Printer agent
The agent is a small program you install on the computer at the till. It collects the tickets you have assigned to a cloud printer and prints them. After setup it starts on its own every time the computer boots — even when nobody has signed into Windows.
What it is
The server prepares the ticket; the agent puts it on paper. There is nothing else in between — no browser tab you have to keep open, no port you have to open on your router.
Every few seconds the agent asks "is there a ticket for me?". The connection is always made from inside out, so your venue needs no static IP, no port forwarding and no router configuration. Changing internet provider or replacing the router does not break the setup.
The ticket arrives as ESC/POS, the language the printer speaks. The agent writes it straight to the network printer or the USB cable — Windows never opens a print dialog.
If the kitchen and the bar are separate printers, each pairs with its own setup code. The server addresses every ticket to a specific printer, so two agents never take each other’s work.
When the internet goes down the tickets wait in the queue on the server. As soon as the agent is back it prints what is waiting, in order. Nothing disappears quietly.
When you need it
If your printer sits on the same network as the till and has an IP address, you do not need the agent — the system connects to the printer directly. The agent is for everywhere that is not possible.
Your thermal printer has no network socket; it hangs off a computer on a USB or serial cable. The agent runs on that computer and writes straight to the cable.
The kitchen is behind a different router, or the till runs on mobile data. The two cannot see each other, but the agent still collects the ticket through the server.
If the printer gets a new address every time the router restarts, a direct connection keeps breaking. The agent does not care what the address is.
Waiters work on tablets, but the printer is wired to the computer in the back room. The agent lives on that computer; the tablets install nothing.
Printing from the browser needs one click per ticket. If there is no one at the screen, the ticket waits. The agent needs no click.
If the printer is on the same network as the till, entering its IP address is enough — that is faster and keeps printing even when the internet is down. Install the agent only where it is actually needed.
Installing
What follows is for Windows; on macOS the only difference is opening the disk image and dragging the app into Applications. Whoever installs it needs administrator rights on that computer.
The button above downloads the installer. If Windows warns about an "unknown publisher", choose More info → Run anyway: we do not have a code signing certificate yet. Only ever download the file from this page.
Go to Management → Hardware → Add printer → Cloud agent. An eight-character code appears on screen. It is valid for 15 minutes and can be used once; if it expires, ask for another.
The agent verifies the code and scans the network for printers. Choose yours from the list — a USB printer shows up there too. It prints a test ticket immediately: if paper comes out, you picked the right device.
Setup registers the agent as a task that runs when the computer boots. You do not have to keep the program open: closing the window sends it to the system tray and it keeps printing.
After setup
Once installed, the agent is not part of your day. A small icon sits in the system tray and tells you whether it is running when you hover over it. Closing the window does not stop it — to really stop it, use Quit in the tray menu.
When something is wrong you find out from the POS, not from the agent: the Hardware screen shows when each printer last connected. A device that has been silent for 15 minutes raises a warning there, which means one of three things needs checking — power, network, or the agent.
Security and updates
A program installed on the computer at the till deserves to have its behaviour written down plainly.
The server mints a device key during pairing and the agent writes it into its own configuration file. It is never shown on screen, never emailed, and you are never asked to copy it. When the computer is retired, uninstalling is enough.
The agent only ever makes outbound connections. There is no port opened on your router and no service anyone outside can reach.
The server addresses every ticket to exactly one printer. An agent cannot ask for a ticket written for another printer — not even inside the same business.
When a new version appears the agent downloads it quietly but does not install it: installing means restarting, and restarting means a few seconds without printing. A line appears in the tray menu and it installs when you click. An unsigned package is never run.
Drag it — or focus the slider and use the arrow keys.
These are the agent’s default settings — not the result of a measurement, but the configuration itself.
Opening an account takes a few minutes. For a network printer you only enter its IP address; the system tests the connection straight away.
For a USB printer, or a printer on a different network, you install a small program. It asks for the 8-digit code shown on the POS screen and handles the rest itself.
Tell us the model you have and we will check whether it works with the agent. We do the installation together, on the phone.
We do not sell hardware; we help you buy the right device.