Getting Started
Your first launch
Tool detection, the Home screen, and choosing local mode or an account.
The first time you open Operon, it runs a short setup flow to get you oriented. It takes less than a minute, nothing you do is permanent, and — importantly — you do not need an account to get started. This page walks through what you will see so there are no surprises.
Tip
Everything in the first-run flow can be changed later from Settings. If you are impatient, you can move through it quickly and revisit any choice down the road.
The first-run flow at a glance
- 1
Tool detection
Operon scans for the AI coding tools you already have installed and shows you which ones it found, along with a quick system health check. This is a read-only look at your PATH — Operon does not touch your files or your tool configuration here.
- 2
The welcome screen
Next you choose how you want to use Operon: as a solo developer, as part of an organization, or with no account at all. This is where you decide between local-only mode and signing in for cloud sync.
- 3
Into the app
Once you make your choice, Operon drops you into the main app, ready to open a project and start your first session.
Step one: tool detection
Operon opens on a setup screen titled around what it found installed. It automatically detects supported AI CLI tools — Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, and Aider — by looking at your PATH, and lists each one it can find as Ready to use. Tools it did not find are shown as not installed, so you know exactly what is available.
Below the tool list is a collapsible System health section. It runs a set of checks — things like whether the terminal daemon is reachable and whether the pieces Operon relies on are in good shape — and summarizes the result. If everything is green you can ignore it; if something needs attention it will say so.
Note
You do not need every tool detected to continue. If Operon finds nothing, you can still use it with a plain shell — and you can install a tool later and re-scan from Settings, under Tools & Health. Nothing on this screen leaves your machine.
When you are ready, click Continue to move on. You can always come back and re-scan after installing a new tool.
Step two: the welcome screen
The welcome screen is where you decide how Operon fits into your setup. It offers three paths, and none of them lock you in.
Path
Continue without an account
Use the complete local app — projects, sessions, the terminal, traces, analytics, everything — with zero cloud dependency. Nothing leaves your machine.
Path
Solo account
Sign in as a solo developer to unlock cloud sync across your own devices. Your sessions stay private; you choose what to share.
Path
Organization
Create or join an organization for team collaboration — shared decisions, outcomes, and project visibility. You can also enter an invite code here.
You do not need an account to start
This is worth repeating: choosing to continue without an account gives you the full-featured app, not a limited trial. Local mode is a first-class way to run Operon. Everything the desktop app does works locally. An account only adds the cloud layer — syncing your work across devices and, for teams, sharing outcomes with collaborators.
Signing in
If you do want an account, you can sign in with GitHub, with Google, or with an email and password. On signup you pick whether the account is Solo or Organization, and if you were invited to a team you can enter an invite code to join it directly.
Important
New cloud accounts may start in a pending state that waits for admin approval before some features unlock. This is a real gate on the cloud side — if you sign up and land on a "pending" screen, your account was created successfully and is simply waiting to be approved. Joining a team with an invite code bypasses this gate. It has no effect on local mode, which is available to everyone immediately.
What comes next
After the welcome screen, Operon opens the main app. From here you point it at a project directory, start a session, and drive your AI tool from the embedded terminal — with Operon capturing and organizing everything along the way.