Your first 15 minutes

By the end of this you will have Rookery running and one agent that actually does something.

1. Install it

On Linux and macOS:

curl -fsSL https://rookery.cloud/install.sh | sh

On Windows, in PowerShell:

irm https://rookery.cloud/install.ps1 | iex

Prefer a container, or want to read the script first? See Docker and Linux server.

2. Set it up

rookery onboard

One interactive pass does the whole setup: it resolves the two keys and explains which one matters, creates your owner account — there is exactly one per installation — offers any missing host tools, reports the coder situation, and on Linux installs and enables the service so Rookery survives a reboot.

Anything it skips is repeated in a closing Still to do list, so a partial setup never looks like a finished one.

Note

Prefer to script it? rookery onboard --yes -u yourname -p 'a-long-password' answers every prompt. A password on the command line lands in your shell history — clear it afterwards, or change it from the interface.

Forgotten the owner password later? rookery owner reset-password -p 'new-password' works offline and needs no login.

3. Start it

On Linux, onboard already started the service. Otherwise:

rookery serve

It listens on 0.0.0.0:8080 by default. The database is created and brought up to date automatically on start — there is no separate migration step.

Open http://localhost:8080 and log in.

4. Create a workspace

A workspace is a sealed world: its own knowledge, credentials, connections and agents. You will be asked for a master password for it, and asked again every time you enter it.

Note

This password is not recoverable by design. It unlocks the workspace’s stored credentials. Put it somewhere safe before you continue.

5. Give it a model to think with

Rookery needs a model. You can point it at a coder tool you already have installed, at a hosted provider, or at a model running on your own hardware.

See Choosing a model.

6. Build your first agent

Go to Agents → New, and describe what you want in your own words. Something small and real works best:

Every morning, check whether rookery.cloud is reachable and tell me only if it isn’t.

Rookery will ask a couple of questions, then propose a plan and offer Approve & build (typing approve does the same). The button appears only once there is a plan — while it is still asking questions, the answer it wants is yours, not a click. Then it builds the agent, runs it for real, and shows you what happened before saving anything.

Where to go next

• Workspaces — what is isolated, and what that means.
• Linux server — keeping it running after you close the terminal.