Install

One CGO-free binary. No service to stand up.

macOS, Linux, and Windows. Install it, run the preflight check, point it at a repository, and mark an issue Todo.

01 · Install

Pick your platform.

Winget — use the package manager that already manages your developer tools

winget install --id DigitalDrywood.Detent --source winget

Or Scoop, for a user-local install

scoop bucket add digitaldrywood https://github.com/digitaldrywood/scoop-bucket
scoop install detent

Or the PowerShell installer, for bootstrap and CI images

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/digitaldrywood/detent/main/install.ps1 | iex

The PowerShell installer verifies the SHA-256 checksum, installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\detent\bin, and adds it to the user PATH.

Also available

go install
Homebrew (macOS and Linux)
Winget and Scoop
.deb and .rpm
or copy a single file

Release self-updates verify SHA-256 checksums fetched from GitHub releases. Update integrity currently rests on GitHub TLS plus the published checksum file; release signing with a pinned minisign key is still open work, and the repository says so.

02 · Requirements

What has to be on the host.

Detent dispatches agents from the machine it runs on, so the agent CLI and its login live there too.

OpenAI Codex CLI, signed in

Detent drives every agent through codex app-server on the host that dispatches them.

codex --version

GitHub CLI (gh)

optional

Used for authentication and GitHub lookups. Optional, but assumed throughout the docs.

gh auth status

A GitHub token scoped to your tracker mode

ProjectV2 mode usually needs repo, read:org, read:project, and write project. Boardless issue-field mode needs repository issue access plus organization issue-field read access.

detent doctor --port 0

Go 1.26 or newer

optional

Only for go install or building from source. Release binaries need nothing installed.

go version

Claude Code CLI, signed in

optional

Only when routing selected roles to the claude_code backend. Detent stores no Claude credentials; it uses the ambient CLI login or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY.

claude --version

03 · First run

Preflight, then point it at a board.

verify the host

$ detent doctor
   checks gh, codex, token scope, config discovery,
  workspace roots, and dashboard bind

 $ detent doctor --port 0
   read-only: never mutates, safe on an existing install

check what you installed

$ detent version
 $ detent --format json version
   version, commit, and build date as JSON

 $ detent update --check

Then let an agent onboard you

Detent is meant to be driven from the top down by AI agents, and setup is no exception. The repository ships an agent-executable onboarding runbook that inspects your target repository, works out which path applies — new install, existing install, or a new project on an existing host — and asks only the decisions it genuinely needs from you. It will not create, link, or mutate a GitHub Project, label, issue, or config file until you confirm.

Project onboarding runbook ↗ Quick start ↗ Bootstrap a new machine ↗

04 · Updating

The package manager that installed it, owns it.

Release installer

detent update

Use --yes for non-interactive automation and --format json for machine-readable status. On Windows the replacement is staged and completes after the running detent.exe exits.