Install & first run

🎬 Video for this lesson is in production — the written walkthrough below covers everything in the meantime.

⏱ 6 minLevel: introTrack 1 · Your first hour

In this lesson: get askTheodor running and understand what you’re looking at on first launch.

What you’ll do

1. Download and open askTheodor.
2. Take in the Village — your (currently empty) company, seen from above.
3. Connect one AI provider so your workers can think.

1. Download & launch

Grab the latest build for your platform and open it. askTheodor is a local-first desktop app — it runs entirely on your machine, and your data stays there. A 7-day full-feature trial starts on first launch; no account required to look around.

2. The Village

The first thing you land on is The Village — a painted, top-down map of your workspace. Right now it’s quiet: no Companies, no workers, just the wall and the gates. That’s expected. By the end of Track 1 there’ll be a hut on this map with your first worker in it.

Why a map?

askTheodor models real work as a small organisation — Companies are neighborhoods, workers are residents, Kafenio is the tavern where the team talks. The map keeps a growing workforce legible at a glance.

3. Connect a brain

Workers think using an AI provider you choose. Open Settings → Models / Providers and connect one (paste an API key, or point at a local model). You can mix providers later — a frontier model for the strategist, a cheap or local one for routine clerks — but one is enough to start.

Try it

Connect a single provider now. You don’t need to configure anything else — the defaults are sensible, and the next lesson puts your provider to work.

Recap

You’ve installed a local-first app, met the Village, and given your future workers something to think with. Next: meet Theodor, the one worker who’s already here.

➡️ Next: Meet Theodor, your chief-of-staff