Beam

Start here

Getting started

Run Beam on your own computer, finish setup, name your business and try each role.

Beam runs on your own computer with one command, rer. Nothing needs an account with anyone, and no email leaves your computer while you try it.

Install rer and start Beam

Install the Run Edit Run command once per computer, then get Beam and start it:

curl -fsSL https://runeditrun.com/install.sh | sh
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
git clone https://github.com/just-every/run-beam.git beam
cd beam && rer dev

You can also install rer with npm install -g @runeditrun/rer. Beam needs Node 22 or later and pnpm 10.12.4, on macOS, Linux or Windows with WSL2; rer selects the exact versions itself.

rer dev installs everything, makes you the owner and prints a link that opens Beam signed in. The link is a key to your copy of Beam: open it on this computer and do not share it.

If you want to choose the owner's email address yourself first, run setup before rer dev:

rer setup --owner-email you@example.com

Finish setup

The first time you open Beam as the owner you see Finish setup. Check the name and email of the owner account, tick I confirm this owner account is ready to use. and press Finish setup.

Beam then asks you to Set up your business: its name and the time zone for due dates. Every due date in Beam is a time in a named time zone, so a deadline of 5:00 pm means 5:00 pm where your team works. You can change both later under Business settings.

Try each role

While rer dev is running, open Beam as one of four example staff members, each a real local person with their own roles:

rer dev --as learner    # Sam Lee, new staff
rer dev --as author     # Ana Ruiz, author and learner
rer dev --as reviewer   # Priya Shah, reviewer and learner
rer dev --as manager    # Tom Okafor, manager, assessor and learner

Each prints a fresh link for that person. To use the ordinary emailed sign-in instead, start with rer dev --login: Beam prints the address of its local outbox, where every sign-in message waits for you to open it.

Stop and start again

Stop Beam with Ctrl-C or rer dev --stop. Your data stays in the folder; the next rer dev picks up where you left off.

Where to go next