View from a small plane cockpit lined up with a runway — Cleared for take-off

Docs · Getting started

Quickstart

Get your first flock flying in about ten minutes. You’ll install flokpit on your cluster, start five agents and steer them from chat.

Note

This page is an example. Commands and config keys in [brackets] are placeholders until the docs are final.

Before you start

A Kubernetes cluster you can deploy to
kubectl and helm on your machine
A chat channel for your flock
An API key for the model your agents use. A chat subscription is not enough. Which providers work

1. Install flokpit

Add the chart and install it into its own namespace.

shell

helm repo add flokpit [CHART-REPO-URL]
helm install flokpit flokpit/flokpit -n flokpit --create-namespace

2. Describe your flock

A flock is a small YAML file. It says how many agents to start, which channel to listen on and which actions need your approval.

yaml

# flokpit.yaml  (example)
flock: backlog-crew
agents:
  count: 5
  model: [YOUR-MODEL]
chat:
  channel: "#flokpit"
approvals:
  require_for: [deploy, delete]

3. Take off

shell

kubectl apply -f flokpit.yaml

Your agents line up and report in your channel. That’s your formation.

4. Steer from chat

Talk to the flock like a teammate. Type /honk and every agent honks back with its status. A few examples:

chat

you      status?
flokpit  5 agents flying. 3 done, 2 working.
you      pause agent-4
you      approve deploy

Close-up of a slime mould forming a branching network — Simple units. Smart routing.

Chat commands

Type / in the chat to see every command, or press ⌘K to jump to any flock, agent or setting. Mention agents with @.

Command	What it does
`/status`	Show what the flock is doing
`/spawn 3 [task]`	Start chief agents
`/spawn 2 under agent-3`	Add sub-agents to a chief
`/start all`	Approve waiting flight plans
`/approve` · `/reject`	Answer the oldest open honk
`/pause` · `/resume` · `/kill agent-N`	Control one agent and its sub-agents
`/formation tree`	Change the formation
`/name agent-5 Waddles`	Give an agent a name
`/honk`	Every agent honks back with its status
`/rules` · `/brief` · `/audit` · `/overview`	Open rules, briefing, audit log or all flocks

Rules, budgets and undo

Open Rules & crew in a channel to decide which actions honk: always, auto-approve when CI is green, or never. Set a monthly budget, and choose whether flokpit pauses the flock or just honks when it is reached.

Most actions show an Undo button for a few seconds: answers to honks, pauses, landings and rule changes. Everything is recorded in the Audit log.

Chief agents, sub-agents and plans

Chief agents can start sub-agents for parts of a task. Add one yourself with /spawn 2 under agent-3, or drag an agent onto a chief in the list. With flight plans on, new agents show their plan first. Start them with the button or /start all.

Core concepts

Pilot: You. The human who sets the heading and makes the final calls.
Agent: One AI worker with its own task and slot in the formation.
Flock: A group of agents working toward one goal.
Formation: How the flock is arranged and who reports to whom: V, echelon, tree or orbit.
Honk: When an agent needs a human decision, it honks. The step waits until you approve or reject it, for example a deploy.
Chief agent: An agent that leads part of the work and can start sub-agents.
Flight plan: The steps an agent intends to take, shown before it starts.
Channel: The chat room where you and the flock talk.