Quickstart

After installation, stay in the CLI. The supported path is short on purpose: set up identity once, create your first elephant, confirm readiness, and come back to the same elephant through wake whenever you need it.

Path overview

Step	Command	Done when...
Install	curl -fsSL https://elephant.agentic-in.ai/install.sh | bash	elephant is on your PATH.
Initialize	elephant init	Your first elephant and provider posture exist.
Check readiness	elephant status	Provider and embedding readiness are clear.
Continue	elephant wake	You are in the durable chat surface.

tip

After the first setup, elephant wake is the normal daily entrypoint.

1. Run init

elephant init

init is the first-use setup flow. It:

• binds the local identity
• lets you choose a personality preset
• grows the first elephant with a clean Personal Model
• captures the active provider configuration before real conversations begin
• prepares the first named elephant so wake is the natural next step
• surfaces the IM handoff so elephant gateway setup can open the IM chooser without leaving the main setup flow

2. Confirm readiness

elephant status

Use status before the first durable conversation. It tells you whether the active provider and local runtime posture are ready to go.

3. Enter wake

elephant wake

wake is the main conversational surface. That is where continuity stays alive and your elephant keeps learning.

Optional next steps

If you want to...	Run	Read
Inspect what Elephant Agent understands	elephant dashboard	Dashboard
Wire a messaging app	elephant gateway setup	Messaging
Install or inspect skills	elephant skills or /skills	Skills
Choose a provider or model	elephant provider or /providers	Providers and models

Wire IM

elephant gateway setup

Use this entrypoint when you want to choose an IM surface, configure it, or inspect IM readiness without remembering the provider-specific setup commands.

4. Create another elephant only when you need one

elephant herd new nova

Each elephant is an isolated Elephant Agent individual with its own continuity line, personality drift, and future wake history.

warning

Do not create a new elephant for every task. Create one when you want a separate continuity line.

Optional: non-interactive setup

For scripted setup, you can preconfigure the provider path directly:

elephant init --non-interactive \
  --elephant-name nova \
  --provider-id openai-compatible

For deeper provider setup, continue with Providers and models.