Getting Started

This guide walks you through creating your account, setting up a workspace, and running your first AI agent.

1. Create Your Account#

Visit the signup page and provide:

  • Workspace name — Your team or organization name
  • Workspace URL (slug) — URL-friendly identifier (3-63 characters, lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens). This becomes part of your workspace URL and cannot be changed after creation.
  • Your name — Display name shown to teammates
  • Email address — You'll need to verify this
  • Password — Minimum 8 characters with at least one uppercase letter, lowercase letter, digit, and special character

After signing up, check your email for a verification link. If the link expires or you need a new one, log in and you will be redirected to the email verification page where you can resend it.

2. Configure an AI Provider#

Before running agents, you need to add credentials for at least one AI provider. RedStick AI supports providers like Anthropic, OpenAI, and others — you bring your own API key (BYOK), so you are never locked into a single vendor. Go to Providers from the sidebar and either:

  • Paste an API key directly (stored encrypted with AES-256-GCM encryption)

The credential is encrypted at rest and never displayed in full after saving.

3. Create Your First Project#

From the dashboard, click New Project and work through the 5-step wizard:

  1. Identity — Project name, slug, and optional description.

  2. Stack — Framework, startup command, install command, and runtime version. Choose from 15 supported frameworks:

    CategoryFrameworks
    JavaScriptNext.js, Vite, React, Vue.js, Node.js, Express.js
    PythonPython, Flask, FastAPI
    GoGo, Fiber, Gin
    RubyRuby, Rails
    OtherNone (static HTML/CSS/JS)

  3. Source — Optional Git repository to clone and default AI provider/model.

  4. Services — Optionally provision a PostgreSQL or Redis instance alongside your project. You can skip this step and add services later from the Command Center. See Project Services.

  5. Review — Confirm all settings before creating the project.

The framework determines which container image, default commands, and agent instructions are used for previews and tasks.

4. Run Your First Task#

Open your project to enter the Command Center — the IDE-like workspace. Click Start Task to open the task dialog:

  1. Write a prompt — Describe what you want the worker to build or fix:

    "Create a landing page with a hero section, features grid, and footer"

  2. Plan mode — Defaults to always: the worker proposes a plan and waits for your approval before writing code. Change to never to skip the gate, or auto to let the worker decide. See Plan Mode.

  3. Advanced options (optional) — Override the default AI provider and model for this task.

Click Start to launch the task. The worker streams in real-time:

  • Real-time streaming of the agent's thinking and actions
  • Tool calls showing file creation, editing, and terminal commands
  • Diff views for code changes

After the worker starts, you can follow up by sending a new Run from the Runs tab.

5. Preview Your Work#

Once the agent finishes (or while it's running), click Start Preview in the right panel. This launches a container running your project with the appropriate framework-specific dev server.

If your framework includes a dev server with Hot Module Replacement (e.g. Vite, Next.js), the preview will reflect file changes automatically via HMR. For other frameworks (e.g. Express, Flask), you will need to restart the preview to pick up changes. You can also share preview links with others.

6. Next Steps#