Install & activate your licence
One licence covers one deployment. Your key arrives by email when you purchase. This page mirrors the PDF that ships with every order.
1. Install
You need Python 3.14+, uv, Chromium, and an OpenAI-compatible LLM endpoint you control (llama.cpp, Ollama, or LM Studio).
# get the code and dependencies
git clone https://github.com/tancat-ai/tancat
cd tancat && uv sync && playwright install chromium
# start the UI (or: bash launch_cli.sh)
bash launch_ui.sh
2. Activate the licence
Give the key to the deployment in any one of these three ways. The order below is also the order the product reads them in, so the environment variable wins if more than one is set.
Best for CI and containerised runs. The key is passed inline and never written to disk.
AITEST_LICENSE_KEY="<your key>" bash launch_ui.sh
Keep the key anywhere and name the path. Good when your secret store writes a file.
cp license.key /etc/tancat/license.key
AITEST_LICENSE_FILE=/etc/tancat/license.key bash launch_ui.sh
Save the key at the default location and start the app normally. No environment variable needed.
mkdir -p ~/.ai-test-gen
cp license.key ~/.ai-test-gen/license.key
bash launch_ui.sh
On Windows, ~ is %USERPROFILE%, so the file is %USERPROFILE%\.ai-test-gen\license.key.
3. Check it worked
Open the UI and look at the License & Usage panel in the sidebar.
License valid — pro tier (deployment acme-prod).
The panel then shows Runs: <n> (unlimited) and Evidence exports: <n> (unlimited). The deployment id in the line is the one your key was issued for.
The product keeps working on the free tier and says so. It never locks you out of the open-source core. If you expected Pro and see the free-tier line, check that the key file has no extra blank lines and that nothing else is also setting a licence route.
In CI
Add the token as a secret (for example a GitHub Actions secret) and expose it as AITEST_LICENSE_KEY. Nothing is written to disk and no network call is made to validate it: verification is offline against the trusted public key that ships with the product.
Where your data goes
Your data stays on your machines when you point TanCat at a local or self-hosted LLM. The runtime makes outbound calls only to your configured LLM endpoint and your target site — no telemetry, no update check, no vendor call. Cloud OpenAI and OpenRouter are supported if you choose them. The licensing path adds zero outbound traffic. Verified by an audit that runs in CI: docs/security/egress-audit.md.
Updates
A licence is perpetual for the version you buy: it does not expire, and the version you hold keeps working. It includes 12 months of updates from purchase. After those 12 months, further updates are paid. Security fixes and bug fixes in the version line you bought stay free for the life of the licence.
Updates are files, not a service: they arrive on Lemon Squeezy and on the releases page, and you choose when to install them. The product makes no runtime update check and calls no vendor server.
More
- Download the install & licence PDF
- How licence keys are issued (key operations)
- Licence terms · Privacy
- hello@tancat.dev — email support and setup help, direct from the developer.