# Getting started
Install Tambo with the [release installer](installing.md), then run this in an
empty directory you will keep:
```bash
tambo quickstart
```
This saves a retrieval plan, installs Quipu, Camayoc and Bobbin, and verifies
all three without an interview, running server, or issued token. The local
single-user store is `.caboodle/quipu.db`. Keep the plan and `.caboodle/`.
Each `<tool>: verified` line means an isolated functional round trip passed,
with a negative control and a reader-path proof. Recheck with:
```bash
tambo verify
```
Camayoc verification manages its own temporary loopback server. It needs no
administrator service. Remote access is an advanced opt-in through
`QUIPU_SERVER` or a plan's `quipu_mcp`; that path still requires a valid issued
credential. See [configuration](configuration.md).
## Guided interview
Use `tambo init --guided` instead of the first two commands to describe
your own use interactively. Run `tambo doctor` before installing to see
platform or prerequisite blockers.
| `profile` | `retrieval` for a first install. See [profiles](profiles.md). |
| `what should this installation help you do?` | One plain sentence. It is recorded in the plan. |
| `how many themed crew members` | `0` unless you run a named team of agents. |
| `how many ontology questions` | Press **enter** on a first install: Tambo uses a built-in self-test question that checks the store answers a query, and asks nothing else. Or type a number to write your own; each question is a check the finished graph must pass. |
| the question's five fields | Only if you typed a number. A question in words, its answer shape, the seed fact that answers it, a SPARQL `SELECT` or `ASK` query, and a word the answer must contain. |
## Recovery
- **`tambo doctor`** first. It names the blocker and the fix.
- **`<tool> install step ... no checksummed Tambo release for <platform>`**:
build that tool with the `cargo install` command doctor prints, then rerun
`tambo install`. Tambo adopts an installed tool that passes its checks.
- **`<tool> functional verification`**: the tool installed but its round trip
failed. The error includes the tool's own output. Fix it and rerun
`tambo install`; tools that already passed are not redone.
- **macOS with Bobbin before v0.18.0 (the pin Tambo carried before this release was v0.16.2): bobbin panics with `Failed to load ONNX Runtime dylib`**: bobbin
looks for its bundled runtime next to the `~/.cargo/bin/bobbin` symlink rather
than next to the real binary. For that release, run
`export ORT_DYLIB_PATH="$HOME/.local/share/caboodle/bobbin/v0.16.2/lib/libonnxruntime.dylib"`
(add it to your shell profile) and rerun `tambo install`.
- **A new build still behaves like the old one**: another copy earlier on PATH
wins. Doctor lists every copy in the order your shell finds them, and
`tambo verify` fails with `SHADOWED` when the copy PATH runs reports a
different version from the one Tambo installed. Remove the stale copy or
move `~/.cargo/bin` earlier on PATH.
- **`no plan at caboodle-plan.toml`**: you are in a different directory from the
one where you ran `tambo init --guided`.
Do not delete `.caboodle/` to recover. It holds your interview answers and the
last proven state.
## Reproduce the README proof
On Linux x86_64, from a checkout, run `scripts/test-readme.sh`. It extracts the
README's actual bootstrap, quickstart and verify commands, runs them under
`env -i` with a fresh home and no issued token or server, and requires both
functional verifications for all three tools. The Documentation workflow runs
this proof on every push and PR.
For local link checks, install mdBook 0.5.4 and lychee 0.24.2, then run
`just docs-check`. `pre-commit install` enables the same check before commits.
The check builds the book under its Pages base path and checks files, anchors
and public URLs. The source-build route additionally requires Rust; agent
registration additionally requires the selected client and profile.