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Getting Started

Get Creel running in 5 minutes. By the end you'll have a personal AI agent responding to messages in a rich terminal UI.

Prerequisites

Tool What it's for Install
Python 3.12+ Runtime pyenv install 3.12
uv Fast package manager curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh \| sh
age Secrets encryption brew install age
Docker Container isolation (optional) docker.com

1. Clone and install

git clone https://github.com/creel-ai/creel.git
cd creel

# Create virtualenv and install
uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

2. Set up Anthropic credentials

You need an Anthropic API key or Claude Code auth token:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

Get one at console.anthropic.com.

claude setup-token
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=sk-ant-oat01-...

For persistent storage, encrypt it:

# Set up age encryption (one-time)
mkdir -p ~/.age
age-keygen -o ~/.age/key.txt 2> ~/.age/key.pub

# Encrypt your credentials
echo 'ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...' > secrets/anthropic.env
./scripts/encrypt-secret.sh secrets/anthropic.env
rm secrets/anthropic.env   # delete plaintext

3. Run your first task

# See what tasks are available
creel list

# Dry run — renders the prompt without calling the LLM
creel run weather_check --dry

# Full run
creel run weather_check

4. Start the daemon

The daemon runs the agent loop, scheduler, and channel plugins in the background:

# Start the daemon
creel daemon start

# Check it's running
creel daemon status

5. Chat with your agent

Attach a rich terminal UI to the running daemon:

creel attach

You'll get a full TUI with markdown rendering, status bar, multi-line input, and streaming responses. Type /help to see available commands.

Or send a one-shot message:

creel send "What's the weather today?"

# Stream the response as it generates
creel send "Summarize my calendar" --stream

6. Run on startup (optional)

Install as a macOS launchd service so Creel starts automatically:

creel daemon install

To remove: creel daemon uninstall

What's next?

- **Configure tools** --- Define tools in `agent.yaml` — calendar, email, web search, and more. Each runs in its own isolated Docker container. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Agent Configuration](../configuration/agent-config.md) - **Set up Google services** --- Connect Google Calendar, Gmail, and Drive with OAuth credentials. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Google Services](google-services.md) - **Enable container isolation** --- Run executors in Docker for per-tool security boundaries. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Container Mode](../deployment/containers.md) - **Understand the security model** --- Learn how the Guardian pipeline protects against prompt injection. [:octicons-arrow-right-24: Architecture](../architecture/overview.md)