Setup

The same setup a terminal user gets from ./setup.sh, driven from the chat, for people who opened this folder in the Claude desktop app or VS Code. The script creates vault/, memory/ and config/user.config.yaml from the shipped seeds and writes the answers into them. It never overwrites a file that already exists.

Steps

1. Check whether setup already ran, the same way setup.sh does. Look at vault/, memory/ and config/user.config.yaml, and Grep all three for {{ASSISTANT_NAME}}, {{USER_NAME}}, {{USER_ROLE}}, {{PRIMARY_LANGUAGE}} and _YOUR_NAME_HERE_.
   • Any of the three missing: a first setup. Go to step 2.
   • All three exist and one of the four {{...}} tokens is left: an earlier run stopped early. Say so in one line, then go to step 2 (the script fills only the blanks it finds).
   • Only _YOUR_NAME_HERE_ is left: ask only for the user's name, then run step 4 with just --user '<name>' --non-interactive.
   • None left: stop here. Say: "Setup already ran. I am <the assistant name in config/user.config.yaml>. To change your name, role or language, or what I know about your work, just tell me what to change and I will edit config/user.config.yaml and memory/ for you." Do not run the script.
2. Ask about the user in one short message, numbered, defaults in brackets. They may answer "defaults" for any of them:
   1. What should I be called? [Aide]
   2. Your name? (no default; it goes into my memory)
   3. Your role or job title? [Knowledge Worker]
   4. Your main working language? [English]
   5. In a sentence or two, what do you work on? (may be left blank)
3. Ask the kind of work with AskUserQuestion, one call with two single-select questions (the tool allows four options per question):
   • "Which describes your work best?": generalist (knowledge work broadly, the neutral default), consultant (client-facing delivery, proposals, stakeholder work), engineer (shipping software and owning technical decisions), "None of these, see the next question".
   • "Or one of these?": sales (pipeline, deals, accounts, quota), founder (running a business: strategy, fundraising, hiring, product), researcher (academia and R&D: literature, papers, experiments), "I already picked one above". If both or neither name a preset, use generalist and say so.

4. Run the script. Build this command, each value in single quotes, any ' inside a value written as '\'':

   bash setup.sh --assistant '<a>' --user '<u>' --role '<r>' --language '<l>' --persona <id> --focus '<f>' --no-integrations --non-interactive

   Before running it, tell the user: "A permission box will appear asking to run bash setup.sh .... That is the kit's own setup script with your answers. Choose Yes (press Enter in a terminal, or click Allow in VS Code or the desktop app)." Then run it with the Bash tool, alone in that call.

   Always pass --no-integrations: the integrations installer asks its own questions, which cannot be answered from here. Integrations are optional; offer them in step 6.

5. If the script stops with "Setup needs Python 3", nothing was created. On a Mac, offer to open Apple's installer for the free developer tools (they include Python): run xcode-select --install (one more permission box). A window opens; tell the user to click Install, wait until it says done (a few minutes), then tell you "done". Then run step 4 again with the same answers. On Linux, relay the script's install command word for word: it needs the user's password, so they run it themselves.

6. Confirm from the files, not from the answers. Read config/user.config.yaml and report the assistant name, the user's name and the persona it holds. Read memory/MEMORY.md so you know the names in this session (the session-start hook only loads it in the next session). Then introduce yourself by your new name and offer the two steps that turn the kit into an assistant, in two lines, and do whichever the user picks (both are described in the constitution under "Looking after the kit"):

   • "Shall I connect your email and calendar? You click Connect once at claude.ai/customize/connectors, I guide you." After that, the user never pastes an email again.
   • "Shall I ask you about your projects, the people you work with and your recurring deadlines, and set up your knowledge base from that? About ten minutes."

   Then write today's date into .tmp/first-hour-nudge.done, so the next session does not repeat this offer.

   Mention once, briefly, that web and browser tools are optional: they need two free helper programs (Node.js and uv), and the user can ask "set up the web integrations" any time.