Tutorial: your first conversation with an agent

By the end of this tutorial, you will have chatted with Alice, read a formatted answer with coloured code, let Riker run a command after asking you, and stopped an agent in the middle of its work.

Prerequisites

Sidekicks set up as in Your first launch of Sidekicks, with the four test agents: make install-test-config once, so that Sidekicks finds them without any option.
llmman running, with the models of Alice and Riker pulled.

Step 1 — Open the conversation with Alice

Type make dev at the root of the repository. In the window, click Alice (assistant) in the AGENTS list.

You should see the agent's name at the top of the centre, the sentence "Write your first message to Alice…", and a text box at the bottom.

Step 2 — Ask Alice something

Click in the text box, type the following, and press Enter:

Donne un tableau markdown de 2 lignes (nom, rôle) puis un bloc de code Go qui affiche hello.

You should see your message, then "Alice … writing…": the answer appears word by word. Alice's dot in the list turns orange ("busy") and a red ■ Stop button appears. When the answer is complete, you have a table and a block of Go code in colours, with a Copy button.

Click Copy: it says "Copied ✓" — the code is in your clipboard.

Now move the pointer over Alice's answer: ⧉ Copy appears next to her name. Click it: the whole answer is in your clipboard, as Markdown (table and code included).

Step 3 — Let Riker run a command

Click Riker (tools) and send:

Utilise l'outil bash pour exécuter la commande ls dans le dossier courant, puis dis-moi combien d'entrées il y a.

After a few seconds, a framed card appears: "Riker (tools) wants to run a command on your computer", with ls under it. Click Allow once.

You should see a folded line "🛠 bash: ls … ✓ done", then Riker's answer. Click the line to unfold it: the command and its output are there.

Step 4 — Stop an agent

Send Riker:

Écris un poème de 60 vers sur la mer.

While the poem appears, click ■ Stop. The answer ends with "Answer stopped." and Riker's dot turns green again.

What now?

You have talked with two agents, approved a command and stopped an answer. To go further:

Change what agents exist from the window → How to edit or switch the configuration
Why the permission card looks like this → Permissions and trust
The events and messages behind the conversation → Reference: agents, channels and events

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# Tutorial: your first conversation with an agent

By the end of this tutorial, you will have chatted with Alice, read a formatted answer with coloured code, let Riker run a command after asking you, and stopped an agent in the middle of its work.

## Prerequisites

- Sidekicks set up as in [Your first launch of Sidekicks](first-launch.md), with the four test agents: `make install-test-config` once, so that Sidekicks finds them without any option.
- llmman running, with the models of Alice and Riker pulled.

## Step 1 — Open the conversation with Alice

Type `make dev` at the root of the repository. In the window, click **Alice (assistant)** in the **AGENTS** list.

You should see the agent's name at the top of the centre, the sentence "Write your first message to Alice…", and a text box at the bottom.

## Step 2 — Ask Alice something

Click in the text box, type the following, and press Enter:

```text
Donne un tableau markdown de 2 lignes (nom, rôle) puis un bloc de code Go qui affiche hello.
```

You should see your message, then "Alice … writing…": the answer appears word by word. Alice's dot in the list turns orange ("busy") and a red **■ Stop** button appears. When the answer is complete, you have a table and a block of Go code in colours, with a **Copy** button.

Click **Copy**: it says "Copied ✓" — the code is in your clipboard.

Now move the pointer over Alice's answer: **⧉ Copy** appears next to her name. Click it: the whole answer is in your clipboard, as Markdown (table and code included).

## Step 3 — Let Riker run a command

Click **Riker (tools)** and send:

```text
Utilise l'outil bash pour exécuter la commande ls dans le dossier courant, puis dis-moi combien d'entrées il y a.
```

After a few seconds, a framed card appears: "Riker (tools) wants to run a command on your computer", with `ls` under it. Click **Allow once**.

You should see a folded line "🛠 bash: ls … ✓ done", then Riker's answer. Click the line to unfold it: the command and its output are there.

## Step 4 — Stop an agent

Send Riker:

```text
Écris un poème de 60 vers sur la mer.
```

While the poem appears, click **■ Stop**. The answer ends with "Answer stopped." and Riker's dot turns green again.

## What now?

You have talked with two agents, approved a command and stopped an answer. To go further:

- Change what agents exist from the window → [How to edit or switch the configuration](../how-to/edit-or-switch-the-configuration.md)
- Why the permission card looks like this → [Permissions and trust](../explanation/permissions.md)
- The events and messages behind the conversation → [Reference: agents, channels and events](../reference/agents-and-events.md)