Quickstart_

Everything you need to begin working with your agent. The full philosophy condensed into one page.

The Mindset First

Partner is a verb. You share context. You ask it to show its work. You iterate together. The partnership emerges from real work, not from pre-planning.

Before You Start

Your agent sees: everything in your workspace folder, memory files (SOUL.md, USER.md, MEMORY.md), tool credentials, and session history.

Your agent does NOT see: files outside the workspace, your browser, or anything you don't explicitly share.

Keep your workspace intentional. Clarity about what you're sharing teaches you to be precise about what you need.

Your First Conversation

Be Direct

"I want to work with you as a partner, not a tool. I'll give you real work, and I'll correct you when needed. I expect the same directness back."

Tell It About You

• Your tempo: slow and deliberate or fast and iterative?
• Your style: short answers or full context?
• What matters: accuracy or speed?
• Your technical level: where are you starting?
• What you're building: the project or the learning?

Give It Real Work

Don't test—work. Ask it to read a file, organize something, solve a real problem. The agent learns by doing.

Bad: "Help me organize my notes."

Better: "I have 200 notes scattered across three folders. Some span multiple projects. I can't find anything. What structure would help?"

Correct It

Say, "Actually, I prefer X" or "That's not quite right—here's why." Watch how it responds. That tells you everything about how feedback works between you.

If it apologizes excessively, tell it you don't want apologies. Ask: Did it update SOUL.md? Memory only exists if the agent makes a file. You're calibrating the rhythm together.

Curiosity as Practice

Ask your agent to read documentation for you. Paste a URL: "Summarize what this does, then tell me how it applies to my situation. Assume I'm at [experience level]."

Ask "What am I missing?" when stuck. Ask it why. Half the time you'll realize you left out context. Half the time you'll catch yourself being stubborn. When it's wrong: Catch it, correct it, move on.

When it mentions something interesting, follow the thread. You're not just solving today's problem—you're building your understanding.

How to Organize Your Workspace

Simple is better than complex:

workspace/
├── SOUL.md              ← Who I am
├── USER.md              ← Who you are
├── MEMORY.md            ← Long-term wisdom
├── AGENTS.md            ← How we work
├── memory/
│   ├── daily/           ← Session logs
│   └── projects/        ← Project notes
├── p-projects/          ← Active work
└── archive/             ← Finished work

Naming: Use dashes instead of spaces. Prefix with status: draft-, final-. Dates as YYYY-MM-DD.

Persistence & Memory

Session memory: What's in the current chat.

File memory: What's in the workspace.

Curated memory: Long-term context your agent learns about you.

Set up a GitHub backup repo. Use it for end-of-session snapshots, before major changes, and archives of completed work.

Your Tools

AgentMail: Send/receive emails through your agent.

Whisper: Voice-to-text transcription.

here.now: Instant static web hosting.

GitHub: Version control and backups.

Don't enable everything at once. Pick one, master it, add the next. Each tool should have a clear purpose.

The Rhythm of Partnership

Commands: Short, routine. "Check my emails." "Publish this."

Conversations: New territory. "Here's what I'm trying to do..."

Correct concisely: "Actually, I prefer X. Let's do it that way." Don't apologize, don't over-explain. Just state and move forward.

What Slowness Looks Like

Don't establish all the rules at once. Show up, do real work, correct as you go. Let the partnership define itself through actual interaction.

You're learning how you work with an agent. A system you invent now, before you know your rhythm, will need reimagining later. Start with the work. Let the system emerge.

Rushing this—trying to "optimize" before you actually work together—breaks something. It turns the agent into a tool you're configuring instead of a collaborator you're meeting.

A Simple First Project

1. Create a folder my-sample with an index.html file.
2. Write a short paragraph introducing it.
3. Initialize git and commit.
4. Push to GitHub (confirm first).
5. Publish with here.now (confirm).
6. Note the wake you leave behind.

When Something Breaks

Ask the agent to list your workspace contents. Check .herenow/state.json for recent actions. Review AGENTS.md and HEARTBEAT.md if context feels off.

If something fails, ask for a short error report and retry with tighter constraints. Most issues are context drift or permission problems—both fixable by starting smaller.