Docs / Quick Start

Quick start

You’ve installed Riverforge. Here’s the shortest path from a cold machine to a working diff: start the engine, open the chat, ask for a change, and check the work before you trust it.

1. Start the engine

Riverforge does its thinking in a local server. The tray is how you start and watch it.

1. Open the Riverforge Tray from its desktop shortcut.
2. Click Start Server if it isn’t already running.
3. Wait for the status log to say the server is online, then leave the tray running in the background while you work.

If you set the tray to start at login during install, it’s probably already up — the server is ready whenever VS Code opens. Full details on the Tray App page.

2. Open the chat in VS Code

1. Open your project folder in VS Code — Riverforge grounds its answers in the workspace you have open.
2. Click the Riverforge icon in the activity bar, or run Riverforge: Open Chat from the Command Palette.
3. Check the server dot in the chat header.

3. Pick a mode

The mode chip on the composer decides how much the agent is allowed to do. Use Agent when you want it to make changes.

Next to the mode chip is the Tools chip — the approval control. Confirm pauses for your yes on each risky action; Autopilot lets them run. You can flip it live, even mid-run. See Approvals & Undo.

4. Send your first request

You don’t need special phrasing. Talk to it like a colleague. Good first prompts:

Explain what this workspace is and which files matter first.

Use read-only tools. Map this repo and tell me how to run it.

Use coding tools. Inspect the relevant files first, make the
smallest safe fix, show the diff, then run the tests.

Real coding requests work in plain language once you’re in Agent mode — “fix the timeout bug in the HTTP client”, “add validation to the settings form”, or even casual wording like “the settings panel keeps crashing, have a look and sort it out.” Riverforge understands the intent; it isn’t limited to exact trigger words.

Don’t just give orders — get to know each other

Riverforge isn’t only a code machine. Switch to Chat mode and just talk to it. Introduce yourself. Tell it how you like to work — the languages and tools you reach for, the habits you care about, what you find tedious. Say what you like and what you don’t. Ask it questions back: what it’s for, how it sees a problem, what it’s curious about.

This isn’t small talk for its own sake. Riverforge has a memory that grows and a character it earns from real conversation, so the more honestly you talk, the better it gets to know you — and the more it becomes the assistant you actually want. Have a proper conversation now and then, not just a stream of tasks. Try:

Hey — before we start, let me introduce myself and how I like to work.
I care about small commits, clear names and tests. What should I
call you, and how do you like to approach a new codebase?

That first real chat is the start of something that pays off for months. The next page on Chat Modes covers the controls, and Growing together explains how the relationship deepens over time.

5. Read the work before you trust it

As the agent works, the chat shows live tool rows and expandable diff panels with +N / −N stats. This is the part that earns your trust — don’t skip it.

• Diffs — each edit appears as a card you can expand to see exactly what changed.
• Verification — after changing files, the agent is required to run the tests or lint before it can finish. If they fail, it repairs and re-runs.
• Keep or undo — the edit strip above the composer collects the run’s diffs. Use Keep all when you’re happy, or Undo all to reverse the whole set in one click.

6. Attach context when it helps

Give the agent exactly the files it needs instead of making it hunt:

• Click the + button above the composer.
• Drag files from the VS Code Explorer into the chat.
• Drag files or whole folders from Windows Explorer.

Folders are expanded into supported text and image files, skipping generated directories like .git, node_modules, .venv, dist and build. Attachments appear as pills above the box — click × to drop one before sending.

The daily checklist

That’s the whole loop. From here, the Chat Modes & Controls page goes deeper on the composer, and Tools & Commands shows the slash commands and recipes that make hard tasks easy.