Agent Quickstart

This page is written for an AI agent driving a shell, not a human reading prose. Each step states the command and the exact signal that means “this step succeeded, move on.”

1. Install the AetherEdge Skill

From the application repository where the agent will work:

npx skills add EvanL1/AetherEdge -s aether-iot

Restart the coding assistant if it does not reload project Skills automatically.

Success criterion: the assistant lists aether-iot as an available Skill.

2. Install the aether CLI

Building from a source checkout is the most direct development path:

cargo build --release -p aether
sudo cp target/release/aether /usr/local/bin/aether

See Getting Started for prerequisites if the build fails.

Once a tagged release exists, a prebuilt binary is faster — download from GitHub Releases, verify its checksum, and extract it. Pick the asset matching your platform:

Platform	Asset
Linux arm64	aether-linux-aarch64.tar.gz
Linux x86_64	aether-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
macOS arm64	aether-darwin-aarch64.tar.gz
Windows x86_64	aether-windows-x86_64.zip

REPO="EvanL1/AetherEdge"
ASSET="aether-linux-x86_64.tar.gz"   # substitute your platform's asset name

TAG=$(curl -fsSL "https://api.github.com/repos/$REPO/releases/latest" \
  | grep -m1 '"tag_name"' | cut -d '"' -f4)

curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/$REPO/releases/download/$TAG/$ASSET"
curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/$REPO/releases/download/$TAG/$ASSET.sha256"
shasum -a 256 -c "$ASSET.sha256"

tar xzf "$ASSET"
chmod +x aether
sudo mv aether /usr/local/bin/aether

Success criterion: aether --version prints a version string and exits 0.

3. Plan and apply the first-run configuration

aether --json setup

Read data.plan_id from the JSON output. Then, without modifying anything about the site in between, apply that exact plan:

aether setup apply --plan-id <PLAN_ID>

Success criterion: the apply command’s JSON envelope has "success": true and exit code 0. This never starts a service or enables a device — it only creates the safe-empty configuration and local SQLite state.

4. Start the services

Aether’s default deployment is Docker Compose. Generate the two required first-start secrets, then bring the stack up:

cp .env.example .env
chmod 600 .env

export JWT_SECRET_KEY="$(openssl rand -hex 32)"
export AETHER_BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_PASSWORD="$(openssl rand -hex 32)"
sed -i.bak \
  -e "s/^JWT_SECRET_KEY=.*/JWT_SECRET_KEY=${JWT_SECRET_KEY}/" \
  -e "s/^AETHER_BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_PASSWORD=.*/AETHER_BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_PASSWORD=${AETHER_BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_PASSWORD}/" \
  .env && rm .env.bak
unset JWT_SECRET_KEY AETHER_BOOTSTRAP_ADMIN_PASSWORD

aether services start

Success criterion: aether --json services status reports all requested services as running. See Deployment if the the compatibility aetherems:latest runtime image doesn’t exist yet on this machine — it needs to be built or loaded before services start can succeed. The retained image name does not make the EMS product part of this repository.

5. Verify health

aether --json doctor

Success criterion: the envelope is {"success": true, ...} and the process exits 0. doctor checks the Docker engine, all six core services’ health routes, the SQLite database, the four required config files, and the shared-memory segment — a false/non-zero result means one of those failed; read the JSON error field for which one.

6. Connect an MCP client

claude mcp add aether -- aether mcp

For a session that needs to issue writes (device control, rule changes) — read Safe Operations for Applications and Agents before doing this against real hardware:

claude mcp add aether -- aether mcp --allow-write

Success criterion: the client’s tools/list response includes channels_list. The default server exposes only read tools. --allow-write registers the current governed write allowlist, but the flag is not command confirmation: every invocation still needs confirmed: true, the signed AETHER_ACCESS_TOKEN is sent as a Bearer credential, and the bridge adds a request ID. Never automatically retry an incomplete write response. For a channel mutation, preserve request_id, resulting_revision, and reconciliation_required; successful desired-state commit can still report a degraded runtime projection. See Connect AI Assistants for Claude Desktop config and pointing at a remote installation.

Now ask the assistant:

Get started with AetherEdge. Inspect the runtime in read-only mode and explain
which application capabilities are available before proposing any changes.