Quickstart

Get Sesame running locally in under 5 minutes using Docker.

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose installed
• A GitHub account (for repository access)

1. Create Project Directory

mkdir sesame && cd sesame

2. Download Configuration

# Download docker-compose.yml
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jakejarvis/sesame/main/docker-compose.yml

# Create environment file
cat > .env << 'EOF'
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=change-me-to-a-secure-random-string
BASE_URL=http://localhost:13531
ENCRYPTION_KEY=change-me-to-another-secure-string
EOF

3. Generate Secrets

Replace the placeholder values with secure random strings:

# Generate secrets (copy output to .env)
echo "BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=$(openssl rand -base64 32)"
echo "ENCRYPTION_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32)"

4. Start Sesame

docker compose up -d

5. Create Your Account

1. Open http://localhost:13531 in your browser
2. Click Sign Up and create an account
3. The first user automatically becomes an admin

6. Connect GitHub

1. Create a GitHub Personal Access Token
2. Click your avatar → GitHub PAT
3. Paste your token and save

7. Run Your First Task

1. Click New Task
2. Select a repository
3. Enter a prompt like: "Add a README.md file with project documentation"
4. Select an agent (e.g., Claude Code)
5. Click Create Task

Watch the agent work in real-time!

Next Steps

Troubleshooting

Container won't start?

docker compose logs sesame

Can't connect to localhost:13531?

• Wait 10-15 seconds for the container to initialize
• Check if port 13531 is already in use: lsof -i :13531

Need help? See the full Troubleshooting Guide.