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Quick Start

Get a personal AI assistant running in under 5 minutes.

1. Install Leo

brew install blackpaw-studio/tap/leo

go install github.com/blackpaw-studio/leo/cmd/leo@latest

See Installation for all options.

2. Run the Setup Wizard

leo setup

The interactive wizard walks you through:

  1. Creating a user profile — tells the assistant who you are
  2. Picking a workspace — the root directory for your agent's files
  3. Configuring MCP servers (optional) — integrations (calendar, email, etc.)
  4. Adding scheduled tasks (optional) — recurring jobs like daily briefings
  5. Optionally installing as a daemon — for persistence across reboots

The wizard does not install or configure any messaging channel. Leo is channel-agnostic.

3. (Optional) Install a Channel Plugin

If you want mobile access or another way to chat with your assistant, install a Claude Code channel plugin separately. For example, to enable Telegram:

claude plugin install telegram@claude-plugins-official

Follow the plugin's own setup flow to connect your bot. Then reference the plugin in leo.yaml under your assistant's template:

templates:
  assistant:
    workspace: ~/agents/assistant
    channels: [plugin:telegram@claude-plugins-official]

Leo passes the list to the spawned Claude process via the LEO_CHANNELS environment variable; the plugin owns its own auth and routing.

4. Start the Service

leo service start

Spawn the assistant agent from its template, then send it a message:

leo agent spawn assistant

Your assistant is now listening. If you configured a channel plugin, send a message to it and the agent will respond.

Background operation

leo service start runs the daemon (and everything it supervises — agents, including the ones backing persistent tasks) in the background with automatic restart. For daemon mode (persists across reboots), see Background Mode.

5. Test a Scheduled Task

If you added a task during setup, run it manually:

leo run <task-name>

If the agent has something to report, you'll receive a message on your configured channel. If there's nothing noteworthy, it outputs NO_REPLY.

6. Verify Your Schedule

Check that your scheduled tasks are loaded and see when each will fire next:

leo task list

When the daemon is running, the NEXT RUN column shows the upcoming fire time for each task. Leo runs its own in-process scheduler — there is no system crontab to install.

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