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Getting Started

Requirements

Tool Purpose Install
gh GitHub API brew install gh
git Version control brew install git
claude AI coding agent npm i -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
Python 3.12+ Runtime brew install python@3.12
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY Anthropic API authentication docs

Interim install (pre-launch)

The create-kew and kew-cli packages publish to npm and PyPI at launch. Until then npx create-kew and pip install kew-cli won't resolve — install the CLI from source instead:

uv tool install "kew-cli[serve] @ git+https://github.com/thossullivan/kew.git#subdirectory=kew"

That gives you the kew command (with the web serve extra). Then skip the install step below and start from "Create config".

npx create-kew

This walks you through repo detection, config creation, and label setup.

Option B: Manual setup

# 1. Install
uv add kew-cli
# or: pip install kew-cli

# 2. Create config
cat > kew.toml << 'EOF'
[project]
name = "my-project"
repo = "owner/name"  # your GitHub repo — kew dispatches issues from here

[commands]
# ci and format accept any shell command — use your stack's.
# Node:   ci = "npm test"   format = "prettier --write ."
# Python: ci = "pytest"     format = "ruff format ."
ci = "npm test"
format = "prettier --write ."
commit_prefix = "feat(#{issue}): "
EOF

# 3. Create labels and security hooks
kew setup

# 4. Mark an issue ready — kew's queue IS the `ready` label; nothing
#    dispatches until you bless an issue.
gh issue edit <n> --add-label ready

# 5. Dispatch
kew run

What happens next

  1. kew picks the highest-priority ready issue from your GitHub queue
  2. It creates an isolated git worktree on a branch like agent/issue-42
  3. If an approval gate is configured and the estimated cost meets your threshold, the issue is parked under needs-approval before the agent runs — release it with kew approve --issue N, the TUI A key, or via the web inbox (kew serve)
  4. Claude Code runs with your CI, budget, and security guardrails
  5. On success, a PR is created and labeled pr-pending-review
  6. You review the PR like any other

See How It Works for the full dispatch loop.