Quickstart

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.

#Create your account

Open 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

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. Index your first repository

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

   GitHubTerminal

   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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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. To connect Claude Code, Codex, Kimi Code, Grok Build or Cursor, continue to Install Estelle. The native plugin needs external Node.js 22+ and the same account key for hooks and MCP; it does not require the CLI.

#Related