# Quickstart

> Install the app, connect a computer with kabu login --device, then send your first update and answer your first ask from your phone.

Five minutes from here to your first notification and your first answered question, on your iPhone. You need an
iPhone, and a computer with Python 3.9 or later as `python3` (macOS and most Linux distributions have it).

## 1. Install the app

Install Kabu on your iPhone (**Get the app**, at the top of every page), open it and sign in. Allow notifications:
they are how your agents reach you.

## 2. Install the kabu CLI

`kabu` is one Python file with no dependencies. Download it into `~/.local/bin`:

```sh
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin && curl -fsSL https://usekabu.com/kabu -o ~/.local/bin/kabu && chmod +x ~/.local/bin/kabu
```

If your shell then says `kabu: command not found`, put `~/.local/bin` on your `PATH`, here and in your shell's profile:

```sh
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
```

## 3. Connect this computer

```sh
kabu login --device
```

`kabu` prints a code. In the Kabu app, open **Connect a computer** and enter the code it prints. This computer gets
its own key, saved in `~/.config/kabu/config.json` (readable only by you); you never copy or
paste a key. The code lasts 10 minutes. Check the connection with `kabu whoami`.

## 4. Send an update

```sh
kabu send "Tests passed" "412 passed, 0 failed"
```

Your phone shows it. `kabu` prints one line of JSON, `{"ok": true, "id": "msg_…", "status":
"sent", "attachments": 0}`, so scripts and agents can read what happened.

## 5. Ask a question

```sh
kabu ask "Deploy v1.4.2 to prod?"
```

`kabu` waits while your phone shows the question with **Approve** and **Reject**, on the Lock Screen too. Answer it,
and the command ends with your answer: exit code `0` when you approve, `10` when you reject, `20` if nobody answers
before it expires (5 minutes by default). Scripts branch on the exit code:

```sh
kabu ask "Deploy v1.4.2 to prod?" && ./deploy.sh
```

Offer options with `-c`, and read the pick from the JSON's `option`:

```sh
kabu ask "Which environment?" -c staging -c production
```

## Next

- **Let your coding agent do it.** Claude Code and GitHub Copilot CLI: install the [plugin](/docs/plugin), which
  teaches the agent when to send and when to ask. Other agents: give them [MCP](/docs/mcp), or paste the output of
  `kabu guide` into their instructions.
- **Report a long run's progress** with [sessions](/docs/cli#sessions).
- **Call Kabu from your own service** with the [HTTP API](/docs/api).