Your first run

The first cadrei checks your tools, shows the whole plan on one screen, and waits for one key. Run it inside a repo you want your team to work on, and the plan adds that repo too:

  cadrei v0.2.1
  A team of Claude Code helpers you lead from one chat.
  ~/code/my-app

  ✓ Claude Code 2.1.300 (logged in), git and tmux are ready

  Here's the plan
  · Create your crew main in ~/.cadrei/main, with an engineer and a reviewer
  · Add my-app as your first project
  · Trust both in Claude Code
    Your team works there without Claude Code asking first.
  · Link cadrei's instructions into Claude Code (~/.claude/skills/cadrei)
  · Open your orchestrator in tmux (recommended)
    It keeps going if you close this window. Ctrl-b s switch, Ctrl-b d leave

  Press Enter to set this up.
  Or press p for the plain terminal, r to restore from GitHub, q to quit.

The header names the version and the folder you’re in, with a small figure beside it in a color terminal. The check is one line when every tool is ready; when one is missing or out of date, it becomes a row per tool, with how to fix it.

Key	What it does
Enter	sets up the whole plan
p	the same plan, but your orchestrator opens in this terminal instead of tmux
r	restores a crew from a GitHub backup instead (Backup and restore)
q	quits. Nothing is changed. Ctrl-C and Ctrl-D do the same.
a	shows up when the repo has its own Claude Code settings: adds it to the plan anyway, and pressed again leaves it out
o	shows up when an archived setup is waiting: brings it back instead (Bring back an archived setup)

• Your first crew is called main. There’s no name question. cadrei new <name> makes more later.
• Missing tools stop it. If Claude Code, git or tmux 3.2 or newer is missing, the checks say how to install it, and nothing is changed. A Claude Code that isn’t logged in doesn’t stop it: Claude Code asks you to log in when it opens.
• A repo with its own Claude Code settings (.claude/settings.json, .claude/settings.local.json or .mcp.json at its top, or anything in a .claude/skills, agents or commands folder anywhere in it, outside what git ignores) isn’t in the plan. Trusting it would let those settings run commands for your whole team, so press a only if you trust where the repo came from. Outside a git repo, there’s no project line at all.
• No git name or email? You get one line about it, once. cadrei --check shows how to set them.

After Enter you see one ✓ line per step, and your orchestrator opens. There’s no second key: the tmux keys are in the plan, and they stay in the status bar at the bottom.

  ✓ Created your crew main
  ✓ Added my-app as a project
  ✓ Trusted both in Claude Code
  ✓ Linked cadrei's instructions into Claude Code

  Opening your orchestrator in tmux.

The keys come from your own tmux prefix: with C-a, the plan says Ctrl-a s switch, Ctrl-a d leave.

With p, Claude Code opens right there with no extra key: Opening your orchestrator here. Your team still runs in tmux, and you can watch any of them with cadrei attach.

Your orchestrator then speaks first, with three ways to start: a read-only review of your repo, a small feature, or another team. More on that in Your orchestrator.

Run without a terminal (from a script or a pipe), cadrei sets nothing up and says Run cadrei in a terminal to set one up.

Your crews are already here

When ~/.cadrei holds crews but ~/.cadrei/config is gone (after cadrei uninstall and a reinstall, or after you deleted it), the first run doesn’t make a new crew. It offers to plug yours back in:

  Found your crews in ~/.cadrei: life and work.

  Here's the plan
  · Plug them back in, with life as your default (press d to pick another)
  · Link cadrei's instructions into Claude Code (~/.claude/skills/cadrei)
  · Open your orchestrator in this terminal (life's setting)

  Press Enter to plug them back in.
  Or press p for the plain terminal, n for a new crew, r to restore, q to quit.

d picks another default crew, and n makes a new crew instead. After Enter, your projects and chats are as they were: Opening your orchestrator. It picks up your last chat.