Installation & Setup

What is Daintree?

Daintree is a free, open-source desktop application that hosts AI coding agents in a review-first workspace. Each task can run inside its own isolated Git worktree, so multiple agents work in parallel without stepping on each other's branches. Agents run as CLI processes inside panels you can watch live, and Review Hub is where you inspect, stage, and commit their changes before anything goes upstream. One place to delegate work, watch agents live, and inspect results before anything merges.

If you already run agents from the command line, the mental model maps directly onto what you're doing today:

System Requirements

Daintree runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. You'll need:

• Git — Daintree manages Git worktrees, so Git needs to be installed and on your PATH.
• Node.js v18.0.0+ — Needed for installing agent CLIs via npm. Not required if you install agents through other package managers.
• One or more AI agent CLIs — At least one of the supported agents installed (see below).

Download & Install

Download the latest release for your platform:

sudo dpkg -i daintree_*.deb

chmod +x Daintree-*.AppImage
./Daintree-*.AppImage

sudo sysctl -w kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0

echo 'kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0' | sudo tee /etc/sysctl.d/99-daintree-userns.conf

sudo apt install libfuse2t64

Installing Agent CLIs

Daintree runs AI coding agents as CLI processes. Install the ones you want to use:

Claude Code

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

Also available via npx @anthropic-ai/claude-code for one-time use without installing globally.

Gemini CLI

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli

Codex CLI

npm install -g @openai/codex

OpenCode

npm install -g opencode-ai@latest

OpenCode can also be installed via platform-specific methods:

curl -fsSL https://opencode.ai/install | bash

brew install opencode

scoop install opencode

choco install opencode

curl -fsSL https://opencode.ai/install | bash

brew install opencode

Cursor Agent

curl https://cursor.com/install -fsS | bash

irm 'https://cursor.com/install?win32=true' | iex

curl https://cursor.com/install -fsS | bash

After installing, run cursor-agent login to authenticate.

Kiro

curl -fsSL https://cli.kiro.dev/install | bash

Check the install with kiro-cli --version, then sign in:

kiro-cli login

See the Kiro CLI documentation for more.

Copilot

npm install -g @github/copilot

Check the install with copilot --version, then sign in:

copilot login

See the Copilot CLI documentation for more.

First Launch

First launch opens the Welcome Screen. An inline banner invites you to run the Agent Setup Wizard, which handles themes, system requirements, and agent installation in three steps. You can skip it and come back later from Settings > CLI Agents > Run Setup Wizard.

Daintree enforces a single instance. If you try to open a second copy, it'll focus the existing window instead.

Welcome Screen

The Welcome Screen is what you see when no project is open. At the top is a dismissible banner titled Set up your AI agents with a Set up agents button and a Not now dismiss link. Clicking Set up agents opens the wizard. Not now hides the banner and it stays dismissed across sessions.

If you already have agent CLIs installed but haven't pinned them to your toolbar, a second card appears: We detected your installed agents. Click Pin all to toolbar to add them in one go.

Agent Setup Wizard

The wizard runs in three steps: select your agents, install any that aren't set up yet, and confirm. A step counter in the header tracks your progress.

Step 1: Select agents

Step 1 combines theme selection, system requirements, and agent selection into one view.

At the top is a collapsible System requirements accordion. It's collapsed by default, showing your Git and Node.js versions inline in the header when everything passes. It auto-expands if a required tool is missing:

• Git (required) and Node.js v18.0.0+ (required) must be present.
• npm and GitHub CLI are recommended but not blocking.

Use Re-check after installing a missing tool to update the results.

Below the requirements check is the theme picker with two cards: Daintree (dark) and Bondi Beach (light). Each card shows a mini UI preview, and clicking a card applies it immediately. More themes live in Settings > Appearance.

A Help improve Daintree toggle appears next for anonymous crash reports. No file contents or credentials are ever included.

The agent list comes last, split into two tiers:

• Featured agents: Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Codex
• More agents: OpenCode, Cursor, Kiro, Copilot

Installed agents float to the top of their tier and are pre-selected. Click Continue to proceed, or Skip to close the wizard without changing anything.

Step 2: Install agents

Step 2 is where any selected agents that aren't already on your system get installed. If everything you picked is already installed, the wizard skips straight to Step 3.

Each agent shows as a card with a status badge: Installed, Installing, Failed, Manual, or Not installed. Click Install on a card to run its install command, or use the Install All button to run them one after the other.

Agents with multiple install methods (npm versus Homebrew, for example) have a method switcher on their card. If an install fails, expand Show error log for the stderr output, or copy the manual install command shown on the card.

At the bottom is a Skip Permissions section for agents that support launching without interactive permission prompts. Turn this on per agent if you want Daintree to launch those agents in skip-permissions mode.

Use Back to return to Step 1 if you need to change your selection.

Step 3: Setup complete

The final step confirms how many agents are ready and lists each one with its keyboard shortcut:

Click Finish Setup to close the wizard.

Getting Started Checklist

A short checklist tracks the core Daintree workflows. It shows up in two places:

• Inline on the Welcome Screen, with a progress bar at the top
• Floating panel pinned to the bottom-right corner once a project is open

Both versions show the same four items:

1. Open your project. Connect a local folder. Clicking this opens the folder picker.
2. Ask AI to help with your code. Agents can write code, fix bugs, and answer questions about your codebase. Clicking this opens the agent palette.
3. Start a parallel task. Work on two things at once without switching branches. Clicking this opens the create worktree dialog.
4. Run two agents in parallel. Kick off a second agent while the first keeps working. That's the Daintree superpower. Clicking this opens the create worktree dialog so you can start the second task in its own branch.

Items tick themselves off automatically as you do the corresponding action, so you don't need to come back and check them off manually. When all four are done, you'll see a confetti animation and a success toast.

Opening a Project

Open a project via File > Open Directory (Cmd+O on macOS) or by using the project switcher in the toolbar.

Daintree requires projects to be Git repositories. If you select a directory that isn't a Git repo, Daintree will walk you through initializing one:

1. Run git init
2. Optionally create a .gitignore file
3. Stage all files and create an initial commit

Once a project is opened, Daintree scans for existing worktrees and loads any saved state (terminal sessions, panel layout, recipes).

If you don't have a local copy of the repository yet, you can clone one directly from Daintree. See Cloning a Repository for details.

Recent Projects

Access recently opened projects via File > Open Recent. Projects are sorted by the last time they were opened, and each entry shows the project path for quick identification.

Daintree CLI

The daintree command (macOS and Linux only) lets you open any directory in Daintree straight from your terminal. It works the same way as code . in VS Code. If Daintree is already running, it handles the request internally and opens the directory in a new window without launching a second instance.

Installing the CLI

Install the CLI from within Daintree via Terminal > Install Daintree Command Line Tool in the menu bar.

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Usage

Once installed, open any directory in Daintree from your terminal:

daintree .              # Open the current directory
daintree ~/projects/my-app  # Open a specific directory
daintree --status       # Check if Daintree is running
daintree --version      # Print the CLI version
daintree --help         # Show usage information

The --status flag exits with code 0 if Daintree is running and 1 if it isn't, which is useful for scripting.