--- title: Before you leave your computer nav: First-run checklist summary: After installing, while you are still at the computer, let your Agent list, finish and verify everything remote work will need from you. order: 25 --- # Before you leave your computer Once Agent J is installed and this computer's browser and your phone are paired, stay at the computer for one final preparation round. Your Agent handles the technical work. You handle the sign-ins, system prompts and physical steps that need you. After the first installation your Agent offers this once, when the welcome tour ends. Computers already in use never get it automatically; ask your Agent whenever you want it. **Send this to your Agent:** > I am at my computer now. List everything that needs my help before I can work remotely, and check what is already configured. Let me decline things I will not use. Guide me through the rest in order and verify each result. Use secure phone cards for passwords and keys, never chat. Finish by telling me what I can do away from the computer and what might still require a return. ## The checklist page When your Agent starts, a thin bar appears above the chat on your phone and in this computer's browser: "First-run setup 3/12 · Continue". It never covers the chat, so you can always keep talking to your Agent. Tap it to open the checklist as its own page; the arrow takes you back to the chat. The bar's ✕ (or "✕ Close checklist" on the page) closes it at once. On that device it then stays closed for good: new progress, re-checks, your Agent continuing the setup, even a restart never bring it back. Only you open it again, from the menu under "First-run checklist" or by asking your Agent to show it. You can also ask your Agent to close it. The top of the page always says: do these steps on the computer; watch progress on the phone; stuck? just tell your Agent in the chat. It has six groups: your connection, power and services, your websites, Google tools, permissions you need, and optional connections. Each item is labelled "On the computer", "Tap on the phone", "I do it" or "Not in this version". The page shows one current item at a time, with the whole list below it: - **Use it**: you need it; your Agent guides you through it. - **I won't use this**: optional items only. Your Agent remembers until you ask for it or a new task truly needs it. - **Later**: kept as unfinished, which is not the same as "I won't use this". - **Check**: the computer checks again. Saying you are done only starts a check; the item completes when the check passes. Required items (account, AI login, both remotes, passkey, background service, plugged in without sleep, network, the final phone check) have no "I won't use this". Say "Continue first-run setup" at any time to pick up where you stopped, without reinstalling or pairing again. When an item has not passed, the page says exactly what was found, what it affects, and what to tap next — for example that Gmail is not signed in in Agent J's own browser (your everyday browser does not count) and only tasks that use Gmail wait. Only what depends on it waits; everything else continues, and your Agent keeps chatting. ## Connect first Sign in to one AI tool. Pair this computer's browser and your main phone, then send a message from the phone and receive a reply. A phone passkey approves supported requests and recovery. It is separate from the computer's administrator password and a Mac's local Touch ID prompt. Where Claude Code and Codex are not offered (Hong Kong, Macau, mainland China and similar), the checklist's "Main AI login and access" row recommends by region: in mainland China, starting from zero, Volcano Ark Coding Plan — buy Lite first (same as Pro, only 1/5 of the quota); in Hong Kong / overseas, a Kimi membership, Plus or higher, through OpenCode (the Go plan has no coding quota), with Agent J's official invite link and this sentence right next to it: "This is Agent J's official invite link: you and we each get one prize draw". Already paying for one of them? Keep it. The decision comes from a real check; see [Set up AI command-line tools](/docs/setup-agents/#kimi). ## Keep the computer reachable Plug it in and keep the laptop open. The display may turn off while the computer keeps working. Your Agent checks the settings and keeps the original values; a system change comes to your phone as a password card (see [Keep the computer awake](/docs/keep-awake/)). With Windows and WSL, Windows itself needs checking. If a Mac still asks for local Touch ID, your Agent explains the local step instead of asking for the phone password again and again. ## Websites and Google Sign in to your websites (Gmail, YouTube Studio and others) yourself, on the real sign-in page on the computer. The checklist reads the sign-in checks of the browser Agent J uses, never your everyday browser, and every website row says which browser it checked. A check older than 15 minutes needs refreshing; saying you are done cannot make a site pass. WeChat completes only when both Official Accounts and Channels pass their own checks. - **Install Agent J's browser on the computer**: when Agent J has no browser yet. - **Use my existing browser**: when you already run a browser that automation tools connect to on this computer (for example a Chromium on port 9222, already signed in everywhere). Agent J uses it as it is: it never installs a second one, never starts, stops or changes it, and never reads its cookies. The browser group then shows "Using: your own browser (port 9222)". - **Open it on the computer and sign in**: the sign-in page opens in Agent J's browser and its window comes to the front (Linux with Hyprland or X11, and macOS; elsewhere the page tells you to find the window titled "Agent J browser"). Agent J's own window is easy to tell apart from your everyday browser: its title says "Agent J 专用浏览器 · Agent J browser" and its start page is purple. Signing in to Gmail's website is not the same as authorizing Gmail, Calendar, Drive or YouTube tools. This version pre-installs the Google tools; guided authorization arrives in 0.18.1. See [Connect Google](/docs/google/). ## Grant only the permissions you need Chat, file work and browser automation do not automatically require every Mac privacy permission. Only when a task you chose needs one does your Agent name the program and the reason. Phone microphone and camera permissions can be granted on the phone later. ## Check before you leave When everything else you chose has passed, tap "Start the leaving check" on the card: let the computer's display turn off, switch the phone to mobile data, and send any chat message. A reply completes it. You then see "You can now leave your computer and continue the selected, verified tasks from your phone." It also lists the items you did not enable and the check time. If anything is unfinished, you see what already works and how many items are left, never a claim that everything is remote. Power loss, a restart that needs unlocking, a new system permission or an account security check may still need you at the computer. Sending, paying and similar actions still ask for their own approval on the phone; the first-run checklist does not approve them in advance, and it never turns off a security setting to save you a trip.
Technical details - Commands: `agentj setup checklist --json` (read-only; `needs_setup` before you start), `agentj setup checklist --resume` (start or continue and show the banner on the phone and this computer's browser), `agentj setup checklist --check` / `--item ` (re-check; a website item runs a real read-only sign-in check), `agentj setup checklist --close` (close it everywhere at once; nothing reopens it by itself), `agentj setup checklist --open` (show it again, only when you ask). No command can mark "I won't use this" or "done" for you. - Your existing browser: `agentj browser adopt --endpoint http://127.0.0.1:` only proposes it (this computer's loopback only; anything else is refused) — it takes effect when you tap "Use my existing browser"; `--dry-run [--site gmail]` only reads and registers nothing; `agentj browser adopt --forget` stops using it. `agentj browser setup` asks first when it finds one; `--own` installs Agent J's browser anyway. - The state lives in `setup/checklist.json` in the local state folder (readable only by your user) and is not uploaded. Choices on the card are signed by a paired device; a card showing an older revision is refused and refreshed. - Freshness: websites 15 minutes, everything else 24 hours; the leaving check's phone round trip counts for 2 hours.