Quickstart

Install

Install the CLI with your package manager:

npm install -g topchester-ai

Then check the command:

topchester --version

Configure a model

Topchester reads personal model config from ~/.config/topchester/config.jsonc. On first startup, Topchester creates this file with the smallest OpenRouter setup commented out:

// {
//   "models": {
//     "default": "openrouter/google/gemini-3.1-flash-lite",
//   },
// }

Uncomment it when you want to use the default OpenRouter setup:

{
  "models": {
    "default": "openrouter/google/gemini-3.1-flash-lite",
  },
}

Set the API key in your shell:

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY=...

You can also start the TUI and run /connect, then /model, to create and choose a user model config interactively.

Start a project

From a project directory, run:

topchester

If the project has no knowledge base yet, initialize it:

/kb init

Then ask a small first prompt:

Read the README and summarize how to run this project.

Topchester stores session logs under .agents/topchester/sessions/ in the workspace. Do not commit session files.