Quickstart Tutorial

This tutorial guides you through your first session with Quay 2, from registering your workspace to launching autonomous multi-agent coding sessions.

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1. Registering a Project Workspace

When Quay 2 launches, you are greeted by the Navigation Rail on the left side of the window.

1. Click the + icon next to Projects in the rail, or press Ctrl+K and choose "Add Project Folder".
2. Select your local git repository directory (e.g. E:\Projects\MyProject).
3. Quay 2 registers the workspace, detects existing git branches, and discovers any secondary git worktrees associated with the repository.

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2. Launching Your First Terminal (Ctrl+B N)

1. Press Ctrl+B N (or click "New Terminal" in the navigation rail).
2. The New Terminal dialog appears with options:
   • Command Type: Choose an agent (Claude Code, Antigravity, Codex, Pi, PiG, Gemini, Grok, Aider, Kiro, Copilot or OpenCode), a PowerShell Console, or a Custom Command, which runs any command line, such as cmd.exe or wsl.exe.
   • Model: For an agent, pick one of its presets (for Claude Code, e.g. Claude Opus 5.5 or Claude Sonnet 5.5), or leave it on Default, the agent's own setting. See the Agent Compatibility Matrix.
   • Permission Mode: Skip Permissions (Default) starts the agent with its own flag for running tools without asking, where Quay passes one (for Claude Code, --dangerously-skip-permissions). Interactive Approvals leaves it off, so the agent asks before its tools. Pi never asks, so it has no choice here.
   • Terminal Label (Optional): Give your session a descriptive name (e.g. feature-auth).
3. Press Enter or click Start Terminal.
4. The terminal opens instantly, fitted to your window dimensions.

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3. Keyboard Navigation Essentials

All workspace management in Quay 2 is driven by the Ctrl+B prefix key chord:

• Switch Terminals: Press Ctrl+B 1 through Ctrl+B 9 (or Alt+1 .. Alt+9).
• Split Stage Side-by-Side: Press Ctrl+B % to split horizontally.
• Split Stage Top-and-Bottom: Press Ctrl+B " to split vertically.
• 2x2 Quad Grid: Press Ctrl+B G to tile 4 terminals simultaneously.
• Zoom / Maximize: Press Ctrl+B Z to toggle zoom on the active pane.
• Cycle Focus: Press Ctrl+B O to cycle input focus between panes.
• Unsplit: Press Ctrl+B X to restore single active pane.

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4. Spawning a 1-Click Multi-Agent Swarm (Ctrl+B S)

Instead of configuring multiple splits manually, Quay 2 provides Swarm Presets:

1. Press Ctrl+B S to open the Swarm Launcher.
2. Select a preset. The launcher selects the first built-in preset when it opens. Swarm Presets & Splits lists every built-in preset with its agents, and shows how to save your own swarms.
3. Click Launch Swarm Now. Quay automatically splits the stage and launches the coordinated processes.

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5. Using the Agent-to-Agent (A2A) Bus

Every Claude Code session launched inside Quay 2 is automatically connected to the loopback MCP bus:

1. In Terminal 1 (frontend-agent), give Claude a task:

   Use quay_list_agents to find 'backend-agent'. Ask them via quay_send_message
   what endpoint schema is expected for the user profile API, and wait for their response.

2. Claude calls quay_list_agents, discovers the recipient's terminal ID, and invokes quay_send_message.
3. Quay delivers the prompt to Terminal 2 (backend-agent), awaits its turn completion, and delivers the answer directly back to Terminal 1 without any manual copy-pasting.

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6. Triaging GitHub Issues (Ctrl+B I)

1. Press Ctrl+B I to slide out the GitHub Companion Drawer.
2. View all open issues and pull requests for your repository.
3. Notice any issues marked with a red BLOCKED tag: hover over the tag to see the exact issue numbers currently blocking work.
4. Click "Implement with Claude" or "Implement with Archon" on any ready issue. Quay will automatically create an isolated worktree branch and prompt the agent to implement the requested solution.

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7. Tracking Spend & Audio Chimes (Ctrl+B T)

1. Check the bottom toolbar in the navigation rail to see your live all-time token spend.
2. Press Ctrl+B T to open the Token Spend & Audio Settings dialog.
3. Inspect model breakdowns (Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, Haiku 5.5) and enable subtle audio chimes to notify you when long-running agent turns finish while you work in other applications.