Move Forge to a New Machine

The normal path for moving to a new laptop takes two commands: forge deactivate on the old machine, then forge activate on the new one. Your license key does not change.

Before you start

• Your old machine must be powered on and reachable.
• You need your license key. Run forge license on the old machine to display it.
• If your old machine is lost, broken, or wiped, skip to Recover from a dead machine instead.

On your old machine

Step 1. Confirm which license is active:

forge license

Expected output:

tier: solo
expires: 2027-04-17
seats: 1/1 used
machine: this machine

Step 2. Deactivate this machine:

forge deactivate

Expected output:

forge: license deactivated. This machine's binding has been released.

Your license key is unchanged. The seat is now free for activation on your new machine.

Note

forge deactivate contacts the license server to release the binding. You need an internet connection. If you are behind a proxy or firewall, ensure heartbeat.forge.ironpinelabs.com is reachable on port 443.

On your new machine

Step 1. Install Forge. See Install Forge if you have not done this yet.

Step 2. Activate with your license key:

forge activate <your-license-key>

Expected output:

forge: license activated (tier: solo, expires: 2027-04-17)
forge: machine fingerprint registered (1/1 slots used)
forge: all 21 MCP tools unlocked

Step 3. Index your repo:

forge index /path/to/your/repo

That is the entire process. Your new machine is now the active binding for your license.

Troubleshooting

forge deactivate fails or hangs

If the old machine cannot reach the license server (no network, corporate proxy blocking the endpoint), deactivation may time out.

macOS / Linux

Check connectivity:

curl -I https://heartbeat.forge.ironpinelabs.com/health
# Expected: HTTP/2 200

If the request times out or returns an error, the server is not reachable from that machine. Use the portal self-service path instead — see Recover from a dead machine.

Windows

Check connectivity in PowerShell:

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://heartbeat.forge.ironpinelabs.com/health" -Method Head
# Expected: StatusCode 200

If this fails, use the portal self-service path instead — see Recover from a dead machine.

forge activate says “seat limit reached”

This means the old machine’s binding was not fully released. Two recovery paths:

1. Go back to the old machine and run forge deactivate again, then retry activation on the new machine.
2. Use the portal at https://forge.ironpinelabs.com/portal/login to manually revoke the old binding. See Recover from a dead machine.

Tip

If a binding has been inactive for 90 days, forge activate will offer to evict it automatically. You do not need to contact support in that case — just confirm the prompt.

forge activate says “invalid key”

The license key may have been re-issued during an eviction on another machine. Check your original purchase confirmation email for the key, or retrieve the currently stored key from the old machine before deactivating:

forge license --show-key