Typing this command gives consent to install Cedrus. Do not pipe yes into it. Do not run it twice at the same time. Ask me for an invite first.

The install script downloads the tools and sets up the Desk. Its final status is one success line or one refusal line. Wait for that line before deciding what happened; an open Terminal window alone does not mean it finished.

Success looks like:

It should then open the Desk and a workspace named SETUP: Claude guide on one side, a live checklist on the other.

Copy the whole cedrus-install: … line and send it to me. Include what you did just before it appeared. If there is no final line yet, keep the window open so we can read it. Common ones:

Sign into Claude in the tab it opens. A browser login is normal. Return to SETUP when it finishes and wait for the login check. A successful browser page alone does not finish the checklist row.

Claude first. Then you may add Codex (via Pi / openai-codex), xai, and extras. Pi runs some of those other providers in the Desk; you can leave them for later. Pick a label (a short nickname) and a provider. API keys and tokens are secret strings that let tools use your account. Never paste a password, API key, or token into the guide chat. The login tab opens beside you. DeepSeek types the key inside its own tab.

The default, auto, follows your Mac’s light/dark setting. Other names: light, dark, colorblind-light, colorblind-dark. Pick auto unless you have a reason.

Pick Later to finish install with shipping off. Shipping stays off until GitHub identity and repo access check out. Now reuses a safe existing login, or opens a separate browser login. If neither works, it defers the step.

It asks where you keep your projects. Use ~/projects and create it if it is missing. This step only sets the folder; it leaves choosing and cloning a repo for later. Checklist row: Projects folder set. Adding a project is Cmd+N, after this.

The guide will ask you to press keys so it can prove they work. Press them in the Desk, not in this browser.

If the projects folder is empty: no project added yet. That is fine. Skip to reopen. To return later, use a project with GitHub access and working checks; Project requirements explains what it needs.

If you already have a project: the guide asks which repo and which existing GitHub issue. It ships with /sweep only. Wait for the result to confirm the PR merged. Parked means it stopped; read the reason.

Cedrus.app is ~/Applications/Cedrus.app. Spotlight: type Cedrus.

For daily reopening and saving a long chat, see Extras.

It will ask once whether to open the Desk at login. Default No. Saying yes to the original install command was not a yes to login items.

herdr is the tab and pane manager inside the Desk window.

You do not read files in an editor. Tabs are conversations. Keep this guide on your phone if you want a second screen. You do not need two full-screen desktops.

Cmd+1…9 changes rooms, so the conversations on screen change too. Select the room with your project’s name before opening a new Claude tab. Cmd+W also closes the tab if that was its last pane; leave busy worker panes open.

HQ is the board you glance at. It is watch-only. It does not start jobs.

You may see pins, all, a board per project, log, parked, accounts, and api-billing. The two that matter here are parked and accounts.

The money board shows provider credit and local cost estimates where available. Estimates are not invoices; check the provider’s own account page for billing. Some account boards can be absent if their helper is unavailable.

Ask for one change at a time.

Say what you should see when it is done. If you name two unrelated changes, /do can file two issues and start two jobs. Look for more than one issue link in its reply.

A question such as “why is X slow?” files nothing and starts no job. Ask questions in the chat. Use /do once you want a change made.

In that project’s Claude tab, say the work in English and use /do. That files GitHub issues and starts work. You should get the repo, the issue URLs, and a message that the jobs are running. The next update is done or stuck.

If the issue already exists, this is enough:

Replace 123 with the issue number. Launch from that project’s tab.

A repo, short for repository, is a project with file history. A local folder alone cannot finish the shipping flow. It needs a connected repo on GitHub that your account can write to, plus that project’s checks and shipping setup.

Start with a repo whoever invited you has prepared. Use Cmd+N to add it to the Desk. If you create an empty folder instead, ask for help connecting it before your first job. Finishing the SETUP GitHub login does not create a repo or give you access to every project.

If /do asks which repo, name the one you intend to change. If access or checks are missing, fix that with your inviter. Repeating the request cannot supply them. For First shipment in SETUP, use an existing issue.

These still work as the content of an issue:

Describe the outcome you want. Leave passwords, API keys, and customer exports out of the request and the first project. The workers read project files as well as your chat.

When you ask for work, /do files GitHub issues, the written requests on your project, and starts /sweep. Each issue gets its own Foreman.

The Foreman is a program. It creates a worktree, a separate working copy of the project, then starts helpers and reads their saved result files. That keeps the main copy untouched while the job runs.

Each Foreman has a tab beside the tab you started from. Helper panes open for a task and close after their result is saved. The sweep itself runs in the shared sweeps tab in that workspace.

After the first Foreman starts, its job appears on the board in HQ. Glance there or at the Foreman tab while it runs. Helpers in separate panes work on different parts of the same job. Match the issue number on the board to the link you received when work started.

Explore reads the project without editing files or running tests; on a small, clear job, it writes the plan and the Foreman skips Planner. For harder work, Planner uses those facts to name the steps, files Executor may change, and checks, without changing the app.

Executor edits the worktree, follows the plan, runs the named checks, and saves changes and results for the Foreman to handle the PR and merge. If a simple plan needs a larger decision, Executor returns needs-plan; the same job goes to Planner once and continues in the same worktree.

Runtime QA checks a safe running copy when live behavior needs proof without an automated test, saves what it saw, and reports pass or fail. It never fixes the app; failures go back to Executor.

Optional helpers are a Resident Engineer, who settles a routine technical choice from Planner’s supplied options without changing your request; a Research expert, who answers factual questions with sources without editing the product; and Visual QC, who reports visual problems without editing the product.

The saved model settings, called pins, choose who fills each role. A job keeps the settings it started with, so you do not need to pick models while it runs.

The helper names describe jobs; the model names describe the AI doing them. A different model name in another pane can be expected. Each helper saves a result file for the Foreman to read. You do not need to visit each pane or carry replies between them.

A Foreman tab is open. Helpers come and go in panes. HQ shows the job moving. You may see tests run. A quiet pane alone does not tell you whether a check is still running or work is blocked; read the latest status before starting anything again.

If a login, trust, or permission prompt interrupts the job, use When it breaks. You should never need to click Merge on GitHub to finish the flow.

A run should bother you when it starts and when it is done or stuck. In between, the pane is where to look. For a catch-up in your Claude tab, use /play.

The Foreman opens a PR, the proposed change on GitHub, and sets it to merge when the required checks pass. Ordinary work ships on green tests. Risky work also gets an independent review.

If it cannot finish, it parks with a saved reason. Read that reason in HQ’s parked tab, or ask whoever invited you. Do not merge the PR by hand.

Chat messages, a busy pane, and a closed issue do not prove a merge.

Parked means stopped and waiting, with a saved reason. Open parked in HQ.

Read the reason for the issue you started. You might need to fix GitHub access, name the repo, or ask for help with a failed check. The parked board also keeps recent history, so read any later outcome before assuming an old row is still waiting.

Send whoever invited you the issue or PR link, the full reason, and what you last did. Do not merge the PR or rewrite its branch yourself.

SETUP and some logins use waiting on you: …. Do the named thing, such as finish the browser login or press the shortcut, then wait for done.

A worker can also be blocked by a first-time project trust prompt, login, or permission request. Open the named pane and read what it is asking. The Desk reports the stop and leaves the prompt for you to read.

Finish a login or approve a request only when you understand it and recognize the project. If the prompt is unclear, send your inviter a screenshot with private details hidden. Leave the pane open and do not start a second copy of the job.

For a bad merged change, ask for another job: “revert X” or “fix the header.” Say what changed and what you want restored. The workers can test and ship the correction through the same process.

A paid Claude plan has usage limits. If a new tab refuses to open or a job never starts, check HQ’s accounts tab and read the exact refusal. Cmd+T can refuse based on saved usage information, so its message may describe an earlier check rather than a fresh one.

Wait for the allowance to reset, or ask your inviter whether another account is appropriate. Adding an account explains how to add a login. Repeatedly pressing Cmd+T will not create more allowance.

A job marked ready-undispatched is ready but has not started a worker. When an account has no room to start work, the refused job does not retry automatically. Once the account problem is resolved, ask your inviter how to resume that job and include its issue link.

There is no friend-safe cancel command documented here. Ask whoever invited you to stop the specific job, and give them its issue link. Closing a busy worker pane is not a clean cancellation.

Keep the Desk available while they help. Do not force-quit random processes or delete Cedrus’s data folders to make a job disappear.

Type Cedrus in Spotlight to reopen the same Desk and rooms. The app is at ~/Applications/Cedrus.app.

Closing the Desk window leaves its background session running. Opening Cedrus again focuses the existing window or opens one window on that same session. Double-clicking the app while it is open does not start a second Desk. Closing the window does not cancel work.

Paste:

Use this in a Claude tab on your Desk. It reads the work status without starting or changing jobs. Its sections are Your call, Landed, Running, Next. Read Your call first for anything that needs your answer, then Landed for completed work.

Only if you turned it on in SETUP. If the window is gone but the app focuses nothing, tell me the exact message. If macOS asks for Automation / System Events to focus the window, grant it. Without that access, the launcher refuses to open a second window.

In the conversation you are about to clear, run:

This saves the chat’s notes and tells you whether it is safe to clear. Wait for that reply. If it reports a problem, keep the conversation until it is resolved. Running workers keep going; /pause does not pause them.

Saving also happens during the conversation, so forgetting this once is not a reason to panic. It is the final check before you clear a long chat. When you return, use the catch-up above.

In a Claude tab:

Give a label and provider, then finish the login tab. Wait for the Desk to link the account, as in SETUP’s Accounts step. An added login does not by itself mean a running job will change accounts. Ask for help if the job still names the old account in its refusal.

Ask the SETUP guide, or tell a Claude tab you want light / dark / auto / colorblind. Do not hand-edit config files.

If you picked Later, return to SETUP with /cedrus-setup and complete GitHub. Wait for the account and project access checks. The login used to download Cedrus and the Desk’s shipping check are separate steps.

Then follow the project requirements before starting work. Do not run random gh auth in Terminal.app unless the guide says so.

Cmd+N opens the picker. That is how you add a project after the folder is set. SETUP never clones a repo for you. After adding it, check the room name before asking for work so the request goes to the intended project.

When whoever invited you says a newer release is ready, use the same private download line in Terminal. If they name a specific version, ask them for the exact line for that version. Do not guess a release number.

Check that your jobs are merged or parked before updating, and ask for help if anything is still running. Normal reinstall is designed to keep your accounts and projects. You do not need to wipe them to update.

Wait for the install result, reopen Cedrus, and check your project rooms. If the installer refuses or something is missing, keep the message and ask your inviter. Do not delete folders and try again.

Ask whoever invited you to help with removal. Plain uninstall removes the owned installation and stops its Desk while keeping accounts and project data. A later install can reuse what it kept.

A full wipe is a separate choice with extra consent. It deletes the whole private Cedrus data folder, including logins and any projects stored inside it. Projects outside that folder are outside the wipe. Read the named folder before agreeing, and make sure you have copies of anything you need.

I made this guide because I was tired of explaining the same setup one person at a time.

Open the app and try the change you asked for. If it works and the result confirms the merge, you have made your first shipment. If it is wrong, say what you see and ask for the correction.

If I add more features for beginners, I will update this guide. You can share this URL with someone else who has an invite.