else is. If you get bounced with no explanation, that is why; ask us to add you.
Telegram
Telegram sign-in is built and needs no email address at all. Whether it is switched on is a setting on our side, and the sign-in page tells you which state it is in rather than leaving you pressing a button that does nothing:
Telegram sign-in is not switched on here yet. Use Google instead.
If you see that sentence, use Google. If you do not, the Telegram button works.
More than one way in
An account can hold several sign-in methods, Google and Telegram both, and you use whichever you have to hand. Adding a second method to an existing account is not possible from the Account screen yet; the screen says so and asks you to tell us instead.
We never join two accounts because they share an email address. If you sign in with Telegram using the address a Google account already holds, you are told to use Google instead. That is not an inconvenience. Merging on a shared email address is how accounts get taken over.
What you see when you are in
The left sidebar:
| Screen | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Apps | Everything we make, and where your account stands with each one |
| Subscriptions | Your plan, what it allows, and what you are using of it |
| Downloads | The installers, one row per platform |
| Devices | The computers signed in to your account, and your own sign-ins |
| Team | Who else works on this account, and what each of them may reach |
| Referral | Your invite link, who came in through it, and what it has earned |
| Settings | Account-wide preferences |
| Account | Who the account belongs to, how you sign in, how to close it |
A new account shows a banner across the top:
You do not have a subscription yet. Tell us what you need and we will get you started. Everything you set up in the meantime is kept.
That is literal. Nothing you build before a plan exists is thrown away when one is granted.
There is no checkout
Ask about a plan opens a Telegram conversation with us. There is no card form and no self-serve upgrade anywhere in the product, and we store no card details. You tell us what you need (how many profiles, how many computers, which products), we agree the price and the payment method, and an administrator puts the plan on your account. It appears on Subscriptions as soon as it is done.
The prices are published at cloutlabs.co/pricing and the portal reads the same catalogue, so the number you are quoted is the number on the page. What a plan grants, what a period ending does, and how refunds work are in Your subscription.
Install the app
Downloads in the portal, one row per platform. A platform is listed only when there is a file that installs, so anything you can see is something that works.
| Platform | What you get | Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| macOS | A .dmg | An Apple Silicon Mac, M1 or newer. There is no Intel build |
| Windows | An installer .exe | 64-bit Windows |
| Linux | An .AppImage | 64-bit x86. Make it executable and run it |
The macOS build is signed by us and notarized by Apple, so it opens without an argument.
The Windows build is not signed, because the certificate has not been bought yet. Windows shows a SmartScreen warning on first run and you have to press More info, then Run anyway. That warning is honest: it says Windows cannot tell who published this file, and until there is a certificate it cannot. If that is not a trade you want to make, wait for the signed build and tell us so we know it matters to you.
The app updates itself. A new version is fetched in the background and applied when you restart, so the installer is a first-run step rather than something you repeat.
Sign in inside the app
The app opens on a sign-in screen and nothing else. Until you are signed in the fleet, the sidebar and every dialog are not merely hidden, they are not there, and signing out puts the window back to that screen.
You press sign in; the app opens your system browser, not a window inside the app, which is how credentials get phished, and you sign in to app.cloutlabs.co exactly as you did on the web. The browser hands a one time code back to the app on a loopback address, the app exchanges it for a session, and the session is stored in your operating system's keychain.
That moment is also when the computer joins your account. There is no code to type, no pairing screen, and nothing for you to enrol. It appears under Devices in the portal straight away. See Machines.
Syncing this computer's fleet with your account is a second, separate step, and it is on the same page: Machines has it.
Before you can launch anything
One thing that is easy to miss: the browser engine that runs your profiles is not part of the Clout app. It is a separate 340 MB download, the app fetches it for you on first use, and which engine a profile needs depends on where that profile came from. The two engines explains which one, and why.