The first time you open kill9, a setup wizard appears. It has four steps shown in a left sidebar with a progress indicator. You can revisit any of these settings later in the app.
What to have ready
- An API key or account with an AI provider
- A codebase folder you want kill9 to work with
Step 1: Welcome
The welcome screen shows three cards that explain what kill9 does:
- Multi-Provider — Bring your own AI keys. kill9 works with Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, and others.
- Context — kill9 reads your workspace, understands your codebase, and uses that context in every conversation.
- Autonomous — Agents plan, implement, test, and review. You describe what you want, they figure out how to build it.
Click Get Started to move to the next step.
Step 2: AI Provider
This step connects kill9 to an AI provider so agents can reason and generate code.
The screen shows a grid of providers: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, GitHub Copilot, Codex, MiniMax, Z.AI Coding Plan, and Kimi. Each provider card shows whether it supports OAuth, API keys, or both.
Click Sign In for OAuth providers. Your browser opens, you authorize the connection, and you're returned to kill9. For API key providers, click Add Key and paste your key.
After connecting at least one provider, a model picker appears below. Each model shows its context window size — how much code and conversation it can hold at once. Pick one as your default. You cannot continue without a default model selected.
You can add more providers later in Settings → Models.
Step 3: Workspace
This step tells kill9 which codebase to work with.
If you already have projects in kill9, you can Select existing. Otherwise, Create new.
For a new project, enter a Name and Key. The key is auto-generated from the name — it's a short uppercase identifier like "K9" or "API" that appears on initiative cards. You can change it if you want.
Then set up your Workspace name and Add repositories. Point kill9 at your codebase folder on disk. kill9 reads the files to understand the project structure.
Each repository shows a verification status. kill9 optionally runs verification commands — Install, Start, Test, Build, Lint, Typecheck, E2E tests — to confirm the project is healthy. These aren't required, but they help agents know how to work with your codebase.
When everything looks right, click Continue.
Step 4: Get Started
"All set." Three cards summarize what you're about to do: Describe what you want, agents Build it, and you Ship it after review.
Click Launch Kill9. The main workspace opens.
After onboarding
You'll land in the main app with the workspace rail on the left. The first useful place is Inbox (Mod+1), where work items and agent activity appear.
You can change your provider, workspace, or any other setting later by opening Settings (Cmd/Ctrl+,).