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Docs/Getting Started/Quickstart
Getting Started

Quickstart

The fastest path from nothing to a working agent — install, pick a provider, open the chat — in under two minutes.

1. Install

curl -fsSL https://useflowlyapp.com/install.sh | bash   # macOS / Linux
# Windows: irm https://useflowlyapp.com/install.ps1 | iex

The script manages Python for you (via uv) and installs Flowly as a git checkout, so flowly update pulls new versions between releases. Works on macOS, Linux, and Windows. See Installation for details.

2. Pick a provider

flowly setup

flowly setup asks how to power Flowly. Quick signs you in with a Flowly account — no API key, no billing setup, no model to choose. Full opens the complete provider list if you'd rather bring your own key (OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Groq, xAI, Zhipu, Sakana, a ChatGPT or Grok subscription, or a self-hosted vLLM endpoint) and continues into channels and integrations. This is the only mandatory step — everything else is optional and can be added later.

Setup then sends one small request to check the provider actually answers, so a mistyped key or an empty balance surfaces here rather than in your first conversation. On a fresh install it opens automatically right after curl … | bash.

If you already have a key and want to skip the picker, do it in one shot:
flowly setup byok anthropic --key sk-ant-...

See Setup wizard for all subcommands.

3. Chat

flowly

Bare flowly opens the terminal chat. Type a message and the agent responds. If the gateway (the background process that actually runs your agent) isn't up, flowly starts it for you — there is no separate "start the server" step.

Inside the chat you can switch provider and model on the fly:

/provider openrouter
/model claude-sonnet-4-5

See Terminal UI for slash commands and session history.

One-shot prompts

For scripting or a single question without entering the TUI, use flowly agent:

flowly agent -m "Summarize the README in this directory"

Where to next

  • Keep Flowly running across logins and reboots: Service — flowly service install --start (optional; flowly already starts the gateway on demand)
  • Add a Telegram, Discord, or Slack bot: Channels overview
  • Tune models, tools, and behavior: Configuration
  • Control shell execution and approvals: Sandbox and approvals