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What the agent is, what it does, how installation and updates work, and where things live on disk. Written for anyone installing or supporting the agent — IT admins, not just developers.

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What is the AssetGullak Agent?

The AssetGullak Agent is a small background program that runs on your company’s computers (Windows, macOS, or Linux) and reports device health, installed software, and status back to your AssetGullak dashboard. It also lets your IT admins run remote actions — restart a device, collect logs, run a script — without needing physical or remote-desktop access to the machine. It runs continuously as a system service, starting automatically when the computer boots, and requires no ongoing attention once installed.

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What it does

  • Device inventory — hostname, OS version, hardware specs, IP address
  • Real-time metrics — CPU, RAM, and disk usage
  • Software inventory — a list of installed applications, refreshed periodically
  • Remote commands — restart, shutdown, collect logs, run a script, refresh inventory, or update the agent itself, all triggered from your dashboard
  • Automatic updates — when your admin pushes a new agent version, it downloads, verifies, and applies it automatically, then restarts itself

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What it does NOT do

  • It does not read personal files, browsing history, or private data
  • It does not run anything unless your IT admin explicitly triggers it from the dashboard
  • It does not phone home to anywhere except your company’s AssetGullak backend

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Supported platforms

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Installing the agent

The fastest path — one command, no separate download step. Your enrollment key is already filled in on the Devices → Add → Download agent page; copy the command shown there for your OS. macOS / Linux:
Windows (PowerShell):
This automatically detects your platform, downloads the latest release, verifies its checksum, and installs it as a system service — no manual download, no separate install command to run. You’ll be prompted for your password (macOS/Linux) or see a UAC prompt (Windows) partway through, since installing a system service requires admin/root privileges. Prefer to see exactly what the script does before running it? Each command links to its own source — look for the “view script” link next to the copy button on the Download agent page.

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Manual install (alternative)

If you’d rather download the file yourself and run the install command explicitly:
  1. Go to Devices → Add → Download agent in your AssetGullak dashboard
  2. Pick your operating system and download the installer
  3. Run the install command shown on that page — it already includes your company’s enrollment key, so you shouldn’t need to type or paste anything else
The exact command looks like this (Windows example):
On macOS/Linux, this needs to run with elevated privileges:
What happens during install (either method):
  1. The agent relocates itself to a permanent location on disk (see the table below) — so it isn’t left depending on whatever folder it happened to be downloaded or run from
  2. It registers itself as a system service (Windows Service / launchd daemon / systemd unit) so it starts automatically on boot
  3. It contacts your AssetGullak backend using the enrollment key to identify itself and receive a permanent device credential
  4. The enrollment key is used once and then discarded — after that, the device has its own unique identity
  5. The device appears in your dashboard, usually within a few seconds

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Bulk deployment (Windows only, v1)

If you’re onboarding many Windows devices on the same network at once, use Devices → Add → Deploy to network instead of installing manually on each machine. This lets an already-enrolled device scan your network and push the installer to others automatically. See the separate Deploy to Network — Requirements & Troubleshooting guide for setup details.

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Uninstalling

Since the agent always installs to the same known location on each platform (see the table below), these commands work regardless of how or where you originally installed it — no need to remember or hunt for the original download. This removes the system service registration and the agent’s configuration (including its enrollment/device identity). It deliberately leaves the log files in place, in case you need them for troubleshooting after removal. A reinstall after uninstalling is treated as a brand-new device — it needs a real enrollment key again and will not resume the previous device’s identity or history. If you want to temporarily stop the agent without losing its enrollment, stop the service instead of uninstalling it (sc stop AssetGullak / sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.assetgullak.agent.plist / sudo systemctl stop assetgullak).

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Automatic updates

When your admin pushes a new version from the dashboard (Devices → [any device] → Run command → Update agent, or in bulk across many devices), the agent will:
  1. Download the new version
  2. Verify its integrity (checksum) before doing anything else
  3. Replace itself with the new version
  4. Restart automatically — this takes a few seconds, during which the device will briefly show as offline before reconnecting
You don’t need to do anything for this to happen — it’s fully automatic once triggered from the dashboard. The agent never updates itself on a timer or without being explicitly told to. Its enrollment and configuration are untouched by an update — only the binary itself is replaced.

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Where things live on disk

The agent always installs to these exact locations — regardless of where you downloaded or ran the installer from, it relocates itself here automatically as part of installing. Logs rotate daily and are named by date (e.g. agent.log.2026-07-05).

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Permissions the agent needs

The agent runs with elevated system privileges (Administrator / root) on all platforms. This is required because it needs to:
  • Read hardware and OS information not visible to a standard user account
  • Execute remote commands like restart/shutdown
  • Register itself as a boot-time system service
It does not need — and never requests — access to personal user accounts, files outside its own installation folder, or browser data.

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Frequently asked questions

Does uninstalling remove my device from the dashboard? No — the device record stays in your dashboard, just shown as offline. If you want it removed entirely, delete the device from the dashboard separately. Does uninstalling and reinstalling keep my device’s history? No — uninstall removes the device’s local configuration and identity, so a reinstall enrolls as a new device with a fresh enrollment key. If you just need to pause the agent temporarily, stop the service instead of uninstalling (see the Uninstalling section above for the exact command per platform). What happens if the agent loses network connectivity? It keeps running normally and retries reporting to the backend automatically once connectivity returns. No data about the device itself is lost during an outage — you’ll just see a gap in metrics history for that period. Can I run more than one agent per device? No — the installer will refuse to install if it detects the service is already registered on that machine. Is the executable signed? Not yet in the current release — this means Windows SmartScreen or your antivirus may show a warning the first time you run it. This is expected for now; the file is safe. Signing is planned for a future release. Where can I see what changed in a new version? Release notes are shown on the Download agent page alongside each version.