Getting started

Sleevecast runs AI agents, called sleeves, in Docker on your own machine and lets you manage them from one console at app.sleevecast.com. This page takes you from a new account to a sleeve answering your first message, in about ten minutes.

You need:

• A Sleevecast account (the beta is by invitation: request access).
• A Windows PC, a Mac or a Linux machine with about 4 GB of free memory. The Dock installer sets up Docker for you if it is missing.
• An API key from a model provider such as Anthropic, OpenAI or Google.

The console's Get started page (/welcome) walks you through the same five steps and checks each one for you.

1. Create your organization

Everything in Sleevecast belongs to an organization: Docks, sleeves, keys and members. Sign in, choose a name and a short alias (lowercase letters, digits and dashes). The alias also prefixes your sleeves' message subjects, so pick one you will keep.

2. Install a Dock

The Dock is a small service that runs your sleeves and connects out to Sleevecast on port 443. On the machine that will run your agents:

irm https://get.sleevecast.com/dock.ps1 | iex           # Windows (PowerShell)

curl -fsSL https://get.sleevecast.com/dock.sh | sh      # Linux and macOS

The installer prints a short code and a link. Open the link, sign in, approve the code, and the Dock appears on the Docks page as online. See Install a Dock for details.

3. Add a model key

On the Keys page, pick your provider, give the key a name (for example anthropic-main) and paste it. Your browser seals the key to your Docks before it leaves the page, so Sleevecast never sees it. See Model keys.

4. Create a sleeve

A sleeve is described by a short YAML spec: which model it uses, its role, the tools it may use, its memory and its limits. The Get started page offers templates; on the Specs page you can write your own. Save the spec, then place it on a Dock. The Dock pulls the signed runtime image and starts the sleeve; the first start takes a few minutes. See Stack specs.

5. Say hello

Open the sleeve from the Fleet and use the Converse tab to send it a message. Switch to Observe to watch it think. See Observe, Converse and memory.

Words you will see