Quickstart

You need an invitation and a Mac with Apple silicon. Each step ends with something you can see.

1. Get an account

1. Open your invite link. It fills in the invite code. Without a link, open Sign up and type the code in Invite code.
2. Fill in Email, Username (3 to 32 characters: letters, numbers, _ and -) and Password (at least 12 characters).
3. Click Create account.

Your dashboard opens.

2. Install the Mac app

1. Click Download at the top of the page (on a phone, in the menu on your picture), then click Download on the page it opens.

2. Open the disk image and drag Lookout into Applications.

3. Before the first launch, run this once in Terminal:

   xattr -cr /Applications/Lookout.app

4. Open Lookout from Applications.

The window shows Sign in to Lookout.

3. Sign in

1. Click Continue with browser. Your browser opens Lookout's sign-in page.
2. Sign in there with your email or username and your password. If this browser is already signed in, click Continue.
3. If your browser asks to open Lookout, allow it. The app picks up the sign-in by itself, and the page says You're signed in.
4. On a new account, this first Mac shows Save your Recovery Key. Save it as Account and devices shows, or click Later.

The window shows Welcome to Lookout.

4. Connect a provider

1. Click Get started. Connect a provider lists every provider: a free tier that needs no sign-in under Connected, so a chat can already run, and the providers you can sign in to under Available.
2. To run on a plan you have, click the sign-in on that provider's row under Available: it names what you hold there, or says Add API key for a key. Finish the step the row opens: a page in your browser, a code, a key to paste, or another app's sign-in. The provider moves to Connected.
3. Click Continue. With only the free tier connected, it reads Continue with the free tier. If the free tier's row says the provider refuses Lookout's client, connect another provider first.

The app opens on New chat, and the connected providers' models are in the model menu. To connect one later, open Settings › Providers, or choose Connect more providers at the bottom of the model menu in the message box. Models and providers covers each provider's sign-in.

5. Open a project

1. Click the project picker above the message box.
2. Click Open folder (⇧⌘O), choose a folder with code in it, and click Open.

The picker shows the folder's name. A worktree or clone of a project you already have opens in that project, and the checkout's name shows beside it (Open a folder).

6. Send a prompt

Type a task in the message box and press Enter. For example:

Find one function in this project that has no tests, write tests for it, and run them.

The agent's steps stream into the chat as it reads files and runs commands. When it is done, a card shows how many files changed.

7. Review the change

1. Click Review on the changes card. The side pane opens beside the chat on its Changes tab, with a diff for each file.
2. Use the scope menu at the top of the tab to switch between This turn, This chat and Uncommitted.

Each changed file shows its added and removed lines. ⇧⌘R opens and closes the pane from anywhere in the chat.

8. Restore a checkpoint

Lookout records your files before every turn, in a git history of its own that leaves your repository alone.

1. In the row of buttons under the agent's answer, click Restore files to before this turn.
2. The dialog lists the files that change. Click the button that names their count, such as Restore 2 files.

The files are back to how they were before the turn, and a message such as Restored 2 files appears. Click Undo in it to bring the change back.

Next steps

• Chats and projects: queue, steer and stop the agent while it works.
• Modes: ask without edits, or split the work with Multitask.
• Checkpoints and changes: revert one file, a turn or a whole chat.
• Worktrees: give a chat its own branch.

Prefer a terminal? The CLI runs the same agent with lookout exec.