Quickstart

Get a child coding agent running under cuekit in five minutes. This page assumes you already have Bun ≥ 1.2 and a terminal multiplexer (tmux by default; zellij or herdr also supported).

1. Install

npm install -g cuekit@latest
cuekit doctor

cuekit doctor verifies that Bun, your multiplexer, and at least one adapter (claude-code, opencode, codex, jcode, gemini, antigravity, pi) are on PATH. If something is missing, fix it before continuing.

See the full Install guide for GitHub-source installs and upgrade paths.

2. Initialize the project

In the repo where you want to delegate work:

cd /path/to/your/repo
cuekit init

This writes a safe .cuekit.yaml with prompt-safe adapter defaults and adds .cuekit/tasks/ to your .gitignore. Inspect the file before committing.

TIP

To customize submit defaults, strategies, hooks, or the multiplexer backend, see the Project Config guide.

3. Register cuekit with your MCP client

For supported agents, one command writes (or delegates to) the right config:

cuekit mcp add --agent claude-code   # also: cursor, pi, jcode

For everything else, print the stanza and paste it into the client's config file yourself:

cuekit mcp config

After updating the client config, restart the client. Full client paths and overrides → MCP Tools.

4. Submit a child task

From the CLI:

cuekit task submit \
  --objective "add retry logic to src/api/client.ts" \
  --agent_kind claude-code \
  --model sonnet \
  --cwd /path/to/your/repo

Output:

{
  "task_id": "t_abc123",
  "attach_hint": "tmux attach-session -t cuekit-task-t_abc123"
}

The child runs in a dedicated multiplexer pane. You can attach with the printed command, or skip ahead to the TUI.

5. Watch and steer

In another terminal, open the TUI cockpit:

cuekit tui

Keybindings:

Key	Action
↑/↓ or j/k	select task
a	attach to task pane (one-way; exits TUI)
t	switch tasks/teams views
s	steer selected task
c	cancel selected task
r	refresh
q / Esc	quit

Steer without attaching:

cuekit task steer --task_id t_abc123 --message "also cover exponential backoff"

6. Collect the result

When the child reports completion, fetch the normalized result:

cuekit task result --task_id t_abc123

cuekit reads from durable task_events (the source of truth) rather than the transcript tail, so this stays reliable even if the pane has scrolled past the final summary.

What just happened

• cuekit task submit spawned a child claude-code in a cuekit-task-t_abc123 multiplexer session.
• The child's progress and result events were written to ~/.cuekit/state.db and <repo>/.cuekit/tasks/t_abc123/.
• You stayed in control: cuekit did not auto-schedule, auto-steer, or auto-cancel anything.

Next steps

• Use roles to keep submits short → Agent Profiles
• Coordinate multiple children with a strategy → Team Strategies
• Call cuekit from a parent AI agent (MCP) → MCP Tools
• Pin or pre-release installs / Homebrew / source builds → Install