Getting startedInstall the binary, point Grid Console at the folder where your code lives, and it discovers your projects. The tour then runs a real card through all seven stages on a demo project, so the first loop you watch is work, not a screenshot.1. InstallGrid Console is a single local binary. There is no server to run and nothing to configure before first launch. macOS 14+, Linux, and Windows through WSL 2.# macOSbrew install gridconsole/tap/grid# Linuxcurl -fsSL https://gridconsole.dev/install.sh | shgrid --version # 0.1.0
2. Pick a working directoryOn first launch you choose one folder: the place your repositories already live, for example ~/code. Grid Console scans it and lists every project it finds. It never moves, renames or reorganises anything.A project is a parent folder with one or more repository folders beneath it. That is the whole opinion: a card often spans repos, and a worktree needs somewhere to live that is not inside one of them. If a folder is a bare repo with no parent, Grid Console offers to wrap it for you. How each repo builds, tests and starts is discovered (Makefile, justfile, Taskfile, npm scripts, Cargo, Gradle, Docker Compose, or a grid.toml you write), and a context file is generated on request, never required.3. Let it configure the projectOpen a project and press Auto-configure project. An agent session reads the repositories, then writes the things that make later cards work: a context file at the project root (CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, or whatever the active provider reads), a grid.toml recording how each repo builds, tests and starts where discovery came up short, and an initial memory file. You review the result before it is saved, like any other plan, and you can decline all of it: Prepare then asks more questions instead.IT WRITESWHY IT MATTERSContext fileTells the agent what the project is, how the repos relate, and that it is running inside Grid Console with stages and card contracts.Commands per repostart, test, lint, discovered from whatever the repo already uses or declared in grid.toml. Review starts the app locally; Verify runs the suite. run = "none" is a valid answer.MemoryFacts, decisions, runbook and environment, so the next card does not rediscover the same things.
4. The tour and the demo projectWhen you create a workspace, Grid Console offers to add a demo project. Say yes and it sets one up for you: a small Vue storefront under ~/.grid/demo/ with its own npm scripts and no network calls, and a board already populated with cards spread across the stages, so nothing is empty and every view has something to show. It is there to try the product on: approve a plan, answer a question, review a diff, rewind a change, all without touching your own code. Say no and the option stays in Settings → Workspace for later.The tour is not a slideshow: it drives the real interface, highlighting one region at a time, across the board, the session view and the code view. It runs on the demo project when you have one, and on your own board when you do not. Five of the demo cards are chosen to show one thing each:·A typo: one line, so you watch a card cross all seven stages in about a minute.·A colour change: Prepare asks a single question, so you meet the plan gate.·Dark mode: touches six files, which is where the code view starts earning its keep.·A failing test: Verify goes red and hands the card back to you.·Add a stage: edits the workflow document, so you see stage contracts change.The rest of the demo board is deliberately mid-flight: cards sitting in Inbox, one waiting on a plan in Prepare, two agents Doing, a Review with a diff to approve and a local URL, and a couple already Closed with memory written. That way the glow, the rail, the attention grouping and the code view all have real material the moment you land.Replay the tour any time from the ? in the menu bar. Reset the demo project to its starting state, or delete it outright, from Settings → Workspace: either way your own repositories are never touched.5. Your first real cardPress ⌘N, write one or two sentences, pick the project. Leave the model and effort on Default: Grid Console advises based on the description, and you can override. The card lands in Inbox. Move it to Prepare and the agent reads the repo and writes a plan; you approve, and it builds.ALPHAThe alpha runs on one machine with no sync, no team workspace and no phone app. The marketplace opens with the public beta.