Choose and authenticate a backend
MAMA runs one persistent owner session with either claude or codex. Choose it in mama init, or edit agent.backend and agent.model in ~/.mama/config.yaml, then restart the daemon.
| Backend | Sign in on the daemon host | Runtime |
|---|---|---|
claude | claude auth login | Persistent Claude CLI; MAMA actions exposed through MCP |
codex | CODEX_HOME="$HOME/.mama/.codex" codex login | Codex app-server; MAMA actions exposed as native host tools |
Use a model your backend account can run. Backend authentication is separate from Telegram and connector tokens. The owner backend does not receive secret-shaped variables from the daemon environment.
Adjust a run
agent.effort, agent.max_turns, agent.timeout, agent.max_turn_ms and agent.run_token_budget control the run. Setup writes medium, 100, 600000, 3600000 and 0 respectively. agent.timeout is how long a turn may go without progress (milliseconds; any output from the runtime restarts it, so only one step longer than this stops a working turn), agent.max_turn_ms is the longest a turn may run in all, and a zero token budget imposes no run token cap. Supported effort values depend on the selected backend and model. See the configuration reference.
Codex keeps managed state under ~/.mama/.codex by default. Sign in to that home with the command above, or use your configured agent.codex_home as CODEX_HOME. The current owner assembly does not copy credentials from your usual Codex home; a plain codex login may authenticate a different home. MAMA regenerates the managed config.toml; change MAMA’s configuration rather than editing that TOML.
Keep the owner boundary intact
Both backends work in ~/.mama/workspace by default, write within that workspace, and have native web access. Claude uses sandboxed Bash, project/local settings, an empty plugin directory and a Git boundary. Codex enables native shell and web search under a workspace permission profile. The owner Codex session requires workspace-write; another agent.codex_sandbox value fails at runtime.
Both backends exclude auth.env, config.yaml, runtime/ and the managed Codex home from agent reads. Native child agents inherit the boundary. Claude child agents run within the active turn, with background tasks disabled. Catalog and native tool calls are recorded for the parent and child runs.
MAMA owns the conversation and delivery even when it uses native subagents. There is no separate user-facing agent roster to configure. See Security and Troubleshooting for credentials, login failures and tracing a turn.