# Quick start

_clackatoo / Getting started_

> Build clackatoo, open a window on your shell, and drive terminals from the command line by starting one, typing into it, reading its screen and closing it.

## Build it

clackatoo is a Cargo workspace. Build the `clackatoo` command in release mode:

```sh
cargo build --release -p clackatoo
```

The binary is `target/release/clackatoo`.

## Open a window

```sh
clackatoo --font "JetBrains Mono"
```

That opens a window on your shell, starting the daemon in the background if it isn't running. Leave out `--font` for your system's monospace font, or choose one for good with `clackatoo config font "JetBrains Mono"`. Close the window and the shell keeps running; open another and you're back.

Ctrl+; switches to normal mode, where you scroll, select and search history with Vim's keys, and `i` switches back. From normal mode, `:|` Enter splits the pane with a new terminal on its right, `:-` below it, and `:Terminal` opens one in a new tab. Ctrl+H, Ctrl+J, Ctrl+K and Ctrl+L move between panes, and `:1`, `:2` and so on between tabs. [The window](/clackatoo/reference/window.md) has all its keys.

## Start the daemon yourself

```sh
clackatoo daemon
```

To watch the daemon's log, run it in the foreground instead. It logs to stderr; set `RUST_LOG=debug` for more detail. Only one daemon runs per user: a second one refuses to start. Stopping the daemon (Ctrl-C, or `clackatoo stop`) hangs up every terminal it owns.

## Drive a terminal

From another terminal, start one. `new` prints the new terminal's ID:

```sh
$ clackatoo new
1
```

It runs your `$SHELL` in the current directory, at 80×24. Type a command into it and press Enter with `run`:

```sh
clackatoo run 1 ls --color=always
```

See what it shows with `capture`. Add `--ansi` to keep the colours:

```sh
clackatoo capture 1 --ansi
```

`send` types text without pressing Enter, which is how you drive full-screen programs:

```sh
clackatoo run 1 htop
clackatoo send 1 q
```

List terminals, and close one when you're done:

```sh
clackatoo list
clackatoo close 1
```

Closing a terminal hangs up its program, as closing a terminal window would. A terminal whose program exits stays listed, with its exit status and last screen, until you close it.

## From another machine

With clackatoo built on both machines, and ssh able to log in to the other one without asking for anything:

```sh
clackatoo --remote desktop
```

That opens a window on `desktop`'s workspaces, starting the daemon there if it isn't running. Every command takes `--remote` too, as in `clackatoo list --remote desktop`. If ssh's commands on the other machine can't find clackatoo, [another machine](/clackatoo/reference/remote.md) explains how to point at it.

Related content:

- [What is clackatoo](/clackatoo/getting-started/what-is-clackatoo.md)
- [The window](/clackatoo/reference/window.md)
- [Another machine](/clackatoo/reference/remote.md)
- [The clackatoo command](/clackatoo/reference/cli.md)