Your first project

In this chapter you open a project, give Coodoo its first goal and let the autopilot build it. Expect a few minutes to set everything up; the building itself then takes anywhere from fifteen minutes to a few hours, depending on the goal.

1. Opening a project

On the dashboard, click Add project (or Open project from GitHub in the project menu in the top left). If the repository is already in the list on the dashboard, Clone and open works too. You have two choices:

• Existing repository: find your repository with Search repository… and click Clone and open (or double-click it).
• New repository: fill in a Name and, if you like, a Description. Private repository is on by default. Click Create and open.

Coodoo puts the project in your projects folder, by default ~/CoodooProjects/<owner>/<name>. You can see the location at the bottom of the window.

Tip: If you already have a project open, Coodoo asks whether the new project should go in This window or a New window. With Remember my choice it won't ask again.

2. Adding a goal

You make goals in the Chat. Open the Chat window on the right.

1. Say what you want in a sentence or two. For example: I want a contact form that forwards messages by email.
2. Answer the chat's questions: how it should look, what should and shouldn't happen, when it's done.
3. The chat makes a Proposed goal. Click Add as goal.

The better you tell what you want, the better the result. You don't need to use technical words. See Writing good goals.

3. Starting the autopilot

Click the play button (Start autopilot) at the top. The status label at the top shows what's happening, for example Autopilot · Planning.

What happens next:

1. Research: the researcher looks at your code and searches the internet for what's needed.
2. Design: the designer works out how it should look (only if the goal has a screen).
3. Planning: the developer makes a plan with tasks and looks at the risks and what's needed.
4. For each task: Building, starting and checking the app, Review, fixing if needed, and then committing and pushing.
5. Wrapping up: updating the version number and changelog.

Coodoo skips steps a goal doesn't need. A small bug fix, for example, doesn't need a design.

4. Watching along

• The Autopilot tab (the dashboard) shows the tasks, the progress and the recent activity.
• At the bottom is the Run window with the agents' live log.
• In the Team window you see what each agent is doing right now and how many tokens it's using.

You don't have to stay. You get a notification when a goal is done or has failed. Your computer stays awake as long as the autopilot is working.

5. Looking at the result

• Click Start app at the top to try your app yourself. See Starting your app.
• Under Goals → History you see the finished goal with its security report.
• On the GitHub page you see all commits and changes.

6. Merging the work

Every goal is on its own branch, like coodoo/contact-form-a1b2c3d4. If you're happy with it, go to GitHub → Merge and follow the three steps. Coodoo merges it, tests the whole thing and puts it on GitHub. See GitHub and merging.

Next steps

• Get to know the screen in the Tour.
• Read how the Autopilot works in detail.