Quick Start

You’ve got Selu installed and the dashboard is open. Let’s get your first agent up and running. This guide takes about five minutes.

Step 1: Create your account

When you first open the Selu dashboard, you’ll be prompted to create an admin account. Pick a username and password — this is stored locally on your machine, not sent anywhere.

Once logged in, you’ll land on the Home screen. It’ll look a bit empty right now. That’s about to change.

Step 2: Connect a language model provider

Agents need a language model to think and respond. Selu doesn’t come with one built in — you bring your own.

1. Go to Settings → LLM Providers in the sidebar.
2. Click Add Provider.
3. Choose your provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, or a local model via Ollama).
4. Enter your API key (or connection details for local models).
5. Click Test Connection to verify everything works.
6. Save.

OpenAI

Use models like GPT-4o. You’ll need an API key from platform.openai.com.

Anthropic

Use models like Claude. Grab an API key from console.anthropic.com.

Local models

Run models on your own hardware with Ollama. No API key needed — just point Selu at your Ollama instance.

Tip

If you’re not sure which provider to start with, OpenAI or Anthropic are the easiest to set up. You can always add more providers later or switch to local models.

Step 3: Install an agent from the marketplace

Now that Selu has a language model to work with, let’s give it a job.

1. Go to Marketplace in the sidebar.
2. Browse the available agents. For your first time, we recommend the General Assistant — it’s a well-rounded conversational agent.
3. Click Install.
4. Selu will configure the agent and assign it a default set of capabilities. You can customize these later.

The agent should appear on your Home screen within a few seconds.

Step 4: Send your first message

1. Click on your newly installed agent from the Home screen.
2. The chat interface opens. Type a message — something like “Hi! What can you help me with?”
3. Hit send.

Your agent should respond within a few seconds, introducing itself and explaining what it can do. Congratulations — you have a working AI agent running on your own infrastructure.

What just happened?

Here’s what went on behind the scenes when you sent that message:

1. Your message was sent to the Selu server running on your machine.
2. The server passed it to your installed agent, along with its system prompt and available capabilities.
3. The agent forwarded the conversation to your configured language model provider.
4. The model’s response came back through the agent to your chat window.

No third party saw your conversation (beyond the LLM provider, if you’re using a cloud-based model). Everything else stayed on your machine.

Try a few things

Now that you’re set up, here are some things to explore:

Connect a channel

Go to Settings → Channels and connect Telegram or iMessage, so you can chat with your agent from your phone.

Explore capabilities

Check out Agents → [Your Agent] → Capabilities to see what tools your agent has access to, and toggle them on or off.

Install more agents

Head back to the Marketplace and try a specialized agent — a writing assistant, research helper, or task planner.

Next steps

Want to understand more about how conversations work and what your agent is actually doing? Continue to Your First Conversation.