talon-setup

name	talon.setup
description	Use when setting up Talon for the first time, adding channels or personas to an existing config, or running validation. Also use when the user says "configure talon", "add a channel", "add a persona", "add provider", "set up the daemon", "add schedule", or "configure providers".
triggers	["setup talon","configure talon","talon setup","add channel","add persona","add provider","set up the daemon","configure providers","add schedule"]

Talon setup skill

Guide the user through setting up and configuring Talon interactively. This is a conversational wizard. Ask one question at a time, act on the answer, move on.

Core principles

• One question at a time. Never dump a wall of questions.
• Detect state first. Skip steps that are already done.
• Use talonctl commands. Never edit talond.yaml directly except system prompts and task prompts.
• No secrets. Never ask for or write actual tokens. Use ${ENV_VAR} placeholders only.
• Show what you do. When running commands, show the output.

Available talonctl commands

All config mutations go through these commands:

Command	Purpose
npx talonctl setup	Bootstrap (dirs, config, migrations)
npx talonctl add-channel --name <n> --type <t>	Add a channel
npx talonctl add-persona --name <n>	Scaffold persona + add to config
npx talonctl add-skill --name <n> --persona <p> [--format <fmt>]	Add a skill to a persona
npx talonctl bind --persona <p> --channel <c>	Bind persona to channel
npx talonctl unbind --persona <p> --channel <c>	Remove binding
npx talonctl add-mcp --skill <s> --name <n> --transport stdio --command <c>	Add MCP server
npx talonctl add-provider --name <n> --command <c> [--context both]	Add a provider
npx talonctl set-default-provider --name <n> --context <ctx>	Set default provider
npx talonctl test-provider --name <n>	Test a provider works
npx talonctl list-providers	Show all providers
npx talonctl list-channels	Show channels
npx talonctl list-personas	Show personas
npx talonctl list-skills	Show skills
npx talonctl list-schedules	Show scheduled tasks
npx talonctl add-schedule --persona <p> --channel <c> --cron <expr> --label <l> --prompt <text>	Add scheduled task
npx talonctl remove-schedule <id>	Remove a scheduled task
npx talonctl list-capabilities	Show all available capability labels
npx talonctl set-capabilities --persona <p> --allow <labels>	Set persona capabilities
npx talonctl set-capabilities --persona <p> --add <labels>	Add capabilities to persona
npx talonctl set-capabilities --persona <p> --remove <labels>	Remove capabilities from persona
npx talonctl set-capabilities --persona <p> --show	Show persona's current capabilities
npx talonctl env-check	Audit env var placeholders
npx talonctl config-show	Show effective config (secrets masked)
npx talonctl remove-channel --name <n>	Remove a channel
npx talonctl remove-persona --name <n>	Remove a persona
npx talonctl migrate	Run database migrations
npx talonctl doctor	Validate configuration

State detection

Before starting, check the current state:

Check these files/directories:
- talond.yaml              → config exists?
- node_modules/            → dependencies installed?
- dist/                    → project built?
- data/                    → data directory exists?
- data/talond.sqlite       → database initialized?
- .env                     → env file with secrets?

Entry points

State	Action
No talond.yaml	Full flow from step 1
Config exists, no providers configured	Skip to provider setup
Config exists, no channels	Skip to channel configuration
Config exists, has channels and personas	Show menu

Returning user menu

If setup is already complete, present:

What would you like to do?
  a) Add or configure a provider (Claude, Gemini)
  b) Add a channel
  c) Add a persona
  d) Add a skill to a persona
  e) Add or manage scheduled tasks
  f) Bind/unbind persona to channel
  g) Run validation (doctor)
  h) Show current config summary
  i) Test a provider
  j) Check environment variables

Skill formats

When adding a skill, choose a format with --format:

• SKILL.md (--format skillmd, recommended for new skills): Single markdown file with YAML frontmatter for metadata and markdown body for instructions. No separate prompts directory.
• skill.yaml (--format yaml, default/legacy): Separate YAML manifest file plus a prompts/ directory for prompt fragments.

Example:

# New style (recommended)
npx talonctl add-skill --name my-skill --persona assistant --format skillmd

# Legacy style (default if --format is omitted)
npx talonctl add-skill --name my-skill --persona assistant

Full setup flow

Step 1: Prerequisites

Check each prerequisite. Report status. Fix what can be fixed automatically.

1. Node.js >= 22          → check `node --version`
2. Dependencies installed → check node_modules/, run `npm install` if not
3. Project built          → check dist/, run `npm run build` if not
4. AI providers installed → check `claude --version` and/or `gemini --version`

For provider binaries not on PATH, ask for the full path (e.g. /home/user/.npm-global/bin/gemini).

At least one provider must be installed and authenticated. Check both:

• Claude Code: claude --version. Auth: claude auth login or valid Anthropic API key.
• Gemini CLI: gemini --version. Auth: run gemini once interactively for OAuth, or set GEMINI_API_KEY.

If neither is installed, stop and explain how to install at least one.

Step 2: Bootstrap

Skip if talond.yaml already exists.

Run: npx talonctl setup

This creates directories, generates default config, runs migrations, validates.

Step 3: Provider configuration

This step configures which AI providers Talon uses for interactive conversations and background tasks.

Ask: "Which AI providers do you want to use?"

a) Claude Code only (default)
b) Gemini CLI only
c) Both (recommended if both are installed)

For each selected provider, run add-provider:

# Claude (if selected)
npx talonctl add-provider --name claude-code \
  --command claude \
  --context both \
  --context-window 200000 \
  --threshold-ratio 0.5 \
  --enabled

# Gemini (if selected)
npx talonctl add-provider --name gemini-cli \
  --command <path-to-gemini> \
  --context both \
  --context-window 1000000 \
  --threshold-ratio 0.8 \
  --enabled

For Gemini, ask: "Which Gemini model? (default: gemini-2.5-pro)"

Available models: gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gemini-3-flash-preview, gemini-2.5-pro, gemini-2.5-flash, gemini-2.5-flash-lite.

If a model is specified, add --default-model <model> to the add-provider command.

If both providers are configured, ask: "Which should be the default for conversations?"

npx talonctl set-default-provider --name <choice> --context agent-runner

Then: "And for background tasks?" (explain: background tasks run async, cheaper/faster models work well here)

npx talonctl set-default-provider --name <choice> --context background

Test each configured provider:

npx talonctl test-provider --name claude-code
npx talonctl test-provider --name gemini-cli

If a test fails, troubleshoot:

• Binary not found → check the command path, which claude or which gemini
• Auth failure → Claude: claude auth login. Gemini: run gemini interactively once for OAuth.
• JSON parse failure → Gemini CLI version too old, see https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli for upgrade instructions

Step 4: Channel configuration

Ask: "Which channel do you want to connect first?"

a) Telegram
b) Slack
c) Discord
d) WhatsApp
e) Email
f) Terminal (for CLI chat)
g) Skip for now

Invoke the matching per-channel skill for the full setup walkthrough:

Channel	Skill to invoke
Telegram	/add-telegram
Slack	/add-slack
Discord	/add-discord
WhatsApp	/add-whatsapp
Email	/add-email
Terminal	/add-terminal

Each skill handles: bot/app creation, credentials, config, env vars, verification, and troubleshooting.

Ask: "Add another channel?" Loop until done.

Step 5: Persona configuration

Ask: "Let's create a persona. What should this agent be called?"

1. Accept a name (suggest "assistant")
2. Run: npx talonctl add-persona --name <name>
3. Ask these questions one at a time:
   • "What should {name} do?" (purpose)
   • "What tone?" (professional/casual/technical/friendly)
   • "Any specific constraints?" (optional)
4. Generate a system prompt from the answers
5. Show it to the user for review
6. Write the approved prompt to personas/{name}/system.md
7. Ask which channels to bind:
   • Run: npx talonctl list-channels to show options
   • For each selected: npx talonctl bind --persona <name> --channel <channel>

Ask: "Add another persona?" Loop until done.

Step 5b: Capability configuration

After creating a persona, show what capabilities it has and what's available.

1. Run: npx talonctl set-capabilities --persona <name> --show
2. Run: npx talonctl list-capabilities
3. Explain: "Your persona was created with sensible defaults: memory access, HTTP requests, and schedule management. Here are all available capabilities."
4. Ask: "Want to adjust capabilities for {name}?"

If yes, help the user decide which to add or remove:

• For agents that should message other channels: npx talonctl set-capabilities --persona <name> --add "channel.send:*"
• For agents that need database access: npx talonctl set-capabilities --persona <name> --add "db.query:own"
• For agents that run background tasks: npx talonctl set-capabilities --persona <name> --add "subagent.background"
• For agents that invoke sub-agents: npx talonctl set-capabilities --persona <name> --add "subagent.invoke"

Repeat for each persona.

Step 6: Scheduled tasks

Ask: "Do you want to set up scheduled tasks?"

Explain what they are: the agent runs a task prompt on a cron schedule and sends results to a channel. This makes the agent proactive instead of reactive.

Recommend starting with memory grooming (required for long-term health):

npx talonctl add-schedule \
  --persona assistant \
  --channel <primary-channel> \
  --cron "0 3 */2 * *" \
  --label "Memory grooming" \
  --prompt "Run the memory-grooming task prompt"

Explain: without memory grooming, the agent's stored memory fills up with stale and duplicate entries. Every 2-3 days at a quiet hour is the recommended cadence.

Then offer other common schedules:

Suggested schedules (optional):
  a) Morning briefing (weekdays 7am) — calendar, email, Jira, GitHub summary
  b) End-of-day summary (weekdays 6pm) — recap and tomorrow preview
  c) Weekly review (Friday 4pm) — stale tickets, forgotten follow-ups
  d) Week planning (Sunday 7pm) — upcoming week overview
  e) Custom schedule
  f) Done, skip the rest

For each selected, the user needs a task prompt file at personas/<name>/prompts/<prompt-name>.md. Either use the defaults that ship with the assistant persona or help the user write one.

Create each schedule with:

npx talonctl add-schedule \
  --persona <persona> \
  --channel <channel> \
  --cron "<expression>" \
  --label "<label>" \
  --prompt "Run the <prompt-name> task prompt"

Common cron expressions for reference:

• 0 7 * * 1-5 — weekdays at 7am
• 0 18 * * 1-5 — weekdays at 6pm
• 0 16 * * 5 — Friday at 4pm
• 0 19 * * 0 — Sunday at 7pm
• 0 3 */2 * * — every 2 days at 3am

Step 7: Database setup

Run: npx talonctl migrate --config talond.yaml

Step 8: Validation

Run: npx talonctl doctor --config talond.yaml

For failures, provide specific remediation steps.

Step 9: Environment check

Run: npx talonctl env-check

Show which env vars are missing. Tell the user to add them to .env.

Step 10: Provider verification

Test every configured provider one more time:

npx talonctl test-provider --name claude-code
npx talonctl test-provider --name gemini-cli

Only declare setup complete if at least one provider passes.

Step 11: Systemd service (Linux only)

Ask: "Want to install talond as a systemd service?"

If yes, tell the user to run:

sudo ./deploy/install-service.sh --user $(whoami) --dir $(pwd)

Step 12: Summary

Run these to build the summary:

npx talonctl list-providers
npx talonctl list-channels
npx talonctl list-personas
npx talonctl list-schedules
npx talonctl env-check

Print results and instructions to start the daemon:

node dist/index.js          # foreground with logs
# or if systemd service is installed:
sudo systemctl start talond

Shared memory between agents

Talon supports shared memory between personas using the Anthropic Memory MCP server. This is a knowledge graph stored in a single JSON file. When multiple personas use the same file, they share knowledge automatically.

How to set it up: for each persona that should share memory, add the memory MCP server to one of its skills:

npx talonctl add-mcp --skill <skill-name> --name memory \
  --transport stdio \
  --command npx \
  --args "-y @anthropic-ai/memory --memory-path data/shared-memory.json"

All personas point to the same --memory-path. Use data/shared-memory.json as the default location.

When to suggest this: when the user has multiple personas and asks about sharing context between them. Don't suggest it proactively during initial setup.

Rules

1. Never write actual secrets. Only ${ENV_VAR} placeholders in config files.
2. Use talonctl commands for all config mutations. Exceptions: system prompt files, task prompt files, and .env.
3. One question per message. Do not batch questions.
4. Show command output. Let the user see what happened.
5. Don't start the daemon. Setup only. The user starts it themselves.
6. Validate at the end. Always run doctor, env-check, and test-provider before declaring setup complete.
7. Test providers. After any provider change, run test-provider to verify.