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Tarsk

Quickstart

import { Steps } from ‘@astrojs/starlight/components’;

This guide walks through the complete first-run experience: launching Tarsk, completing onboarding, connecting a repository, creating a thread, and sending your first message to the AI agent.

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”

  1. Launch Tarsk

    Run npx tarsk in a terminal, or open the desktop app. Tarsk starts on http://localhost:641 and the browser opens automatically.

    On first launch, the Onboarding Wizard appears.

  2. Complete the Onboarding Wizard

    The wizard has three steps:

    • Git Check — Tarsk checks whether git is installed. A green checkmark means you’re good. If you see a yellow warning, install git from git-scm.com and refresh.

    • Provider Setup — Select your preferred AI provider from the dropdown and paste your API key. You can skip this step and configure providers later in Settings, but you’ll need at least one key before chatting.

    • Model Selection — After entering a key, the wizard loads available models for your chosen provider. Check the boxes next to the models you want to use. You can change this at any time in Settings.

    Click Finish to dismiss the wizard. You won’t see it again unless you reset it.

  3. Create your first Project

    On the welcome screen, click Connect Repo. Paste the git URL of a repository you want to work on (e.g. https://github.com/your-org/your-repo.git) and click Clone.

    Tarsk clones the repository and creates a Project. If the repository has a common setup script (like npm install or bun install), a confirmation dialog appears — click Run to execute it automatically.

    Prefer to start a brand-new app? Click New App instead to scaffold from a template (React, Next.js, Vue, Svelte, and more).

  4. Create a Thread

    Click the + button next to your project name in the left sidebar. Give the thread a title — for example, “Add login page”. Tarsk:

    • Creates a fresh clone of the repository in its own directory
    • Creates a new git branch named from your title (e.g. add-login-page)
    • Opens the thread’s chat view

    Each thread is completely independent. You can create as many threads as you want on the same project and work on them simultaneously.

  5. Send your first message

    Type a message in the chat input at the bottom of the screen and press Enter (or Cmd+Enter). For example:

    “What does this project do? Summarise the main entry point.”

    The AI agent streams its response in real time. It can read files, run commands, search the codebase, and more. Watch the tool call indicators to see what it’s doing.

  6. Open in your IDE

    To edit files alongside the agent, click the Open With button in the top toolbar to open the thread’s directory in VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Xcode, Android Studio, Kiro, or a terminal.

What’s Next

Section titled “What’s Next”