quickstart

Quick Start

overkill                 # launch the TUI
overkill doctor          # self-test every subsystem with fix hints
overkill --help          # CLI subcommands

First launch

The onboarding wizard walks you through:

1. Pick a provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Ollama, etc.)
2. Paste an API key or do an OAuth device flow
3. Pick a model
4. Pick a theme

Then type a question and hit Enter. Type /help for the full surface.

Environment variables

Variable	Effect
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	Anthropic API key
OPENAI_API_KEY	OpenAI API key
GEMINI_API_KEY	Google Gemini API key
DEEPSEEK_API_KEY	DeepSeek API key
OVERKILL_HOME	Override config directory (default: ~/.overkill or %LOCALAPPDATA%\overkill)
DATABASE_URL	Postgres connection string
OVERKILL_NO_ANIMATIONS	Disable TUI animations (=1)
OVERKILL_CELL_RENDER	Enable SSH-friendly cell renderer (=1)

Basic workflow

overkill                              # start a session
> Write a function that reverses a string in Go
> /model                              # switch models mid-session
> /compact                            # compress context when it gets long
> /fork                               # branch from a past message
> /sessions                           # switch between saved sessions
> /quit                               # exit