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Quick Start

Already installed?

If you haven't installed greybeard yet, see the Installation Guide.

```bash
uv pip install greybeard  # or: pip install greybeard
```

1. Configure your LLM

Run the interactive setup wizard:

greybeard init

This walks you through choosing a backend (OpenAI, Claude, Ollama, or LM Studio) and saves your preferences to ~/.greybeard/config.yaml.

Local LLMs

If you want to run completely free and offline, choose ollama or lmstudio. See LLM Backends for setup instructions.

2. Review a git diff

The most common use case — pipe a diff and get a Staff-level review:

git diff main | greybeard analyze

Change the perspective with a different mode or pack:

# More explanation of the reasoning (teaching mode)
git diff main | greybeard analyze --mode mentor

# From the 3am on-call perspective
git diff main | greybeard analyze --pack oncall-future-you

3. Self-check a decision

Before opening a PR or sharing a proposal, run it through greybeard:

greybeard self-check --context "We're migrating auth to a new provider mid-sprint"

You can also pipe in a draft document:

cat my-proposal.md | greybeard self-check --context "Proposal for replacing our job queue"

4. Get coaching on communication

When you have a concern but aren't sure how to raise it:

greybeard coach --audience leadership --context "I think we're shipping too fast and cutting QA"

5. Save the output

Use --output to save the review to a markdown file:

git diff main | greybeard analyze --output reviews/$(date +%Y-%m-%d)-review.md

What's next