Quickstart

This quickstart takes you from signing up to two things that show what DevSpec is for: a useful answer from Dev about your own code, and a first task handed to your agent: an AI agent like Claude Code or Pi, running on your computer. Along the way you set up your account, create a project, connect a GitHub repository and start a session. You can skip the optional parts and come back to them later.

If you'd like the ideas first, read What is DevSpec and Why DevSpec.

Set up your account after signing up

After you sign up, DevSpec opens a Welcome to DevSpec screen. Press Let's get started to begin Set up your account. What you see next depends on your role in the organization.

Organization Owners and Admins go through four steps. When you sign up on your own, you're the Owner of a new organization.

1. Payment details. Choose Add payment card to save your card securely with Stripe. Nothing is charged today; your card is only charged when you add funds or enable auto top-up. Your first organization starts with $15 of usage, on us. If you were invited with free usage, your invitation amount replaces that offer and you can add a card later.
2. Your organization. Give your organization a name (Organization name is required). Next saves it before you can invite anyone. You can return to change it; save the change before continuing.
3. Invite your team. Optionally use Invite people to add Members, or choose Skip for now. Members can access projects shared with the whole organization. Pending invitations can be withdrawn here. You can invite Guests and choose project permissions when you set up a project. Seats cost nothing, and you can invite people later.
4. Your profile. Add your Job title, choose your Response style (Conversational replies and Focus on the product, not the code, both off unless you switch them on), and pick your Preferred language and Assistant voice (the voice DevSpec uses when it reads replies aloud).

Members and Guests who joined by invitation see only Your profile; the organization's Owners and Admins look after payment. If your invitation came with money to try DevSpec, a notice tells you how much.

Everything you choose here can be changed later in Settings. See Your settings and Billing, usage and limits.

When you finish, DevSpec takes you straight on. If you're setting up a new organization, that's Set up your project. If you joined an organization whose project you can already open, your setup ends with an optional Connect your agent step (see below), and then your first session opens. If nobody has created a project you can open yet, DevSpec tells you who can add you.

Set up your project

A project is the workspace for one product or service: its sessions, tasks, repositories and people. Only organization Owners and Admins can create projects, and the organization needs money in its balance.

Setting up a project is one guided flow of four steps. The list of steps beside the form, and the progress bar above it, show where you are. You can skip any step after the first and come back to it. To start another project later, open All projects in the sidebar and choose New project (or Create Project if you don't have any yet).

About the project

• Project name (required) and a Description. During your first setup, leaving the name empty uses your organization's name. You can rename it any time.
• Who can open it: Available to everyone means every member of your organization can open it. Invite only means only the people you add.
• People: pick organization members, or people you've invited who haven't joined yet, and give each a project role. Invite someone new sends an invitation without leaving the page, and they join the project when they accept.

Press Create project. The step is ticked and setup moves on to the repository. You can go Back to it later to rename the project or add people. See Projects.

Connect a repository

DevSpec reads your code and builds a searchable map of it, so Dev answers from how your product really works and your agents start with the right context. DevSpec reads your code, pull requests and GitHub checks, and can show branch-protection rules without changing them. You review and merge pull requests on GitHub; the GitHub install screen lists the access the app requests. DevSpec never commits code of its own, your code is never sold or used to train AI, and removing a repository deletes everything DevSpec read from it.

Choose Connect GitHub. GitHub opens in a new tab so you can install DevSpec's GitHub app; pick All repositories or Only select repositories, then come back and add the repositories this project uses. DevSpec supports GitHub.

Each repository needs a Tracking branch: the branch DevSpec indexes, reviews and sends agents to. DevSpec pre-fills your default branch. Prefer a branch your team doesn't push to directly. DevSpec then indexes your code so Dev can search it; the project Overview shows when that first index is running and when it's done.

Starting from scratch with no code yet? Choose I don't have a repository yet. You can plan, write tasks and talk to Dev as normal without one. See Repositories and GitHub.

Connect your agent (optional)

Your agent is what writes code for your tasks. DevSpec and Dev never change your code themselves.

Pick the agent you use (Pi, Claude Code, or Antigravity CLI) and your operating system (macOS, Linux, or Windows):

1. Pick your agent. Choose Pi, Claude Code, or Antigravity CLI (agy in a terminal). Need to install the agent itself first? Open Install and set up right under the picker for install commands and official setup links.
2. Follow the numbered steps on the page. Your access token sits inside the step that needs it — reveal and copy it, or create one right there. For Claude Code and Antigravity CLI, you'll also see an optional step (recommended for phone and voice control) to skip terminal permission prompts so remote work doesn't stall waiting at your computer.
3. Start your agent and connect to your project. If you open your agent in the folder on your computer where you cloned the Git repository linked to this project, it connects to this project automatically. If you open it in another folder or want to switch projects, run the project command shown in the final step (/devspec.project, /devspec:devspec.project, or /devspec-project). The status under the final step turns green as soon as DevSpec hears from your agent.

If you've already set up that agent on your computer before, DevSpec also shows a quick Use your existing setup box at the top with the command to switch projects.

Don't use an agent, or want to do this later? Choose Skip this or Skip for now, and DevSpec won't ask again on your next project. You can always talk to Dev, and you can connect an agent any time from Agent setup. See Connect your agent.

Start a session

Press Start a session. Your first session opens with a welcome from Dev, and it's shared with your project team.

Optional connections

The last step also lists three connections that let Dev see more of your project: Connect hosted deployment (Vercel or Coolify), Connect a database (Supabase) and Connect logs (Axiom). None is needed to start. Connect them when a conversation calls for it, from Project settings → Integrations. If you haven't connected an agent yet, the finished setup page also offers Connect an agent.

If you leave part-way

Setup never traps you: the avatar menu and help stay available. If you leave before you've started your first session, a Continue setup button in the top bar takes you back to the step you left, and the project's Overview shows a Continue setting up card with your progress. You can reopen setup any time from Project settings → Setup guide.

Get your first useful answer from Dev

Dev is the assistant in every session. It reads your code, searches your project's tasks, memories and past sessions, and gives you its own view.

In a new session, pick Dev in the Send to menu beside the send button, or type @Dev in your message, to ask Dev a question. Then ask about something you need to know, for example:

How does sign-in work in this codebase, and where would I add rate limiting?

Dev searches for what's relevant before it answers, so it draws on your real code rather than guesses. Give it a real question from your current work: that's the quickest way to see what it can do.

See Sessions and Dev, your assistant in sessions for more about talking with Dev and your team.

Turn the conversation into tasks

When you've agreed what to build, ask Dev to write it up:

Let's turn this into tasks.

Dev proposes the items and waits until you tell it to create them. Each task has an intent (why it matters), a description (what to do) and acceptance criteria (how you'll know it's done). Related items are grouped under a brief.

New items appear in the session's Work tab and on the project's Tasks page. Items are created in conversation, by Dev or by an agent, so the Tasks page has no create button. See Tasks.

Hand your first item to your agent

Your agent needs to be running on your machine in the project's folder: a clone of a repository the project tracks, or a folder pinned to the project. It then appears on the project's Agents page.

Before your first handoff, check Project settings → Agent rules. Auto-push and Auto-merge are on by default, so your agent merges its finished work into the repository's tracking branch and pushes it. If your tracking branch is your default branch and your host deploys it automatically, agent work goes live without anyone reviewing it first. If that's not what you want, pick a different Tracking branch in Project settings → Repositories, or turn off Auto-merge. Project Maintainers change these settings.

To hand over the item, do any of these:

• On the item, choose Agent command (the terminal icon), then Send to an agent and pick your agent. DevSpec opens a session and delivers the request there, so you can follow along.
• In the same dialog, use Or copy a command and paste the command into your agent's terminal.
• On Tasks, choose Hand off, tick the items, and choose Send to agent.
• Ask your agent in its own terminal to work on the item.

Your agent marks the item as taken, works on its own branch, links its commits to the item and records what it did. It reports the work as Implemented. An item reaches Done when its acceptance criteria have sufficient evidence or an authorized person signs it off. If it would undo an earlier decision, it stays on its own branch until it has the right person's OK. See How work flows through DevSpec.

Where things live in the sidebar

DevSpec opens on the last project you used. The project sidebar is grouped the way work moves:

At the bottom, All projects lists your projects and Project settings holds the project's setup, integrations and agent settings (on desktop).

In the header, the ? menu has Ask DevSpec (free answers from these docs), Docs and Contact support. Your avatar menu opens your personal settings. Organization settings, including Billing, live under Settings for everyone except Guests; Usage & limits is for Owners and Admins.