buddylist
The welcome wizard
The first time the app starts, a wizard opens in front of the contact list. It takes about a minute and ends in your first contact:
| Page | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Welcome to buddylist | What a contact is: an AI agent working in one of your project folders. |
| Who can you talk to? | Which agents are on this computer and signed in, and what to do about one that is not. |
| How a conversation works | Worktrees, the invitations to accept or decline, the nudge, and the contact list as a status board. |
| More than one, and more than chat | Inviting a second agent, several contacts at once, the Changes tab and Create PR, and the terminal, browser and Run beside a conversation. |
| Add a project | The three ways to a project, each ending in Add a Contact. |
Back and Next go through the pages, and Skip closes the wizard at any of them.
A new install starts with nobody on the contact list: the first contact is the one for the project you pick on the last page. There is no contact made up for your home folder.
Who can you talk to?
The page lists every service, and the GitHub CLI, the way the contact list shows a contact:
| It says | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 🟢 Ready | Installed and signed in. |
| 🟠 Not signed in | Installed, without a sign-in. The line says how to sign it in. |
| ⚪ Not installed | Its command-line program was not found. The line says how to install it. |
| ⚪ Could not be checked | It did not answer within a few seconds. |
One agent that is ready is enough to start. Check again asks them all once more, after you installed one or signed in.
- Claude comes with the app, so it is only ever signed in or not, and it is signed in from this page. A sign-in from
claudein a terminal counts too, and so doesANTHROPIC_API_KEY. - Codex is asked with
codex login status. - Gemini, OpenCode and Hermes can't be asked whether they are signed in. They are ready once they are installed, and whether they are signed in shows with your first message.
- The GitHub CLI is optional. With it, a contact shows how its pull request stands, and you can pick one of your repositories to clone. One that is not signed in has a Sign in... button too: it opens the same Connect to GitHub dialog as the contact list, and the line turns to Ready once you are done in the browser.
Nothing is sent to an agent to find this out: each program is asked how it stands, and that is all. In demo mode nothing is asked either, and everyone is ready.
Signing in to Claude
Claude Code is part of the app, so there is no claude to run in a terminal unless you installed it yourself. A Claude that is not signed in has a Sign in... button on its line instead, with three ways in:
| Way | For |
|---|---|
| Claude subscription | A Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan. |
| Anthropic Console | An account that is billed for what the API uses. |
| Single sign-on (SSO) | An organization with a sign-in page of its own. |
Your browser opens on Claude's sign-in page. Once you are done there the line turns to Ready by itself: nothing is copied or pasted, and no terminal is opened. It is the sign-in Claude Code keeps for itself, so claude in a terminal is signed in by it too.
While the browser is waiting, the line says so. Cancel calls the sign-in off, and so does closing the wizard. A sign-in that did not work says why next to the button, which is there to try again.
Outside the wizard, a message to a Claude that is not signed in is answered with where to find this page: Help > Getting started.
Add a project
Open project..., Open GitHub project... and Quick start... are the three ways to a project that the contact list has under Add project. Each ends in Add a Contact with the folder filled in, and with a service that is ready picked for you. Press Enter: the contact's conversation opens, and the wizard closes.
Finish closes the wizard without a project. Contacts > Add a contact... in the contact list adds one later.
Seeing it again
Help > Getting started in the contact list opens the wizard again, whenever you like.
By itself it only ever opens for a new install: someone who already used the app is not shown it after an update. It counts as seen once its window was closed, at whichever page. Quitting the app while it is open is not that, and it opens again the next time.
The live demo has a welcome of its own and a tour, so the wizard is not part of it.