--- title: "Get access to Hamster OSS" description: "Sign up free, receive $15 after verifying a card, and connect your agent to a Micro instance from $9 a month. Or use an invitation credit without a card." canonical: "https://tryhamster.dev/get-access" last-updated: "2026-11-05" --- # Get access > Sign up free, receive $15 after verifying a card, and connect your agent to a Micro instance from $9 a month. Or use an invitation credit without a card. Creating an account and an organization is free. Save and verify your first eligible card to receive $15 in credit without a payment, then try a Micro instance from $9 a month (see [Pricing](https://tryhamster.dev/pricing)). If someone at Hamster invited you, claim the invitation and use its credit without a card. Your agent can also set you up. Connect it to `https://tryhamster.dev/mcp` and ask it to create a Hamster OSS instance. You sign up or sign in and approve the agent in your browser. When funds are needed, the agent gives you a link to a Stripe page where you save and verify your card without a payment, or add funds when you need them; afterwards, the dashboard tells you to return to your agent. ChatGPT instead gives you links to your organization's overview page in the dashboard, to [Pricing](https://tryhamster.dev/pricing) and to this page. See [Hamster OSS MCP server](https://tryhamster.dev/docs/mcp). If you started that way, the steps below show where you are. ## 1. Create your account Open [tryhamster.dev/signup](https://tryhamster.dev/signup) and enter your name, email and a password of at least 12 characters, including a symbol. Hamster emails you a verification code; enter it when asked, then sign in. With an invitation, open the link in your invitation email instead, or go to [tryhamster.dev/claim](https://tryhamster.dev/claim) and enter your Design Partner Code. Choose **Create account and claim**. Your invited email is filled in, and the invitation verifies it, so no second email arrives. Opening the claim page doesn't use the code; the code works once, only for the invited email, and expires after 30 days. ## 2. Create your organization Choose **New organization** and give it a name. A claimed invitation's credit goes on this organization. If your agent already started creating an instance, skip this step. It created an organization named "*your name*'s organization" for you, and that is where funds and instances go. With more than one organization, your agent has to ask which one to use. ## 3. Activate your credit Open **Payment Methods** and save and verify a card to receive $15 in starter credit. No payment is taken and automatic top-up remains off. The credit is available once per verified person, email, card and organization. If your agent gave you a Stripe setup link, complete it there instead; it is for the same organization. A Design Partner Code gives $150 by default and needs no card. If you also save an eligible first card, the credits add up to $165. Instance time, inference and storage draw from your balance. To continue when it runs low, use **Top Up** to add from $10 to $10,000, or explicitly enable **Automatic top-up**. At exhaustion, compute pauses and your data is preserved. Prices are on [Pricing](https://tryhamster.dev/pricing). ## 4. Create an instance On **Instances**, choose **New instance** and fill in: - **Name** — 4 to 30 characters. - **Address** — the first part of `
.tryhamster.dev`, in lowercase letters, digits and single hyphens. A few platform names, such as `auth`, `api` and `www`, are reserved. - **Size** — Micro (the default), Small, Medium or Large. Your email needs to be verified first. The dashboard shows each setup step while the instance starts, which can take a few minutes. Charges begin once the instance is provisioned. When setup completes, open Studio at `https://
.tryhamster.dev`. ## 5. Connect your agent In Studio, choose **Connect your agent**, or **Agents** in your settings. It shows your MCP server address, `https://
.tryhamster.dev/mcp`. - Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other clients with sign-in — add the address in the agent, sign in to your instance when it opens, and approve a project. - Clients that need a header — create a token there and send it as `Authorization: Bearer `. Studio shows the token once. Your agent's first call is the `read` tool with path `/`, which returns every path the tools accept. [Hamster OSS MCP server](https://tryhamster.dev/docs/mcp) covers client setup, and [Hamster OSS API](https://tryhamster.dev/developers) has example requests. ## Run it yourself Install the [system CLI](https://tryhamster.dev/cli) to run Hamster OSS locally or deploy it on your own cloud VM without a Hamster fee. You pay your cloud provider for any resources you use.