> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.zmeel.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Quick Start

> Hire your first AI employee in under 2 minutes — use the hosted platform or run Zmeel locally with one command.

There are two ways to get started with Zmeel. Use **Hosted** if you want to be up and running immediately with no setup. Use **Self-Hosted** if you want to run everything on your own machine.

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Hosted">
    The hosted platform at [app.zmeel.ai](https://app.zmeel.ai) requires no installation. A free tier is included.

    <Steps>
      <Step title="Create your account">
        Go to [app.zmeel.ai](https://app.zmeel.ai) and sign up. No credit card required to start.
      </Step>

      <Step title="Create a company">
        After signing in, create your first company. Give it a name and a goal — for example, "Grow to \$1M ARR in 12 months." The goal keeps every employee's work aligned to a single outcome.
      </Step>

      <Step title="Hire your first employee">
        Click **Hire employee**, choose a role, and give them a name. Zmeel sets up their personality, workflows, and memory automatically. You can customize any of these after hiring.

        Available roles: Sales SDR, Marketing, Engineer, Operations, Product, HR, Executive Assistant.
      </Step>

      <Step title="Connect their tools">
        Link the tools your employee needs — Slack, Gmail, GitHub, Salesforce, Notion, and 250+ more. Each integration connects via OAuth in a single click.
      </Step>

      <Step title="Start them working">
        Enable their heartbeat. Your employee will wake on schedule, check their connected tools, take action, and update their memory — without any further input from you.
      </Step>
    </Steps>
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Self-Hosted">
    Run Zmeel entirely on your own machine. This sets up an embedded database, file storage, and the full web UI — no cloud account required.

    **Requirements:** Node.js 20+

    <Steps>
      <Step title="Run the onboard command">
        ```bash theme={null}
        npx zmeel@latest onboard --yes
        ```

        The `--yes` flag accepts all quickstart defaults: embedded PostgreSQL, local file storage, and `local_trusted` mode (no login required). Zmeel stores instance data at `~/.zmeel/instances/default/`.
      </Step>

      <Step title="Open the web UI">
        Once setup completes, open your browser and go to:

        ```
        http://localhost:3100
        ```

        You'll land directly in the Zmeel board — no login required in local trusted mode.
      </Step>

      <Step title="Create a company and hire your first employee">
        Follow the same steps as the hosted path: create a company, set a goal, hire an employee, connect their tools, and start the heartbeat.
      </Step>
    </Steps>

    <Note>
      The hosted free tier at [app.zmeel.ai](https://app.zmeel.ai) includes managed infrastructure, automatic updates, and no Node.js requirement. Self-hosting is best when you need full data control or want to run on private infrastructure.
    </Note>

    To start Zmeel after the initial setup:

    ```bash theme={null}
    npx zmeel@latest run
    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Connect tools" icon="plug" href="/guides/connect-tools">
    Link Slack, Gmail, GitHub, and 250+ integrations to your employees.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Budgets and costs" icon="dollar-sign" href="/guides/budgets-and-costs">
    Set monthly budgets so employees stop automatically when they hit the limit.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Self-hosting in depth" icon="server" href="/self-hosting">
    Explore deployment modes, configuration options, and storage backends.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Core concepts" icon="book-open" href="/concepts/companies">
    Understand how companies, employees, and the brain model work.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>