docs / 02

Getting started

What you need

• A computer running Windows, macOS or Linux. No graphics card is needed; an older laptop is fine.
• Node.js 20 or newer, from https://nodejs.org (the LTS version is right).
• Git (optional, recommended), from https://git-scm.com. With it, every run can be shown as a list of changes and undone.

Install

Open a terminal in the Kadhai folder and run:

npm install

This installs Kadhai's single dependency. It takes a few seconds.

Try it without an account (demo mode)

npm run demo

Open http://localhost:4747 in your browser. Demo mode simulates the models, so you can see everything work without a key: type any request in the chat on the right (for example make a small web page that says hello), press Enter, and watch the Chef plan, the cooks write files, a command wait for your approval, and the Taster review. The demo even fakes a provider running out of quota now and then, so you can see the crew switch to the next one.

Start it for real

npm start

Open http://localhost:4747. The first time, the keys dialog opens by itself. Paste a free key and press Enter; it is checked with the provider and used straight away, no restart.

Free keys, no card required:

Add keys from at least two providers if you can. Free tiers are small, and with two or more the crew simply moves to the next provider when one says "slow down".

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Or use the desktop app (Windows, beta)

The desktop app is the same Kadhai in a window of its own, with a Start-menu entry, a taskbar icon and an installer. Run Kadhai-Beta-Setup and open Kadhai Beta from the Start menu. It needs no Node.js: everything it needs is inside.

• The installer is not signed yet, so Windows may warn about an unknown publisher the first time. Choose More info, then Run anyway.
• Your keys, settings, crew and flows are kept in %APPDATA%\Kadhai Beta, separate from a copy you run with npm start. Help > Show the data folder opens it (press Alt to show the menu).
• Links to other sites, and the preview of what the crew built, open in your normal browser.
• If a run is still going when you close the window, Kadhai asks before stopping it.

To build the installer yourself, see desktop/README.md.

Your first real task

1. In the chat on the right, type what you want, for example: Make a to-do list web page where I can add and tick off items. Keep it in one HTML file.
2. Press Enter. The Chef writes a plan; you see it as an order ticket in the middle of the screen, with each step and the cook who has it.
3. If a cook wants to run a command (for example to check its code), a card appears in the chat with the exact command. Press Run to allow it or Deny to refuse. Nothing runs without your OK unless you change that.
4. When the run ends, the Chef's report appears in the chat with three buttons: View changes (every file that changed, line by line), Open preview (the page, in Kadhai's browser tab) and Undo this run.

That is the whole loop. Everything else in this guide is about doing more with it.

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Where your work goes

The crew works in the folder shown at the top of the files panel on the left. At first that is the workspace folder inside Kadhai. To work on a project of your own, click [change] at the top of the files panel and pick its folder.

This page comes from the user guide in the repository. Something unclear or wrong? Tell us.