Getting started

From zero to your first gated run: create an org, connect your editor, and watch an agent work.

Warden runs AI coding agents through a workflow you define — phase by phase, with a human gate between them — and lets you watch every step live from your editor. This guide takes you from a fresh account to your first reviewed run.

1. Create your account and organization

Sign up with email, GitHub, or Google — that creates your personal account. Next you create your first organization (or join one by pasting an invite): you're its admin, and runs, tasks, connectors, and teammates all live inside it. One account can belong to several organizations and switch between them. Invite your team from Members — Warden emails a join link (and you can copy it too), bound to the invited email.

2. Install the editor extension

Warden's primary work surface is the editor. Install the Warden extension in VS Code or Cursor and click Sign in in the Warden sidebar — choose Warden Cloud or your self-hosted host, and it opens this site and connects your editor in one click. (A self-hosted host is set per project with a host: line in .warden/settings.yaml.)

3. Give runs a repository

Runs work on real branches, so Warden needs push access to your repo. In the editor's Warden Settings → Git access, either install the GitHub App (recommended — per-repo, revocable) or store a personal access token. Non-GitHub hosts work with a token or SSH key.

4. Initialize the project

Warden's configuration is versioned with your code in a .warden/ directory: workflows, connectors, statuses, and personas. The extension scaffolds it for you — a default spec → code → merge workflow is created on first use, and every file is plain YAML you can edit.

5. Start a run

Create a task (or import one from your tracker — see Connect trackers), pick a workflow, and start a run. The live session opens in the editor: the agent's reasoning, every file edit, every command, the diffs, the cost. When the phase finishes, the run parks at a gate and waits for you.

6. Review at the gate

Approve advances the run to the next phase. Request changes sends it back with your note as feedback — the agent reworks the same branch. You can review from the editor or from the run's page in this dashboard. That loop — watch, gate, advance — is the whole product.