Quickstart
From download to your first measured savings in about ten minutes, most of which is a one-time model download. Four steps, one verification command, no configuration files.
1. Install the app
Download Headroom, drag it into Applications, and open it. Homebrew users can run
brew install --cask headroom instead. Headroom lives in your menu
bar; there's no window to keep open and nothing to remember to start. It keeps itself
updated in the background.
2. Let the first launch finish
On first run Headroom downloads its isolated Python runtime and a local compression model, roughly two gigabytes in total. This is a one-time cost; every later launch takes seconds. Everything runs on your machine: your prompts and code are never sent to our servers, and the model does its work locally.
3. Connect your coding agent
In the app, enable the connector for Claude Code, Codex, or both. Headroom configures your shell so the agent routes through the local proxy. One thing to know: terminals that were already open keep their old environment, so open a fresh terminal before your next session.
4. Verify and run
In the new terminal, run echo $ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL (or
$OPENAI_BASE_URL for Codex). It should print an address on
127.0.0.1:6767. Now work normally; the dashboard starts counting requests
and savings from the first prompt. If the number stays at zero, the fix is almost always
in troubleshooting, first entry.
Where to go next
How savings are measured explains what the dashboard numbers mean (and what we refuse to count). Add-ons covers the seven optional savers and why they're off by default. And auto-learning is the part of Headroom that quietly compounds while you work.
See it on your own traffic: install Headroom and run a normal session.