Quickstart

Quickstart is the guided setup that takes you from a fresh install to a working agent in one pass. It runs on three surfaces: the CLI, the zerocode terminal interface, and the web gateway. All three drive the same underlying flow, so the config they produce is identical. Use whichever fits where you are.

Install

This builds and installs both zeroclaw and the zerocode terminal interface. Run it with no flags for an interactive picker that lets you choose the build type, which apps to install, and which optional features to compile in.

The steps

Important: if any of these terms are unfamiliar, read Getting Started → Concepts first. It defines model provider, risk profile, alias, and the rest in one place.

CLI

The fastest path on a headless box or over SSH:

sh

zeroclaw quickstart

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You answer one prompt per step in the terminal. The built-in cli channel works immediately, so Channels and Peer groups can be skipped. For an all-defaults, no-approvals config, see YOLO mode.

OpenAI Codex subscription auth

Quickstart can configure the OpenAI Codex subscription path without an API key. Authenticate once, then choose OpenAI as the provider and set Authentication to codex when prompted:

# If you already signed in with the Codex CLI:
zeroclaw auth login --model-provider openai-codex --import ~/.codex/auth.json

# Or start ZeroClaw's own OpenAI Codex login flow:
zeroclaw auth login --model-provider openai-codex

For scripted setup, openai-codex is accepted as a quickstart input alias and writes the canonical [providers.models.openai.<alias>] entry:

zeroclaw quickstart --model-provider openai-codex --model gpt-5.4 --agent assistant

Claude subscription setup-token auth

Quickstart can also configure Claude/Anthropic with a normal Console API key or a token generated by Claude Max:

claude setup-token
zeroclaw quickstart --model-provider anthropic --model claude-sonnet-4-5 --agent assistant

Choose Anthropic, set Authentication to setup_token, then paste the token from claude setup-token into the API key/token prompt. Scripted input may use --model-provider claude as an alias. Quickstart still writes the canonical [providers.models.anthropic.<alias>] entry; the token is stored through the same credential path as api_key.

zerocode

In the zerocode terminal interface, the Quickstart pane is one of the tabs. Drive it with the keyboard:

Switch to the Quickstart pane:

Inside the pane:

Mouse works too: click a tab in the mode bar to switch panes, click a step to select and open it, and scroll to move through the list.

Each step opens a modal that mirrors the checklist above, with a "Use existing" option that lists the matching aliases already in your config.

Web gateway

With the daemon running, open the dashboard in a browser:

sh

zeroclaw daemon

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zeroclaw daemon runs the full runtime: the gateway, your configured channels, the scheduler, and the heartbeat monitor. (zeroclaw gateway starts only the HTTP gateway if that is all you need.)

Then visit http://127.0.0.1:42617/quickstart. A fresh install with no agents configured redirects there automatically; afterward you can always reach it from the dashboard navigation.

The web form presents the same steps as cards. On submit it applies your submission through the daemon (POST /api/quickstart/apply), which returns a structured error list if anything is invalid, then reloads the daemon in place so the new agent is live without a restart. A separate POST /api/quickstart/validate endpoint runs the same checks without applying, for clients that want to validate first.

After Quickstart

Drive it from zerocode: the terminal interface is the best way to chat, watch live logs, manage config, and monitor the daemon, all in one place. Just run zerocode.
Quick one-off from the shell: zeroclaw agent -a <alias> -m "your message".
Run always-on: zeroclaw service install && zeroclaw service start.
Add channels later: Channels → Overview.
Tune autonomy and budgets: Reference → Config.