Genesis Docs

Get started / First steps

Getting started

Install Genesis, run onboarding, and chat with your AI assistant — all in about 5 minutes. By the end you will have a running Gateway, configured auth, and a working chat session.

What you need

  • Node.js — Node 24 recommended (Node 22.14+ also supported)
  • An API key from a model provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, etc.) — onboarding will prompt you

Check your Node version with node --version. Windows users: both native Windows and WSL2 are supported. WSL2 is more stable and recommended for the full experience. See Windows. Need to install Node? See Node setup.

Quick setup

Install Genesis

macOS / Linux

curl -fsSL https://genesis.pixelzx.com/install.sh | bash
Install Script Process

Windows (PowerShell)

iwr -useb https://genesis.pixelzx.com/install.ps1 | iex

Other install methods (Docker, Nix, npm): Install.

Run onboarding

genesis onboard --install-daemon

The wizard walks you through choosing a model provider, setting an API key, and configuring the Gateway. It takes about 2 minutes.

See Onboarding (CLI) for the full reference.

Verify the Gateway is running

genesis gateway status

You should see the Gateway listening on port 18789.

Open the dashboard

genesis dashboard

This opens the Control UI in your browser. If it loads, everything is working.

Send your first message

Type a message in the Control UI chat and you should get an AI reply.

Want to chat from your phone instead? The fastest channel to set up is Telegram (just a bot token). See Channels for all options.

Advanced: mount a custom Control UI build

If you maintain a localized or customized dashboard build, point gateway.controlUi.root to a directory that contains your built static assets and index.html.

mkdir -p "$HOME/.genesis/control-ui-custom"
# Copy your built static files into that directory.

Then set:

{
  "gateway": {
    "controlUi": {
      "enabled": true,
      "root": "$HOME/.genesis/control-ui-custom"
    }
  }
}

Restart the gateway and reopen the dashboard:

genesis gateway restart
genesis dashboard

What to do next

Advanced: environment variables

If you run Genesis as a service account or want custom paths:

  • GENESIS_HOME — home directory for internal path resolution
  • GENESIS_STATE_DIR — override the state directory
  • GENESIS_CONFIG_PATH — override the config file path

Full reference: Environment variables.