Get your family's Chore Coin running in about 15 minutes. Written for parents who have never opened Terminal before.
Two things:
CHRC-A1B2-C3D4-E5F6-G7H8. It's in the welcome email you got when you bought Chore Coin. If you can't find that email, search your inbox for "Chore Coin license."Which one should I pick? If you have a spare laptop, that's the easiest — you already know how to use it. If you don't, the $15 Raspberry Pi Zero 2W is what most families choose. Plug it into a wall outlet, connect it to your Wi-Fi, and forget it exists.
There are two ways to get Chore Coin running. Pick whichever feels less scary:
Both paths do exactly the same thing under the hood. Both take about the same amount of time. Pick the one you're more comfortable with:
You'll download one small file, double-click it, and answer one prompt. Total time: under a minute.
Click this link on your Mac: install-chorecoin-mac.command
Safari will download it to your Downloads folder. If Safari asks whether to allow the download, click Allow.
Open your Downloads folder and double-click install-chorecoin-mac.command.
You'll see this warning the first time:
"install-chorecoin-mac.command" cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.
This is macOS being cautious about any file downloaded from the internet. Chore Coin isn't a Mac App Store app (that would add a $99/year Apple fee to your $20 price), so this warning is expected. Here's how to click past it:
On older macOS versions (Monterey and earlier) you can instead right-click the file → Open → click Open in the confirmation dialog. Same result, fewer clicks.
You only need to do this once. After allowing it, the file will double-click normally forever.
A Terminal window opens showing:
🪙 Chore Coin — Mac Installer This will download and install Chore Coin on your Mac. It takes about 30 seconds. You'll see progress as it works. Press Return to begin, or close this window to cancel.
Press Return, paste your license key from the welcome email, press Return again, and wait about 30 seconds. Skip to "Finish setup in your browser" when it's done.
Works on Windows 10 (recent build) and Windows 11. Same idea as Mac — download, double-click, answer prompts.
Click this link on your Windows PC: install-chorecoin-windows.bat
Edge, Chrome, or Firefox will save it to your Downloads folder. If your browser warns that "this file may harm your computer," click Keep or Keep anyway. It won't — it's just a plain-text script (you can open it in Notepad and read it yourself if you want).
Open your Downloads folder and double-click install-chorecoin-windows.bat.
You'll see this warning the first time:
"Windows protected your PC. Microsoft Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting."
This is Windows SmartScreen being cautious about any file downloaded from the internet. Same reason as Mac — we're not paying for an EV code-signing certificate ($300/year) to keep your license price at $20. Here's how to click past it:
You only need to do this once. After allowing it, the file will double-click normally forever.
A Command Prompt window opens showing the welcome screen. Press any key, paste your license key from the welcome email, press Enter, and wait about 30 seconds. Skip to "Finish setup in your browser" when it's done.
Windows-specific note: Chore Coin will start automatically every time you log in to Windows. If you sign out of Windows or your computer restarts, Chore Coin will start again the next time you log in. If you want Chore Coin to keep running while nobody is logged in, you'll need a slightly different setup — email us and we'll help.
Works best on Raspberry Pi OS Desktop, Ubuntu, or any Linux with a graphical file manager. If your Pi is headless (no screen), see the classic Terminal path instead — it's faster over SSH anyway.
Right-click install-chorecoin-pi.sh and choose Save link as…. Save it to your Downloads or Desktop.
Right-click the downloaded file → Properties → Permissions tab → check Allow executing file as program → close.
(On Ubuntu the toggle is named "Execute: Allow executing file as program." Similar wording elsewhere.)
Double-click the file. Raspberry Pi OS will ask what to do — pick Execute in Terminal. On other Linux distros it may just run.
If double-clicking opens the script in a text editor instead of running it, right-click and pick Open in Terminal or Run in Terminal from the menu.
A Terminal window opens with the Chore Coin welcome screen. Press Return, paste your license key, press Return again, and wait about 30 seconds. Skip to "Finish setup in your browser".
Prefer to skip the download-and-double-click and just paste a command? This is the same install, done in one line.
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/danielhemp/chore-coin/main/install.sh | \ CHORECOIN_LICENSE=CHRC-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX sh
$env:CHORECOIN_LICENSE = 'CHRC-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX' iwr -UseBasicParsing https://raw.githubusercontent.com/danielhemp/chore-coin/main/install.ps1 | iex
Text scrolls by for about 30 seconds. You'll see messages like ✓ license key accepted, ✓ checksum verified, ✓ installed, and finally:
Chore Coin is running. Open in your browser: http://127.0.0.1:8090
You're 90% done. Copy that URL and continue to the next section.
Something error out? Skip to "If something goes wrong" at the bottom. It covers every failure we've seen and how to fix each in under a minute.
Open the address the installer printed (usually http://127.0.0.1:8090) in Safari, Chrome, or Firefox. You'll see a welcome screen with three steps.
Your license key should already be filled in (the installer handed it to the wizard for you). Click Next →.
This account is only for the low-level database screen you'll almost never look at. Suggestions:
admin@family.local). Doesn't have to be real.This is what you'll actually use every day.
Click Finish setup. You'll be signed in automatically and dropped on the app's main screen.
Chore Coin is now installed and running on your home computer. The rest of this guide covers adding your family and putting Chore Coin on everyone's phone.
alex).Repeat for each kid. You can go back and change any of this later.
There are two kinds of chores:
The everyday things each kid needs to do to earn their 60 minutes of screen time. Make the list short — 4 or 5 things works well. Examples:
To add base chores: Chores → Base → + Add, then pick which kid it's for.
Extra jobs kids can do for coins. Give each one a coin value and (optionally) a daily cap. Examples:
To add bonus chores: Chores → Bonus → + Add.
Optional: set up things kids can spend coins on beyond screen time. Examples:
To add rewards: Rewards → + Add.
Start small. Add 3-4 base chores and 3 bonus chores to begin with. You can always add more once you see what your kids actually engage with.
Chore Coin isn't in the App Store — you install it by adding a shortcut from your browser. It's just as good, and skips App Store approvals and family sharing headaches.
http://[your-computer-name].local:8090. If that doesn't work, use the IP address the installer printed.A Chore Coin icon now sits on the home screen just like any other app.
For the family kitchen tablet: in the parent app, go to Settings → Dashboards → Add a dashboard. Give it a name like "Kitchen tablet", pick a username (e.g. kitchen), and set a PIN. Sign the tablet in with those credentials, add it to the home screen, put the tablet on the counter — and everyone can see today's chores + everyone's coin balances at a glance. Dashboard accounts can see everything and submit chores on any kid's behalf, but can't approve, adjust, or manage — so anyone walking up to the kitchen tablet can't accidentally break anything.
Nine times out of ten it's one of these. Try the fix, then re-run the install command.
What it means: you didn't paste your key into the command, or you pasted a fake one like CHRC-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.
Fix: open your welcome email, copy the real key (the one that starts with CHRC- followed by 16 random letters + numbers), and paste it in place of CHRC-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.
What it means: the key got mangled during copy-paste — usually an extra space at the start or end, or a line break in the middle.
Fix: re-copy the key straight from your email. It's always 24 characters total, in the shape CHRC-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX. No spaces, no line breaks.
What it means: the Pi is refusing your SSH key.
Fix: on the Pi itself (with keyboard + monitor plugged in), enable SSH password auth: sudo raspi-config → Interface Options → SSH → Enable. Then try SSH again with the Pi's password.
What it means: curl isn't installed. On a Mac this shouldn't happen. On Linux/Pi it can happen on very minimal images.
Fix (Linux/Pi): run sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y curl, then run the install command again.
What it means: the installer needs to write to a system folder and doesn't have permission.
Fix: your Mac/Linux account needs to be an admin. On a Mac: System Settings → Users & Groups — your account should show "Administrator" under your name. If it doesn't, sign in as an admin account and re-run.
What it means: the installer finished but the app didn't start up in time. Usually a port conflict — something else is already using port 8090.
Fix: re-run the install command with a different port:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/danielhemp/chore-coin/main/install.sh | \ CHORECOIN_LICENSE=your-key-here CHORECOIN_PORT=8091 shThen open
http://127.0.0.1:8091 instead.
Fix: Wait 30 seconds and try again — the service takes a moment to start on first boot. If it still won't load, check the app is actually running:
launchctl list | grep chorecoin should show a line.systemctl status chorecoin should say "active (running)."If it doesn't, run tail -f ~/Library/Logs/chorecoin/chorecoin.err (Mac) or journalctl -u chorecoin -n 50 (Linux) and email us what you see.
What it means: the phone needs to be on the same Wi-Fi network as the computer running Chore Coin.
Fix: make sure both are on the same Wi-Fi. Then find your home computer's name — on Mac it's in System Settings → General → About → Local hostname (e.g. macbook-air.local). On the phone, open Safari and go to http://[that-name].local:8090.
If that doesn't work, use the IP address instead: on Mac, hold Option and click the Wi-Fi icon in the menu bar — the IP address is shown at the top. Then on the phone go to http://[that-ip]:8090.
If your problem isn't in the troubleshooting list above: