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What it is

Normally you sign up, then connect an agent. A temporary profile inverts that. anona start gives an agent a working memory before any account exists. A person claims the result afterwards with anona login, and the memories the agent stored while it waited are theirs. A temporary profile is a memory workspace with no email address, no password and nobody owning it. The only thing that identifies it is an opaque token starting anona_tmp_, which the CLI keeps in ~/.anona/credentials.json (mode 600). The server keeps only a hash of it. The token is never printed, so that file is its only copy. That token works wherever an API key does, and on the remote /mcp endpoint, so an agent can use it without a browser or a human in the loop.

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The limits

Nothing warns you before the 72 hours are up. There is no email address to send a warning to. When the deadline passes the profile’s memories are deleted and the token stops working. anona status is the only place the deadline shows, so check it, or claim the profile.

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Start to finish

1

Install the CLI

Either package works. They share one credential file, so you can start with one and claim with the other.
With nothing installed: uvx --from anona anona start, or npx @anona-labs/memory start.
2

Start a profile

Note the expiry. If a profile is already stored, anona start prints its deadline and creates nothing.
3

Connect your client

Restart the client so it loads the tools. Then record something. The profile starts with a space called default, but the space itself is created by the first write, so a retrieve before any record reports that the space does not exist.
4

Check the deadline

status reads only the local file. It cannot tell you the server still holds the profile.
5

Claim it

A browser opens on the approval screen, where you sign up (or sign in with Google). Read the client name, then choose Allow. Over SSH or in a container, anona login prints the URL instead; open it on the machine running the command, or add --no-browser to skip the attempt to open one.
6

Confirm

The temporary-profile lines are gone, replaced by the stored sign-in credential. The dashboard now shows the account with its real balance, and the confirmation email names the space.

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What claiming does

You do not move anything. anona login attaches your new account to the workspace that already holds the agent’s memories, and renames that workspace to the organization name you chose at signup. Afterwards it is an ordinary account, indistinguishable from one that signed up first.
  • The ceiling rises from 1,000 to 5,000 credits.
  • Credits already spent carry over. A profile that used 800 credits has 4,200 left, not 5,000. The allowance cannot be collected twice by claiming.
  • The memories are the same ones. Nothing is copied, so nothing is lost or duplicated.
  • The temporary token is destroyed. Whatever the agent was holding stops working, and you use the account’s own sign-in or an API key from here on.
  • A confirmation email names the space and your real balance.

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Claiming needs a new account

Claiming works because you have no workspace of your own yet. If you sign in with an address that already has an Anona account, the claim is refused with claim_needs_new_account (HTTP 409), and the profile’s memories cannot be moved into the existing account. Sign up with an address that has never been used for Anona, or let the profile expire. An account that has already done things (created an API key, recorded usage, invited a colleague, or subscribed) counts as having a workspace of its own, even if it was created recently.

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Check the credit ceiling

The temporary token can read its own balance. The figures in the reply below are illustrative:
The token is in ~/.anona/credentials.json under temp_token. Treat it like an API key: anyone holding it can read and write the profile. Past the ceiling, metered calls are refused in the standard error envelope with a lowercase code; see error codes. Read it before and after claiming to see the effect. In the first production run, 11 credits used before the claim read 5000 limit / 11 used / 4989 remaining after it. The temporary token stops working once claimed, so after the claim make the same call with an API key from the dashboard.

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Abandoning one

anona logout refuses to delete a live unclaimed profile, because the token exists nowhere else and deleting the file strands the profile and everything in it until the server removes it:
Signing in to a different server with anona login --base-url ... also replaces the stored profile. It prints a note first.

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Failure modes