Installation & Setup

This guide covers installing Quay 2 on Windows, from the release installer or from source, then the agent CLIs it runs and the event-bridge plugin that lets Quay see what Claude Code is doing.

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System Requirements

• Operating System: Windows 10 (Version 1809 / Build 17763 or newer) or Windows 11.
  • Native Windows ConPTY is required and built into modern Windows builds.
• Architecture: x86_64 (AMD64) or aarch64 (ARM64 Windows).
• RAM: 8 GB minimum (16 GB+ recommended for running multi-agent swarms).
• Disk Space: 500 MB for Quay 2 binary and runtime caches.

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Installing a Release

Download the Windows installer from the latest release on the Releases page: Quay_<version>_x64-setup.exe, or Quay_<version>_x64_en-US.msi if you prefer an MSI. Run it and start Quay from the Start menu.

Then install the agent CLIs you plan to run and, for Claude Code, the event-bridge plugin. Quay's PowerShell panes need PowerShell 7, and the tutorials also need Node.js and Git.

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Building from Source

Toolchain Prerequisites

1. Visual Studio C++ Build Tools

The Rust compiler on Windows requires MSVC C++ build tools.

• Download from the Visual Studio Downloads page or install via winget:

  winget install Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.BuildTools --override "--passive --add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Workload.VCTools --includeRecommended"

2. Rust Toolchain (1.85+)

Install the official Rust toolchain via rustup:

# In PowerShell:
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://win.rustup.rs" -OutFile "$env:TEMP\rustup-init.exe"
& "$env:TEMP\rustup-init.exe" -y --default-host x86_64-pc-windows-msvc --default-toolchain stable

Verify the installation:

rustc --version
cargo --version

3. Node.js (20+ or 24+ LTS) & pnpm

Install Node.js:

winget install OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS

Enable pnpm globally:

npm install -g pnpm
pnpm --version

4. Git & GitHub CLI (gh)

winget install Git.Git
winget install GitHub.cli

# Authenticate GitHub CLI for the GitHub Companion Drawer
gh auth login

Step 1: Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/seanrobertwright/Quay-2.git
cd Quay-2

Step 2: Install Node Dependencies

pnpm install

Step 3: Run Desktop App in Development Mode

pnpm tauri dev

• Vite starts the frontend live-reload server at http://localhost:1420.
• Cargo compiles the Rust backend in unoptimized debug mode.
• The desktop window launches automatically with active file watchers on src/ and src-tauri/.

Packaging a Release Binary

To generate an optimized, standalone Windows executable:

pnpm tauri build

This compiles Quay 2 with full Link-Time Optimization (lto = true), symbol stripping, and optimizations (opt-level = 3).

Output artifacts:

• Standalone Executable: src-tauri/target/release/tauri-app.exe
• Windows Installer (.msi / .exe): src-tauri/target/release/bundle/nsis/ or bundle/msi/

Verifying the Build

Run the test suites to confirm full platform compatibility:

# Verify TypeScript types:
pnpm tsc --noEmit

# Run Rust unit tests:
cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml

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Agent CLIs

Quay runs the coding CLIs you install; it doesn't bundle them. This applies the same way to a release install and a source build. Quay starts each CLI by name, so it has to be on your PATH.

Claude Code

Install Claude Code with its native installer, in PowerShell:

irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex

Quay needs Claude Code 2.1.296 or later. Check the version:

claude --version

Then run claude once in a terminal and sign in. Quay's Claude terminals use that sign-in.

Install the event-bridge plugin next. Without it Quay can't see a Claude terminal's status or replies.

Other CLIs

Install the other CLIs you plan to supervise with their own instructions. For example:

# Aider:
pip install aider-chat

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Event-bridge Plugin

The event-bridge plugin sends Claude Code's events to Quay. Quay reads a Claude terminal's status from them (Starting, Working, Waiting, Idle) and takes a Claude peer's replies from them, and the plugin brings Claude Code's tool approvals to Quay. Quay sets the address, token and terminal tag the plugin uses when it starts Claude Code, so the plugin needs no configuration.

Install it:

claude plugin install event-bridge --marketplace seanrobertwright/claude-mod-events

In a Claude Code session that was already running, run /reload-plugins to load it.

To check it, run /plugin in Claude Code: event-bridge should be listed as installed and enabled.

To update it:

claude plugin update event-bridge@event-bridge

When Quay hears nothing

A Claude terminal shows Starting until Quay hears from the plugin. If 30 seconds pass after the terminal's first output with no event, the terminal shows Unknown and its pane shows the plugin hint. A Claude Code prompt left open longer than that brings the hint up too: answer the prompt and the hint clears as soon as the plugin speaks. If the plugin isn't installed, install it with the line above and run /reload-plugins in that terminal.

Other causes

Each of these keeps an installed plugin from running, with its fix:

• The plugin is disabled in /plugin. Enable event-bridge there, then run /reload-plugins.
• The terminal started Claude Code with --bare. That flag turns plugins off. A relaunch reuses the terminal's flags, so open a new Claude terminal without it. If it came from the workspace's default flags, remove it there first.
• The terminal started Claude Code with --safe-mode. That flag turns plugins off too. Start a new Claude terminal without it, the same way.
• disableAllHooks is set in your Claude Code settings. It stops the plugin's hooks. Remove the setting or set it to false, then relaunch the terminal.
• Your organization sets allowManagedModsOnly. Only mods your organization manages can load. Ask whoever manages Claude Code for your organization to add the event-bridge plugin.
• Claude Code is older than 2.1.296. Update it by running the native installer again, and check with claude --version.

To check whether Claude Code can load mods at all, run:

claude plugin test

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PowerShell, Node.js and Git

Quay's PowerShell panes need PowerShell 7. The tutorials also need Node.js and Git, because each one starts from a small Node.js project that you commit to Git in its first step.

PowerShell 7

Quay's PowerShell panes run PowerShell 7, pwsh.exe, not the Windows PowerShell that comes with Windows. Install it:

winget install Microsoft.PowerShell

Check the version:

pwsh --version

Node.js and npm

The tutorials need Node.js 24 or later, which runs TypeScript files as they are, and the npm that comes with it. Install the current LTS release:

winget install OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS

Close and reopen Quay, then check the version in a new PowerShell pane:

node --version

Git

Install Git:

winget install Git.Git

Then tell Git your name and email, which it writes into every commit you make:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "you@example.com"

Check the version:

git --version