Install & first run

1. Install the CLI

The stele CLI is a single binary that wires into your shell. One line installs it on macOS, Linux, or Windows, with no runtime to set up and nothing to configure. It finds the coding agents you already have and asks which ones to set Stele up for; you can re-run stele install any time to add more.

2. Sign in

Sign in once with GitHub, Google, or an email link. There's no separate account to create and no key to paste. The CLI opens your browser, you approve, and you're in.

3. Wire it into a project

Open the project in the agent you already use and run the start command once. Stele binds itself to the project, maps the codebase and any docs it finds, and builds the first record. You approve what it's about to do before it does it.

The way you invoke it depends on the harness, but the behavior is identical everywhere:

• Claude Code and Cursor. /stele:start and the other /stele:* slash commands.
• Codex, Antigravity, Copilot, Grok Build, and Kimi Code CLI. The same commands as skills (or plugin commands, depending on the host).
• OpenCode. An in-process plugin.
• Pi. A native TypeScript extension with Stele tools, automatic recall, compact terminal receipts, claimed-task status, and/stele-* prompt templates.
• Any other MCP-compatible client. Connects to the Stele MCP server directly and walks the same record.

Already have history in the repo? Backfill seeds the record from your existing code, git history, and docs. Your agent reads them and writes what it finds into the graph.

4. Keep working

That's the whole setup. From here you prompt your agent the way you always have. Before each answer, Stele quietly pulls the decisions, lessons, and risks that bear on what you asked; as work happens, it writes new knowledge and tasks back. Nothing to remember, nothing to maintain by hand.

A good first move is to ask the agent to take stock. It'll read the record and tell you where things stand.