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Getting Started

In this tutorial, you'll clone the VlinderCLI repository, build it from source, and run your first command.

Time: ~15 minutes

Prerequisites: macOS or Linux, a terminal. All other dependencies are installed in Step 1.

Step 1: Install Prerequisites

Follow the Installation guide to install:

  • Rust toolchain (via rustup)
  • protobuf-compiler
  • NATS
  • Podman
  • Ollama (if your agents use LLMs)

Step 2: Clone and Build

bash git clone https://github.com/vlindercli/vlindercli.git cd vlindercli cargo build --release export PATH="$PWD/target/release:$PATH"

Step 3: Bootstrap

Create the config directory and a minimal config file. See Installation — Bootstrap for the full config template.

bash mkdir -p ~/.vlinder/{agents,conversations,logs}

Create ~/.vlinder/config.toml with at least [queue] and [state] sections.

Step 4: Start Services

You need three terminals:

Terminal 1 — NATS: bash nats-server -js

Terminal 2 — Ollama (if using LLM agents): bash ollama serve

Terminal 3 — Vlinder daemon: bash vlinderd

Step 5: Verify

In a fourth terminal:

bash vlinder agent list

You should see an empty list — no agents deployed yet.

Next Steps