Documentation

Quickstart

Install TDE, walk the first-boot wizard and land on the desktop.

On this page

Overview

Five minutes, four steps: install the binary, run it, walk the first-boot wizard, land on the desktop. This works the same on a laptop and on a fresh VPS — on the VPS you just do it inside an SSH session.

1. Install

One command. It detects your OS and CPU, resolves the current stable release, downloads the artifact, verifies its SHA-256 and installs it atomically. Re-running it later is also how you update by hand.

bash

curl -fsSL https://tde.sh/install | sh

The install page carries the same one-liner as a copy button, and Installation documents every flag, path and platform in detail. Confirm the binary is on your PATH:

bash

tde --version

2. Run it

bash

tde

Over SSH, run it after you connect: your local terminal is what draws the desktop, so nothing extra needs to be installed on the server.

3. The first-boot wizard

The very first run opens a setup wizard — a centered panel with step dots, and a rotating showcase of the native apps on the right while things install. Five steps.

Step	What happens
Welcome	What TDE is. Nothing to do.
Connect	Optional GitHub and Telegram tokens. Arrow keys pick a field; the button opens the token modal.
Starter apps	Toggle the curated bundle (`claude-code`, `codex`, `btop`, `bluetui`), and on Linux the kiosk login session and Docker.
Setup	Background provisioning: host tools (curl, git), the Go, Node.js/npm and Rust toolchains, Chromium for the browser, then your starter bundle.
Finish	Opens the desktop, launching any configured startup apps.

Arrow keys move between options, Space or Enter toggles the focused one. Everything on the Starter apps step is optional and available later from the Store or the Control Center. The Setup step is idempotent — anything already present is skipped and reported as already installed — and if something fails, a Retry button appears next to Next.

4. The desktop

You are now on the desktop. The essentials:

Move a window — drag its title bar.
Resize — drag the bottom-right corner.
Focus — click anywhere in a window; typing then goes to it.
Launch things — the Notch across the top center, or the Launcher on the bar.
Quit TDE — Ctrl-Q.

Where to go next

Windows and workspaces — the desktop basics in full.
My Loop overview — projects, tasks, pipelines and agents.
Configuration — startup apps, theme, shortcuts.
CLI overview — if you would rather drive TDE from a shell.