/quickstart
One job: Tell a new user what AgentOps does and what to do first. Fast.
YOU MUST EXECUTE THIS WORKFLOW. Do not just describe it.
Execution Steps
Step 1: Detect setup
git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo "GIT=true" || echo "GIT=false"
command -v ao >/dev/null && echo "AO=true" || echo "AO=false"
command -v bd >/dev/null && echo "BD=true" || echo "BD=false"
[ -d .agents ] && echo "AGENTS=true" || echo "AGENTS=false"
[ -d "$HOME/.agents" ] && echo "GLOBAL_AGENTS=true" || echo "GLOBAL_AGENTS=false"
[ -n "${CODEX_THREAD_ID:-}" ] || [ "${CODEX_INTERNAL_ORIGINATOR_OVERRIDE:-}" = "Codex Desktop" ] && echo "CODEX=true" || echo "CODEX=false"
Step 2: Show what AgentOps does
Output exactly this (no additions, no diagrams):
AgentOps is the operational layer for coding agents.
It gives your coding agent four things it doesn't have by default:
Bookkeeping — sessions capture learnings, findings, and reusable context in .agents/
Validation — /council, /pre-mortem, and /vibe challenge plans and code before shipping
Primitives — skills, hooks, and the ao CLI give you building blocks for almost any interaction
Flows — /research, /implement, /validation, and /rpi can run alone or compose end to end
Key skills: /rpi /research /validation /implement /council /pre-mortem /swarm /status
Full reference: /quickstart --catalog
Step 3: One next action
Match the first row that applies. Output only that message — nothing else.
| Condition | Message |
|---|---|
| GIT=false + AO=true + GLOBAL_AGENTS=true | "🗂 You're outside a git repo but have a global corpus at ~/.agents. Global knowledge workflow:\n 1. /harvest — scan all .agents/ across your repos and promote artifacts into ~/.agents/learnings/\n 2. /compile — mine, synthesize, and write an interlinked wiki into .agents/compiled/ (runs from cwd; set AGENTOPS_COMPILE_RUNTIME=claude-cli if you have the claude CLI, no API key needed)\n 3. /knowledge-activation — turn the compiled corpus into playbooks, a belief book, and runtime briefings for future sessions\n 4. /status — flywheel health snapshot\nIf instead you want to start a fresh repo-local project here, git init first." |
| GIT=false | "⚠ Not in a git repo. Run git init first.\n (If you meant to work against your global ~/.agents corpus, run /quickstart from a dir with .agents/ or see /harvest, /compile, /knowledge-activation.)" |
| AO=false + CODEX=true | "📦 Install ao CLI first:\n brew tap boshu2/agentops https://github.com/boshu2/homebrew-agentops\n brew install agentops\n ao init && ao seed\nThen: /rpi \"a small goal\" to run your first cycle.\nCodex CLI v0.115.0+ uses native hooks by default after install; older versions can use ao codex start." |
| AO=false | "📦 Install ao CLI first:\n brew tap boshu2/agentops https://github.com/boshu2/homebrew-agentops\n brew install agentops\n ao init --hooks && ao seed\nThen: /rpi \"a small goal\" to run your first cycle." |
| AGENTS=false + CODEX=true | "🌱 ao is installed but not initialized here.\n Run /bootstrap to set up GOALS.md, PRODUCT.md, .agents/, and hooks.\n Or manually: ao init && ao seed\nThen: /rpi \"a small goal\" to run your first cycle.\nCodex CLI v0.115.0+ uses native hooks by default after install; older versions can use ao codex start." |
| AGENTS=false | "🌱 ao is installed but not initialized here.\n Run /bootstrap to set up GOALS.md, PRODUCT.md, .agents/, and hooks.\n Or manually: ao init --hooks && ao seed\nThen: /rpi \"a small goal\" to run your first cycle." |
| BD=false + CODEX=true | "✅ Codex native-hooks path ready.\n /rpi \"your goal\" — full /discovery → /crank → /validation pipeline\n /research <topic> — explore the codebase\n On Codex CLI v0.115.0+, native hooks handle startup and closeout automatically after install.\n Older versions fall back to ao codex ensure-start / ao codex ensure-stop.\n Manual escape hatch: ao codex status\n Want issue tracking? brew install boshu2/agentops/beads && bd init --prefix <prefix>" |
| BD=false | "✅ Flywheel active. Start now:\n /rpi \"your goal\" — full /discovery → /crank → /validation pipeline\n /validation — close out recent work and capture learnings\n /research <topic> — explore the codebase\n Want issue tracking? brew install boshu2/agentops/beads && bd init --prefix <prefix>" |
| BD=true + CODEX=true | "✅ Codex full stack ready.\n bd ready — see open work\n /rpi \"your goal\" — start a new goal from scratch\n On Codex CLI v0.115.0+, native hooks handle startup and closeout automatically after install.\n Older versions fall back to ao codex ensure-start / ao codex ensure-stop.\n Manual escape hatch: ao codex status" |
| BD=true | "✅ Full stack ready.\n bd ready — see open work\n /rpi \"your goal\" — start a new goal from scratch\n /status — see current session state" |
Starting a new project? Run /scaffold <language> <name> to generate project structure with best practices.
Examples
First-Time Setup
User says: /quickstart
What happens: Agent detects tools, shows one-line status, gives the single next action to run.
Already Set Up
User says: /quickstart
What happens: Agent detects full stack is ready and suggests /rpi "your goal" or bd ready.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| Skills not installed | bash <(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/boshu2/agentops/main/scripts/install.sh) |
| Codex hooks on older versions (pre-v0.115.0) | Codex CLI v0.115.0+ has native hooks. For older versions, use ao codex start to begin and ao codex stop to close out; ao codex status shows hookless lifecycle health |
| Flywheel count is 0 | First session — run /rpi "a small goal" to start it |
| Want the full skill catalog | Ask: "show me all the skills" or see references/full-catalog.md |
Reference Documents
See Also
- scaffold — Project scaffolding and component generation