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Quickstart

Five minutes from clone to a working agent kitchen.

The brigade command name is canonical. solo-mise is a deprecated alias, and the workspace config directory is .brigade (older .solo-mise installs are still read).

1. Install

Brigade supports Linux, macOS, and native Windows PowerShell. If pipx is not installed, start with the per-OS install guide.

pipx install brigade-cli
pipx ensurepath          # then open a new shell so `brigade` is on PATH
brigade setup            # installs the built-in Code and Evidence engines, digest-verified

To track main instead:

pipx install git+https://github.com/escoffier-labs/brigade

Fastest path

One command wires a repo end to end, and a second one checks the result:

brigade operator quickstart --target ./my-repo --harnesses codex
brigade operator doctor --target ./my-repo --profile local-operator

In PowerShell, the same setup can use Windows-style paths:

brigade operator quickstart --target .\my-repo --harnesses codex
brigade operator doctor --target .\my-repo --profile local-operator

Add --dry-run to either quickstart or brigade init to preview the planned steps without writing anything. Quickstart reports each step as planned in dry-run mode, and brigade init --dry-run marks files that already exist as refused-without-force. Quickstart scopes handoff source coverage, gitignore entries, and built-in tool projections to the harnesses you select; a --harnesses codex setup leaves the other harness paths alone until you add them.

Quickstart says when the memory owner was auto-selected and how to override it (--owner). The templates ship an inactive hooks/pre-push hook that runs Brigade’s embedded content guard through brigade scrub. Brigade never activates hooks itself, and operator doctor --profile local-operator treats the inactive hook as advisory rather than blocking (the strict internal-dogfood profile still blocks on it).

Interactive install

Prefer prompts? Run brigade init with no flags:

$ brigade init --target ~/agent-kitchen

Which harnesses do you use? (type numbers separated by space/comma to toggle, enter to confirm)
  [x]  1. Claude Code
  [ ]  2. Codex
  [ ]  3. OpenCode
  [ ]  4. Antigravity
  [ ]  5. Pi
  [ ]  6. Cursor
  [ ]  7. Aider
  [ ]  8. Goose
  [ ]  9. Continue
  [ ] 10. GitHub Copilot CLI
  [ ] 11. Qwen Code
  [ ] 12. Kimi Code
  [ ] 13. AdaL
  [ ] 14. OpenHands
  [ ] 15. Grok CLI
  [ ] 16. Amp
  [ ] 17. Crush
  [ ] 18. OpenClaw
  [ ] 19. Hermes

Depth? (type a number, enter for default)
  * 1. repo       (handoff flow + publish guard)
    2. workspace  (full home: MEMORY.md, TOOLS.md, USER.md, ...)

Add-ons? (type numbers separated by space/comma to toggle, enter to confirm)
  [ ] 1. publisher  (extra content guard policies for blog/social/docs)

Defaults are the claude harness, repo depth, and no includes. Enter ships the install.

CI / scripted install

Pass flags directly to skip the prompt:

# Claude Code + Codex + OpenClaw, full workspace
brigade init --target ~/agent-kitchen \
  --depth workspace \
  --harnesses claude,codex,openclaw

# Codex-only project, minimal install
brigade init --target ./my-project --depth repo --harnesses codex

# Generic layout, no harness-specific files
brigade init --target ./my-project --harnesses none

Verifying

After install, brigade doctor --target <path> reports the apparent harness shape and checks every configured inbox and adapter:

brigade doctor: target /home/you/agent-kitchen
  harnesses: claude, codex, openclaw (owner=openclaw, depth=workspace)
  [ok]   bootstrap: AGENTS.md   /home/you/agent-kitchen/AGENTS.md
  [ok]   handoff: claude inbox  /home/you/agent-kitchen/.claude/memory-handoffs
  [ok]   handoff: codex inbox   /home/you/agent-kitchen/.codex/memory-handoffs
  [ok]   openclaw: config        /home/you/.openclaw/openclaw.json
  ...

A [fail] line means the install is incomplete; [warn] is informational; [todo] means the check needs your attention.

Reconfiguring

To change which harnesses are installed on an existing target:

# Add a harness
brigade reconfigure --target . --harnesses claude,codex

# Drop one (without removing its files)
brigade reconfigure --target . --harnesses claude

# Drop one and remove its files
brigade reconfigure --target . --harnesses claude --prune

The handoff flow

Write a handoff with the CLI (one of --content or --content-file is required), then check the wiring:

brigade handoff draft --target ./my-repo --inbox codex \
  --title "What changed" \
  --summary "Short note future agents should know." \
  --content "The durable note itself goes here."
brigade handoff lint --target ./my-repo
brigade handoff doctor --target ./my-repo

The starter handoff template lives at <inbox>/TEMPLATE.md. Agents can also copy it to a new dated file (for example, 2026-05-16-1430-fixed-X.md) and fill it in. The ingester promotes safe card handoffs into memory/cards/, appends targeted updates to the right file, and kicks ambiguous material to the review inbox.

Already have handoff-style notes in your own format? brigade handoff migrate --target . shows which ones convert cleanly into the Brigade template; --apply rewrites them and preserves the originals.

Inbox folders stay local except each inbox’s TEMPLATE.md, which is deliberately un-ignored so the handoff format travels with the repo. A ?? .codex/ in git status is just that template. If a global gitignore entry like .claude/ shadows the template (which git cannot override), brigade operator verify-harness detects and reports it.

See the Solo Cookbook for the longer-form guidance on what makes a good handoff and when to use which routing.

Next steps