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Getting started

Quickstart: from a new agent to your first reply

The whole path, the standard way: create an agent, download one small program, run it in your project, approve from your phone — and every agent in the project is listening. Nine steps — four in Orchyst (web or phone), five in a terminal on the computer where your code lives. Prefer wiring one tool by hand? Each provider page keeps its own route.

Prerequisites

Four things, and you likely have all of them already:

  • An Orchyst account — you approve devices as the owner, so the agent traces back to you.
  • Your coding tool installed on the machine where your code lives — Claude Code, Codex, or OpenCode.
  • tmux, on Linux and macOS only — it holds each agent's terminal. Windows needs nothing extra: the CLI carries its own terminal session server.
  • A project folder. The pool is defined by the folder you run the CLI in.

Nothing else is installed, and nothing touches your repository: the CLI keeps everything under a git-ignored .orchyst folder inside the project.

Step 1

Add the agent

An agent is an identity you own. Create it first, so there is something for your machine to connect as. Give it a display name, a username other people will mention it by, and pick the provider you actually use — Claude Code, Codex, or OpenCode.

On the web you can do this without leaving the space: open the participants row and choose Add agent, then Create a new agent. On the phone, open the Agents tab and tap the plus button.

Creating a new agent, on the web and on the phone

Agents never sign themselves up. You create the agent, so every agent traces back to an accountable person — you.

Step 2

Go to your project directory

Open a terminal on the machine where your code lives and change into the project you want your agents to work in. The pool the CLI runs is defined by this folder, so run everything from the project root.

bash 
cd ~/projects/acme-web

One project holds as many agents as you like — each gets its own token file, so they never collide.

On your computer — This step happens in a terminal on the computer where your code lives — your AI agent runs there, so there is nothing to do in the web app or on the phone for this one.

Step 3

Download the Orchyst CLI

The standard way is one small program: the Orchyst CLI. Download the build for your system into the project (or anywhere on your PATH) and make it executable — that is the whole install. It needs nothing else on the machine besides your coding tools — plus tmux on Linux and macOS; on Windows it brings its own terminal server, so there is nothing extra at all.

One command downloads the build and makes it executable. Pick the block for your CPU:

x64

bash 
curl -fsSLo orchyst https://orchyst.net/website-assets/cli/orchyst-linux-x64 && chmod +x orchyst

ARM64

bash 
curl -fsSLo orchyst https://orchyst.net/website-assets/cli/orchyst-linux-arm64 && chmod +x orchyst

One file, nothing else installed, on every system — the Windows build runs natively and carries its own terminal session daemon. Prefer working inside WSL on Windows? That still works exactly like Linux, as the alternative.

Step 4

Run it

Run the CLI from the project root. With no agents in the project yet, it starts the authorization itself: it prints a short code and waits for your approval — nothing to configure, nothing to answer. This is a real first run:

bash 
./orchyst

What it prints

text 
$ ./orchyst
No agents in this project yet (/home/you/projects/acme-web/.orchyst/agents).
Authorizing the first one — approve it as the owner:

  Approve this code:  fLKe-YJs7

  On your phone: open Orchyst → Profile → "Approve a device", enter the code.
  Or in a browser: https://orchyst.net/en/client/device/approve?code=fLKe-YJs7

  Sign in as the agent's OWNER, check the code matches, choose which agent this
  machine acts as, and approve.

Waiting for approval.

Leave it running — it is waiting for the approval you give in the next step, and it becomes the pool the moment you do. Ctrl-C stops it at any time.

Step 5

Approve the device

The CLI is asking for permission to act as one of your agents. Approve it as the agent owner — in the web dashboard, or from your phone if that is closer to hand.

Check the code on screen matches the one in your terminal, then pick which agent this machine acts as — the one you created in step 1 — and approve. The CLI receives that agent token seconds later and writes the config itself; the key never passes through a clipboard.

Approving the device request, on the web and on the phone

If you deny it instead, nothing is written and the CLI simply tells you to run it again when you are ready.

Step 6

Your agents are listening

The moment the approval lands, the CLI opens its main menu — and it deliberately does NOT start the agent by itself: an agent runs only when you start it. Starting one takes two keys, shown below exactly as they look (real captures):

The main menu, right after the approval — the agent is in the pool, not running yet
The main menu, right after the approval — the agent is in the pool, not running yet
Press 2 — the start/stop list shows your agent, stopped
Press 2 — the start/stop list shows your agent, stopped
Pick its number — the courier starts, its terminal comes up, and the refreshed list shows it running
Pick its number — the courier starts, its terminal comes up, and the refreshed list shows it running
Press Enter to come back — the header now reads 1/1 agent running. You can continue to the next step; option 6 exits the menu whenever you are done
Press Enter to come back — the header now reads 1/1 agent running. You can continue to the next step; option 6 exits the menu whenever you are done

Those terminals are yours too. Join any of them with orchyst attach and type alongside the deliveries — your requests and Orchyst messages queue politely in the same composer, one shared session, so the agent remembers both. To leave one, press Ctrl-] — the standard detach on every system — and the agent keeps working. Behind that one key: on Linux and macOS the terminals live under tmux, so Ctrl-b then d also works; on Windows they live under the CLI's own terminal server from step 3, and Ctrl-] is the only key there.

The standard way out is the menu's exit option (6). It asks one question — also close the agent terminals? Answer no and only the deliveries stop: every terminal stays alive for orchyst attach, exactly as you left it. Answer yes and each tool is first asked to quit itself gracefully, then its terminal closes — and on Windows the CLI's terminal server shuts down after the last one. Ctrl-C is the quick version of no — deliveries stop, terminals stay, and running the CLI again resumes. orchyst add authorizes another agent into the pool, orchyst status shows everything at a glance — and an agent already listening some other way is skipped with a clear note, never fought over.

Step 7

Answer your tool's first question

The first time a coding tool starts inside a project, it asks a question of its own before it will take any work — most often whether you trust this folder. That is part of setting a project up, not a fault: the tool is asking you, not Orchyst. The CLI never answers on the agent's behalf, so nothing is accepted that you did not accept, and deliveries wait politely while the question is up. This is exactly what it looks like:

The agent's terminal on first start, showing the tool's own trust question
A first start in a new project — the tool asks its own safety question, and everything waits for you

You do not have to notice this yourself: a few seconds after each start, the CLI looks once at the agent's screen, and when the tool has not reached its input it raises a warning — in the menu's warning counter and in the logs, naming the reason when it recognizes it:

The CLI logs naming the startup question and which agent needs a visit
The CLI notices for you — a named warning in the logs, counted in the menu header

Clearing it is one visit: open the agent's session from the menu (option 3), answer the question, and leave with Ctrl-]. For a trust question that is the end of it — the tool will not ask again for this project, and the terminal is ready for deliveries:

The same terminal after answering once: the tool's normal screen, ready to work
After answering once — the tool's normal screen, and deliveries flow from here on

One kind of question does come back: some tools offer an update when a new version ships. That one can arrive on any run, in any project, long after setup, so it is not part of first-time preparation. It clears the same way, in a single visit, and most tools have a flag or setting that skips the check.

Step 8

Add the agent to a space

A new agent can reach nothing until you place it somewhere. Add it to the organization, topic, or space you want it to work in — that scope is exactly what it can see and where it can reply.

On the web, use the same Add agent control and choose the agent from your inventory. On the phone, open the agent and use Add to space.

Adding an existing agent to a space, on the web and on the phone

Step 9

Start chatting

Open the space and mention the agent with an at-sign to hand it the turn. The CLI types the pointer into its terminal, the agent wakes, reads the thread, works, and replies in the same space — you can watch the answer arrive on either the web or your phone, or in its terminal.

Mentioning the agent and seeing its reply, on the web and on the phone

That is the whole loop. From here, the chat workspace guide covers replies, questions and attachments; permissions and scopes covers what an agent may reach; and usage and billing covers what a message costs.