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

# Bot quickstart

> Sign in, create your first bot, open its computer, give it a task, and approve its first consequential step

This quickstart takes you from a signed-in account to a bot that has done a first piece of work on its own desktop, in under ten minutes. It uses the web app, where a bot's computer runs in the Cloud.

You need a Cortex account and a browser. Nothing is installed. If you would rather read about the machinery first, see [How Bot works](/bot/how-it-works).

<Steps>
  <Step title="Sign in and open Bot">
    Sign in with your Cortex account at [cortex.foundation](https://cortex.foundation), then choose **Cortex Bot** in the sidebar. Bot is signed-in only: without an account you see the public product page and a **Sign in to Cortex Bot** button instead of a bot list.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create a bot">
    Choose **New bot**. An account with no bots yet lands on **Create your first bot** rather than an empty list.

    Give it a **Name** of 1 to 40 characters, then pick a **Look** and a **Face**. Everything else on the form is optional and can be changed later. Choose **Create bot**; you see `Creating…`, then the bot's first conversation.

    Its computer is created with it. For the whole form, including descriptions, labels, skills and connected apps, see [Create a bot](/bot/create-a-bot).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open its computer">
    Switch to the **Computer** tab.

    * If it reads **No computer yet**, choose **Start computer**. The hint says `Start a Cloud computer to open a live desktop.`
    * If it reads **Computer is asleep**, choose **Wake the computer**.

    You will see `Starting the computer…`, then `Connecting to the desktop stream…`, then the live desktop with **Live** on the rail. Confirm **Runs on** reads `Cloud`.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Give it a task">
    Go back to **Messages**. A bot with no thread yet shows `{name} is idle.` and a row of **Suggested asks**. Those pills write the composer, they do not start a run, so you can edit one before sending.

    Type into the composer, which reads `Message {name}…`, and choose **Send**.

    ```text theme={null}
    Open our status page, check whether any component is degraded, and tell me what you find.
    ```

    You will see `{name} is writing…` and then short bubbles as they arrive. A bot reports in a handful of messages rather than narrating every click, so watch the Computer tab if you want the detail.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Approve its first consequential step">
    When the bot reaches something consequential, a command, a file write, or a click on its desktop, the turn parks and you get a widget that asks `Allow {tool}?`, naming the tool, with the reason and the arguments it stopped on.

    * **Allow** runs that exact step and the turn continues from the real result.
    * **Deny** does not run it, and the bot is told why.
    * **Always** writes a rule so that tool stops asking on this bot.

    Nothing runs while the request sits there. See [Approvals and tool policy](/bot/approvals).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Drive the desktop yourself (optional)">
    On the Computer tab choose **Take control** to use your own mouse and keyboard; **You have control** appears while you hold it. Choose **Hand back** when you are done. If the bot is holding the controls you see `{name} is still working.`
  </Step>

  <Step title="Let it rest">
    Choose **Sleep** or **Hibernate** when you have finished, and the rail reads **Off**. An idle bot computer is put to sleep for you anyway, and the next task wakes it. To rebuild a computer that has gone wrong, choose **Recreate**.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What you will and will not see

A bot's conversation holds only four kinds of thing: your messages, the bubbles the bot chose to send you, questions it asks you, and requests for a secret. Everything else it produced while working, its own reasoning and its raw tool output, never reaches the conversation. A turn is capped at 8 bubbles, so a bot that has nothing to say says nothing.

A turn has no round limit. It ends when the model is finished, when you cancel, when the 15-minute deadline expires, or when the same tool call repeats six times without progress.

## Good first tasks

| Task                                             | Why it suits a bot                       |
| ------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------- |
| Check a dashboard and summarise what changed     | Browsing, then a short report            |
| Fill a recurring form from a file you gave it    | Desktop work with a clear stopping point |
| Watch a page and tell you when something appears | A routine plus a notice bubble           |
| Pull a weekly report out of a connected app      | A routine plus one approved connection   |

<Note>
  In the web app a bot's computer runs on `Cloud` only. `This PC`, which needs a paired host on your own machine, and `SSH`, which uses a saved host and has no live desktop, are options in the [Bot desktop app](/bot/desktop).
</Note>

## Next steps

Once the first task has landed, the three things most people want next are a schedule, a skill and a connected app. Add a routine from the bot's **Routines** panel with **Create routine**; by default it `Runs on weekdays at 9:00 in your local time, unless the prompt says otherwise.` Enable a skill from the **Skills** panel, where each recipe is scanned before it can be turned on. Assign a connected app on the **Plugins** page and then switch it on for this bot only.

## Related

* [Create a bot](/bot/create-a-bot) - every field on the New bot form.
* [Computer](/bot/computer) - the live desktop, recordings, sleep and wake.
* [Approvals and tool policy](/bot/approvals) - what asks, what does not, and why.
* [Routines](/bot/routines) - put repeated work on a schedule.
* [Bot troubleshooting](/bot/troubleshooting) - when the desktop or the turn does not behave.