Devices + activation

Each Quay licence has a device cap — one slot for Pro, three for Pro Plus. The cap is enforced server-side at activation; once activated, the desktop app keeps a 30-day offline-valid token and doesn’t need to phone home for routine use.

What counts as a device

One device = one Quay install on one machine. Switching macOS accounts on the same Mac = one device. Reinstalling Quay = same device (Quay reuses the activation if ~/.config/quay/ is intact). A fresh OS install with an empty ~/.config/quay/ = a new device slot needed.

The activation looks at:

• Hardware ID — derived from a stable per-machine value (macOS: IOPlatformUUID; Linux: /etc/machine-id or systemd’s machine-id; Windows: registry GUID).
• OS keychain entry — Quay stores the activation token in the OS keychain, separate from connections.json.

Activating a device

1. Buy a Pro / Pro Plus plan via the portal.
2. The licence email contains your licence key (QUAY-XXXX-…).
3. In the desktop app: Settings → Account → Activate → paste the key.
4. Quay POSTs to license.quay.uncle-z.com/v1/activate → the server issues an Ed25519-signed activation token (good for 30 days offline) and increments the activated-device count.

Deactivating a slot

When you want to free a slot:

• From the device itself — Settings → Account → Deactivate this device. Releases the slot immediately.
• From the portal — Devices page shows every active slot with last-seen timestamp; click Revoke on the slot you don’t need.

A revoked device’s token stops working on next heartbeat (within 24h) or immediately if the device is online when you revoke.

Slot stuck — the “I formatted my Mac” case

You wiped the Mac without deactivating, so the slot is still “active” on the server but no device holds it. Two paths:

• Wait it out — slots auto-release if no heartbeat lands for 60 days. Cheap if you’re not in a hurry.
• Force-revoke from the portal — Devices page → “Revoke” on the ghost slot. Available immediately.

Heartbeats

Activated devices ping license.quay.uncle-z.com/v1/heartbeat once per 24h while the app is running. The heartbeat:

• Confirms the slot is still alive (resets the 60-day expiry)
• Picks up server-side licence changes (plan upgrade / downgrade / cancel taking effect)
• Refreshes the offline-valid token (extends another 30 days)

Heartbeats fail gracefully — if the network is out, Quay keeps working with the cached token until the 30-day offline window runs out. Three consecutive failed heartbeats over 7 days → in-app banner “couldn’t reach licence server” so you know.

Offline mode

The activation token is valid offline for 30 days from the last successful heartbeat. After 30 days, Quay drops to Free-tier behaviour until you reconnect — saved Pro features stay locked, existing data is untouched.

This is “offline tolerant”, not “offline forever”. Air-gapped deployments need an offline activation flow (deferred to a future enterprise tier).

Pro Plus device sharing

Pro Plus’ three slots are usually:

• Workstation
• Laptop
• Headless server (CLI for scheduled backups)

The CLI counts as a device — it shares ~/.config/quay/ (activation token included). Running the CLI on the same machine as the desktop app is one slot, not two.

Need more slots?

For team-style usage: Pro Plus’ 3 slots cover a lot. For more, email zaid.ug@gmail.com with the use case. Per-seat pricing isn’t a published plan; we’ll work something out for your setup.