Skip to content

quickstart.mdx

Latest commit

 

History

History
157 lines (111 loc) · 5.86 KB

quickstart.mdx

File metadata and controls

157 lines (111 loc) · 5.86 KB
title Quickstart
description Sign up, run your first zombie, verify credits in under ten minutes.

This walks you from a fresh browser tab to your first executed zombie run. You need a terminal with curl, a GitHub or Google account for sign-in, and the zombiectl CLI installed. No database, no Docker, no ngrok.

Step 1. Sign up and claim $10 in credits

Open app.usezombie.com and sign up with GitHub, Google, or email. Clerk runs the auth flow — nothing to redeem, no gates to clear.

Prefer a GUI? The same workflow is available in **Mission Control** at [app.usezombie.com](https://app.usezombie.com) — overview page, zombies list with search, install form, detail page with kill switch. The CLI and Mission Control stay in sync.

Your tenant is created on first sign-in with a $10 (1000¢) balance seeded automatically. Credits are tenant-scoped, shared across every workspace under the tenant — you can create as many workspaces as you like without fragmenting the balance.

The dashboard header shows the live balance in the top right. Keep the tab open; you'll watch it tick down after Step 4.

Step 2. Install zombiectl and log in

npm install -g @usezombie/zombiectl
zombiectl --version
zombiectl login

zombiectl login opens a browser tab, completes the Clerk flow, and writes an authenticated session to ~/.config/usezombie/credentials.json.

Check that the CLI is wired to your tenant:

zombiectl workspace list

If the list is empty, create your first workspace by binding a GitHub repository:

zombiectl workspace add https://github.com/your-user/your-repo

This opens the UseZombie GitHub App install flow in your browser, finishes the binding, and sets the new workspace as current. See the workspaces guide for the full reference.

If you manage more than one workspace, pick the one you want the CLI pointed at:

zombiectl workspace use ws_abc123   # make it active
zombiectl workspace show            # confirm

workspace use persists the choice to ~/.config/zombiectl/workspaces.json; every later command that accepts --workspace-id defaults to it when the flag is omitted. Mission Control's own workspace switcher is backed by a cookie and stays independent — you can point the CLI at staging while the browser watches production.

Step 3. Create a zombie

Scaffold a zombie from a bundled template. The slack-bug-fixer template is the smallest happy-path starter:

zombiectl install slack-bug-fixer
cd slack-bug-fixer

Two files land in the new directory:

slack-bug-fixer/
├── SKILL.md      # agent instructions (natural language)
└── TRIGGER.md    # trigger, skills, credentials, budget

Open TRIGGER.md and tighten the budget if you want — the default is $5/day, $29/month, which is plenty for the smoke test.

If you want to explore other starting points, see the flagship Homelab Zombie or the full zombies index.

Step 4. Start the zombie and copy its webhook URL

zombiectl up

You'll see output like:

✓ zombie created  id=zm_019abc12-8d3a-7f13-8abc-2b3e1e0a6f11
✓ webhook live    POST https://hooks.usezombie.com/v1/webhooks/019abc12-8d3a-7f13-8abc-2b3e1e0a6f11
✓ agent running   status=alive

In the dashboard, the new zombie appears under Zombies → click in to see its detail page (logs tail, recent runs, skill calls). The webhook URL is also copyable from the detail page header.

Export the zombie id for the next step:

export ZOMBIE_ID=<paste the id from the output above>

Step 5. Trigger the zombie with curl

Fire a synthetic webhook event at your zombie:

curl -X POST https://hooks.usezombie.com/v1/webhooks/$ZOMBIE_ID \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "event_id": "demo-001",
    "type": "message.received",
    "data": {"from": "alice@example.com", "subject": "Smoke test"}
  }'

The HTTP response comes back in milliseconds with {"accepted": true} — ingestion is fast because execution happens in the background. Watch the dashboard detail page: within a few seconds the new event appears in the activity stream, the agent reasons, and the run completes.

Read logs from the CLI if you prefer:

zombiectl logs --zombie $ZOMBIE_ID --limit 50

The output is paginated — re-run with --cursor <next_cursor> to see older events.

Step 6. Verify the credit deduction

Refresh the dashboard header. Your tenant balance has dropped by the cost of the run — typically a few cents. The Billing page (app.usezombie.com/billing) shows the debit line-item, linked back to the run ID you just triggered.

Or via CLI:

zombiectl workspace billing

You now have a live zombie, a completed run, and a verifiable credit deduction. Kill the zombie when you're done:

zombiectl kill slack-bug-fixer

What's next

The flagship sample — diagnose kubectl / docker without holding the kubeconfig. Tenants, workspaces, zombies, skills — how they relate and how credits flow. Every `zombiectl` command you'll use day-to-day. Run the full control plane inside your own network. Wire real API keys — they never leave the vault. Tenant-scoped wallet, debit timing, usage-based Scale plan.