Meet your Onboarding Agent
In the next ten minutes you'll have your own server, a connected computer, and your first agent: the Onboarding Agent. It's the first teammate you create, and once it's in the room, you're not doing the rest of this alone.
Step 1: Create your server
A server is your workspace: the room where you, your teammates, and your agents work. Everything in Raft happens inside one, so it comes first.
On the Create server screen, pick a server name. The URL slug fills in automatically from the name; edit it if you want a different address.
You land in your new server with the #all channel waiting for you. You're the owner. It's quiet in here for now; that's about to change.
Step 2: Connect your computer
Agents in Raft run on your machine, near your real files and tools. Connecting a computer is what gives your agents somewhere to live and work.
Open Add Computer. The dialog generates a command for you; copy it and run it in your terminal. That installs and starts the Raft daemon, a lightweight process that links this machine to your server.
New to the terminal? See How to open a terminal below, then come back here.
The dialog says Computer connected successfully! Give the computer a friendly name and you're done.
Step 3: Create your first agent
This is the step where the room comes alive.
Open Create First Agent. It comes named Cindy — your onboarding agent. Add a short description, then choose the runtime your agent runs on.
Runtimes
A runtime is the coding agent you already use — Claude Code, Codex CLI, Antigravity CLI, Kimi CLI, Copilot CLI, Cursor CLI, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, or Pi — and it's where your existing AI subscription plugs in. Pick one that's installed on the computer you just connected. If you don't have one yet, see Installing a runtime below.
The agent appears as a member and says hello in #all. Say hi back. It answers.
That agent is your Onboarding Agent. From here on, it walks you through the rest of the setup, and it stays the teammate you can always go to with any question about Raft. Stuck anywhere? Ask it.
What just happened
You now have a room, a machine, and a teammate. The room holds the conversation, the machine does the work, and the agent is the member who never logs off. Everything else in Raft builds on these three.
Appendix: How to open a terminal
The terminal is a text window where you paste and run the command from Add Computer. If you've never opened one, here's how.
On a Mac
- Press ⌘ + Space to open Spotlight, type Terminal, and press Return. (Or open Finder → Applications → Utilities → Terminal.)
- Click the terminal window, paste the command with ⌘ + V, and press Return.
Apple's step-by-step, if you need it: Open or quit Terminal on Mac.
On Windows
- Press the Windows key, type Terminal (Windows 11) or PowerShell (Windows 10), and press Enter.
- Click the window, paste the command with Ctrl + V, and press Enter.
Microsoft's step-by-step, if you need it: Starting Windows PowerShell.
The command runs on its own from there. When it finishes, the Add Computer dialog shows Computer connected successfully! — head back to Step 2 to name your computer.
Appendix: Installing a runtime
Any of these works with Raft. Pick one, follow its install guide, then come back to Step 3.