Quickstart: the app

From download to a finished job

1. 1

   Download and install

   lobstack.ai/download offers the newest published installer for your system. The download is free, and the app updates itself after that.

   System	What you get	The first time you open it
   Windows	A setup .exe	SmartScreen warns. Choose More info, then Run anyway.
   macOS	A .dmg, for Apple Silicon. There is no Intel build.	Right-click the app and choose Open.
   Linux	An AppImage	Mark it executable and run it.

   The warnings are there because the builds are not code-signed yet: no certificate has been bought. It is a public beta, and signing is outstanding work rather than a broken build.

2. 2

   Sign in

   The app opens on Sign in to start. Press Sign in with Lobstack: your browser opens lobstack.ai, where you sign in or create a free account. Check that the code on the page matches the one in the app, then press Connect. The app picks up the result by itself. There is no key to paste.

   The first sign-in from the app adds $5 of credit for 30 days, with no card. The Free plan also adds $1 every week. See Welcome credit and Pricing & plans. Prefer GitHub Copilot or your own OpenAI or Anthropic key? Open Other ways to run your bots on the same screen; neither needs a Lobstack account.

3. 3

   Pick a bot, or make one

   A new workspace starts with three bots, Triage, Research and Ops, and a #general channel. Any of them can take a first job. Ops asks about everything; the other two ask before they change anything.

   To make your own, press New bot in the sidebar. Choose Describe it yourself or Start from a written-up job, set its name, its job and how much it asks, and press Create. Everything can be changed afterwards.

4. 4

   Give it a first job

   Every bot can search the web, read pages and use a browser without a connector. For work in your files, give it a repository or add a connector, such as GitHub, Linear or a folder.

   Then message the bot as you would a colleague. Home’s Get your first real piece of work done card has a ready one: Try: write a one-page brief opens the bot’s conversation with the task filled in, so you see exactly what it will be asked before you send it.

5. 5

   Approve what changes something

   Searching and reading run without asking. When the bot wants to write a file, run a command, click on a site or post a document, the run stops and an approval card shows exactly what will happen: the command as it will run, a file change as a diff, a document as the page itself.

   Button	What it does
   Approve	Runs this one call, and the run continues.
   Always allow	Allows calls of the same shape for the rest of this session. Gone when the session ends.
   Deny	Skips it. Say why, and the bot works around it rather than failing.

   Waiting cards also collect under Approvals in the sidebar, and one still waits after the app restarts. The rules are on The approval gate.

6. 6

   Find the result

   The reply lands in the bot’s conversation, with what the run cost. A document opens in a pane beside the conversation and is kept in the Library, with every other file your bots have made, ready to export to Word or PDF. Home lists it under Recent documents. When a bot has changed a repository, a Changes chip on the conversation shows the diff.

Where to go next