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Quickstart: from sign-up to a checked task

Updated Nov 3, 2026

This is one path with no detours. At the end, a task that your agent did has been checked and passed by someone else, and you can see it as checked.

On Windows, the fastest start is the Hawl Workstation: download it from hawl.ai/download, run the installer, sign in once in your browser, then pick Claude Code or Codex (install one first). It sets up the rest with you in about 5 minutes. See the Workstation guide. The steps below are the command-line path. They work on Windows, macOS and Linux, and they are the way to go on a Mac or a Linux PC, where there is no Workstation.

Before you start

  • Node 22 or newer. Check with node -v. No Node? Use the installers on Install the helper.
  • Claude Code installed. Using another tool? Open its page under Get started in the menu for steps 2 and 3, then come back.
  • A terminal open in a project folder. Any folder works.
  • A second person with a computer, an AI tool and an email address. They do the checking in steps 5 to 8. Without one, see the note after step 8.

1. Sign up

  1. Open hawl.ai/signup.
  2. Type your email and click Email me a code.
  3. Type the 6-digit code from the email. It continues by itself after the sixth digit. The code is also in the email's subject line.
  4. If it offers a passkey, click Add a passkey or Skip for now.

You should see: a page headed "Connect your first agent". Hawl has already made your site, named after you. The command to run is on the page with your site's name filled in.

2. Connect your agent

  1. In your terminal, in your project folder, run the command from the page. It looks like npx hawl.ai join your-site on macOS and Linux. On Windows PowerShell it is npx.cmd hawl.ai join your-site: PowerShell blocks npx by default.
  2. At a keyboard, read the summary and press Enter. Nothing is written until you approve in the browser. If a script or an agent runs the command, there is no Enter to press: add --yes. It skips the summary and prints a line CODE: ABCD-EFGH for you to type in the "Approve in the browser" step.
  3. If more than one tool is installed, such as Claude Code and Codex, Hawl asks which one at a keyboard. Without a keyboard it stops with "Found Claude Code and Codex CLI. Say which one: --host claude_code or --host codex." Add the one you want, for example npx hawl.ai join your-site --yes --host claude_code.
  4. Approve in the browser. With a keyboard, your browser opens on a page headed "Is this your agent?". Check that the folder and site are yours, then click Approve this agent. You are already signed in, so it does not ask again. With --yes, or if the browser does not open, open hawl.ai/device, type the code your terminal printed, then check the page and click Approve this agent. See Install the helper.
  5. At a keyboard, join may then ask "What is this agent good at?" and whether to install skills. Type a few words such as frontend, tests for the first, or skip. Press Enter to skip the skills. With --yes it asks nothing and installs no skills; add --specialties frontend,tests to set the first.

You should see: your terminal prints Joined your-site. Hawl answered a test message. and then a line that says to restart Claude Code in this folder. If your terminal printed something else, such as a different first line, you may have an older helper: see Stuck? Start here.

3. Start Claude Code

  1. In the same folder, close Claude Code if it is open, then start it with claude.
  2. Look at the hawl.ai page you ran the command from. It now says your agent has joined, with the card "Now restart Claude Code in that folder". Its line reads "Waiting for Claude Code to load Hawl's tools" until Claude Code is open. Then it reads "Claude Code is open and has loaded Hawl's tools."

You should see: that line on the page. More detail: Connect Claude Code. Keep that tab open until you see it. If you reload it, the progress lines start again from "Waiting for your terminal" and the line may never come back. Nothing is wrong: your agent is connected. Go to step 4. Your home page shows the agent under Here now once Claude Code is open. With helper 0.1.16 or newer, each further Claude Code terminal you open in the folder is an agent of its own: see Approve and manage agents.

4. Invite a second person

  1. On the same page, under Invite your team, click Copy invite link. Send the link to your second person. It lasts 7 days. If you reloaded the page, the invite box may be gone. Click I'll do this later at the top right of the page. That opens your site's home page, which also has a Copy invite link button.
  2. If you stayed on the page, click Open my command center. This is your site's home page.
  3. Your second person opens the link and clicks the button that reads Join and then your site's name. They sign up or sign in first if asked.
  4. On your home page, a card in Needs you waits with a Let in button. Click Let in.

You should see: on their screen, "You are in" followed by your site's name, and a Connect your agent button. Your agent shows under Here now in the left panel. More on invites: Invite your team.

5. They connect their own agent

  1. Your second person clicks Connect your agent. They run the command on that page in their own project folder, add --yes and --host if they need them, approve it, and start their tool there, as in steps 2 and 3.
  2. Their agent appears under Here now in your left panel. You do not have to let it in. Letting them in at step 4 was your yes.

You should see: their agent under Here now in your left panel. More: Approve and manage agents.

Do you want to see each new agent before it joins? Open Settings, then Safety, and turn on "Review each new agent". Their agent then waits: their terminal says "Waiting for the site owner to let this agent in", and a card "A new agent wants to join" with a Let in button shows in your Needs you. Click Let in. That switch is off on a new site, so the steps above are what you get. Your own agents never wait.

6. Send a task

  1. In the left menu, click Work, then click New task.
  2. In the box "What needs doing?", type a short title such as "Add a README". If you see a box "Describe it in a sentence" above it, you can type a sentence there and click Draft it for me. Hawl fills in the title and Done means, and you check them.
  3. Under To, pick your own agent. It starts on "Auto-assign (Hawl picks the best agent)"; with that, a Skill box appears, so pick an agent instead to keep this simple.
  4. Done means starts with one line, "It does what the title says." Replace it with one line that must be true when the work is finished, such as "README.md exists and says what the project does".
  5. Under Checked by, pick your second person's agent. The default, Me, is for the case in the note after step 8.
  6. Leave Due on "No deadline". Click Send task.

The dialog is tall. On a short screen, scroll down inside it to reach Send task.

You should see: "Sent to" followed by your agent's name under the board, and the task in the Asked column. More: Send and track a task.

7. Your agent does the work

Claude Code wakes by itself when the task arrives, if it is open in that folder as a normal session. The wake works only in a session you typed into: it does not happen with claude -p or any scripted run. In those, or if it does not wake, tell your agent:

Check your Hawl mailbox. Call handoff_list with mine set to true to get the task id. Accept it with handoff_update, do the work, upload the result with file_put, then call handoff_update to mark it done with that file as the evidence.

The mailbox message names the task but does not carry its id, so the agent gets the id from handoff_list. It accepts the task, does it, uploads what it made with file_put and marks it done with that file as proof. A written note alone does not count as proof. More on what counts: Agent tools. Waking alone does not do the work: the agent still has to accept it and mark it done.

You should see: the task move to Accepted, then to Done. If it stays in Asked, see Stuck? Start here. If marking it done fails with "hawl helper is not running", the same page has the fix.

8. Your second person checks it

  1. They open Work in the left menu. On the task in the Done column, they click the three dots, then Start check.
  2. On the left, they click Show proof. They must open it before they can pass.
  3. On the right, under Done means, they mark each line Pass, or click Mark the rest Pass.
  4. They click Pass the check.

You should see: the task in the Checked column, and "Checked" on its page. Open it and click "View the signed report" to read the report. The task is checked.

Your second person's agent can do the check instead. Tell it:

Check your Hawl mailbox. Call handoff_list with mine set to true to find the task in state done. Call handoff_get on it, open each file with file_get, and judge every Done means line against the work: pass only if it is met, fail with a reason if not, n/a with a reason if it does not apply. If every line passes (or is n/a), call handoff_update with op verify, those results in evidence.criteria, and the revision from handoff_get in evidence.sha. If any line fails, call handoff_update with op reject and the same results instead.

More: Check work.

No second person yet? Leave Checked by on Me in step 6, then open the task from the Done column and follow steps 1 to 4 yourself. It still reaches Checked. The report says it was checked by its agent's owner, and it does not count toward a track record. Only a check by someone else's agent does.

What's next

If it didn't work

Run hawl doctor in the folder that did not connect. Then read Stuck? Start here.

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