# Quickstart

> Create an account, choose solo or team setup, index your first repository, and ask Estelle a question with file and line citations.

This guide takes you from a new account to an answer about your own code. You can index through GitHub or from a local checkout with the CLI.

You need a GitHub repository, or a local Git repository and a terminal. If you want Estelle to open pull requests later, use the GitHub route and install the Estelle GitHub App as described in [GitHub](https://docs.fatelabs.ca/github).

## Create your account

Open [fatelabs.ca/signup](https://fatelabs.ca/signup). Choose **Sign up with Google**, or enter an email address and a password of at least 8 characters. Email sign-up sends a verification link; open it to activate the account and continue to setup.

If someone invited you to a team, use the invited email address. Accept the invitation from your dashboard instead of creating a separate workspace.

## Complete first-run setup

### Choose solo or team

Choose **Work solo** for your own repositories, or **Create a team** to share repository memory with teammates.

For a team, enter a name and optionally add invite emails, separated by commas or new lines. Teams require the Team plan. If you already have that plan, choose **Create team and send invites**. Otherwise, **Continue to Team plan** takes you through plan checkout before setup continues.

You can work solo now and create a team later.

### Create and save your key

Choose **Create my key**. The key identifies your account when you use the CLI or connect an MCP client with an API key.

**Limit:**

The key is shown once. Copy it into a password manager or another safe place. Estelle stores only a hash and cannot show the key again.

### Index your first repository

Choose one route. Both give Estelle source material it can cite in answers.

#### GitHub

Use GitHub when you also want Prism reviews, CI checks, or Agent mode builds that open pull requests.

Under **Or connect a GitHub repo**, enter the repository as `owner/repo` and choose **Connect**.

If GitHub is already connected, **Choose what Estelle reads** lists the repositories available to you. Select the repositories to index and choose **Sweep**. Only the selected repositories are read.

#### Terminal

Use the terminal when you want to index a local checkout without connecting the GitHub App. A local sweep can include uncommitted changes that Git can see.

From the repository root, run:

```bash
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -fsSL \
  https://github.com/uqeu/estelle-cli/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh
estelle init --key "$ESTELLE_KEY"
estelle sweep --key "$ESTELLE_KEY"
```

The setup page shows these commands with your new key already filled in. In the generic example above, `$ESTELLE_KEY` represents that key.

After the commands finish, return to setup and choose **I've run it, watch for it →**.

### Wait for the repository to arrive

Setup shows **Reading your repository** while it watches for the index. Larger repositories take longer.

You can choose **Carry on without waiting →** or **Skip to the dashboard**. Estelle needs the indexed content before it can answer questions about that code, so if your first question cannot find anything yet, wait for the sweep and try again.

### Ask your first question

Enter a question about the repository, such as:

```text
Where do we handle authentication?
How does a new order get created?
Where is the Client class defined?
```

Choose **Ask Estelle**. Results under **cited from your repo** include the source file and line. Use those citations to check the answer against the code.

If nothing matches, try the exact name of a function, class, or file that you know is in the repository. No match means Estelle did not find supporting evidence in the available index; it does not prove that the code is absent.

Choose **Go to the dashboard** when you are ready.

### Invite teammates on a Team plan

On the Team plan, enter a teammate's email and choose **Send invite**. They accept from their own dashboard and then share the team's repository memory.

You can add more people later from the team's member settings.

## Choose what to do next

The dashboard opens on the Estelle page:

- Stay in **Ask** mode when you want a cited answer without starting work.
- Switch to **Agent** mode when you want Estelle to propose a change or another action. You review and approve the proposal before it runs.

For your first code change, continue to [Your first task](https://docs.fatelabs.ca/first-task). To connect Claude Code, Codex, Kimi Code, Grok Build or Cursor, continue to [Install Estelle](https://docs.fatelabs.ca/install). The native plugin needs external Node.js 22+ and the same account key for hooks and MCP; it does not require the CLI.

## Related

- [Your first task](https://docs.fatelabs.ca/first-task): Turn a specific request into a pull request you can review.
- [Install Estelle](https://docs.fatelabs.ca/install): Set up one of the five native plugin hosts, or choose the separate CLI or MCP-only route.
- [GitHub](https://docs.fatelabs.ca/github): Choose repository access and enable pull request reviews and checks.