Set up your agent and code

Hive starts coding sessions in your repositories. The first screen of first run asks for the two things it needs to do that: which coding agent to run, and where your code is.

Hive writes both to the hive CLI configuration file, so the hive command picks up the same setup. Nothing else in that file is touched.

Choose an agent

Pick one or more from the list. Hive marks the ones it found on your PATH, and you can pick one you have not installed yet — it will work once the command is there.

Selecting more than one adds a Start new sessions with choice. That is the agent a new session uses when you do not name another.

Point at your repositories

Select Choose a folder and pick the folder that contains your repositories. For a layout like this:

~/code/
  hive-desktop/
  my-app/
  notes/

choose ~/code, not ~/code/my-app. Hive rejects a folder that is itself a git repository and tells you so.

Every repository under the folders you add shows up in the new session picker. Add as many folders as you like — work in one, side projects in another.

The row under each folder shows how many repositories Hive found there. If it says none, you probably picked a level too deep or too shallow.

Already use the hive CLI?

If your config already names an agent and at least one folder, Hive says so and uses it as it is. Nothing is rewritten.

Skipping

You can skip this step. The Inbox half of Hive — feeds, sources, flows, notifications — works without it. The new session picker stays empty until you set it.

Changing it later

This screen is the only one that writes the file. To change either setting afterwards, edit the file yourself and restart Hive Desktop — Settings ▸ Hive CLI shows you where it is, opens it, and links to the hive CLI configuration reference.

The file is shared with the hive command, so anything else in it — rules, tmux settings, keybindings, your own agent profiles — is kept exactly as written.