Setup

Sidequest requires four command-line tools to function. On first launch, the setup wizard checks each one and offers to install any that are missing.

Required Dependencies

Tool	Purpose
Claude Code CLI	The AI agent that runs inside each quest session
tmux	Terminal multiplexer that keeps sessions alive in the background
git	Version control — used for worktrees, branching, and diffs
GitHub CLI (gh)	Optional but recommended — enables issue linking, PR creation, and PR reviews

Installing Dependencies

macOS (Homebrew)

# Claude Code CLI (requires Node.js)
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

# tmux, git, and GitHub CLI
brew install tmux git gh

If you don’t have Homebrew, install it first:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

If you don’t have Node.js (required for Claude Code), install it from nodejs.org or via Homebrew:

brew install node

Linux (apt)

# Claude Code CLI (requires Node.js)
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code

# tmux, git, and GitHub CLI
sudo apt-get install -y tmux git gh

Linux (dnf)

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
sudo dnf install -y tmux git gh

Linux (pacman)

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
sudo pacman -S --noconfirm tmux git gh

Setup Wizard

When you launch Sidequest for the first time, the setup wizard walks you through dependency validation:

1. A welcome screen introduces the app
2. The Check Dependencies step scans your system for each tool
3. If a tool is found, its version is displayed with a green checkmark
4. If a tool is missing and the prerequisite package manager is available, an Install button appears to install it directly
5. If auto-install is not possible (e.g., npm is not installed), the wizard shows what’s needed and provides a Copy button for the manual install command

You can skip missing dependencies and continue, but Sidequest will not be able to create sessions without Claude Code CLI and tmux.

Path Resolution

Sidequest resolves tool paths using your login shell’s environment. This means tools installed via version managers like nvm, mise, fnm, or volta are detected automatically.

If Sidequest can’t find a tool (common when launched from Finder on macOS, which has a minimal PATH), it also checks well-known install locations:

• /opt/homebrew/bin/ (Homebrew on Apple Silicon)
• /usr/local/bin/ (Homebrew on Intel / manual installs)
• /usr/bin/ (system packages)

Custom Tool Paths

If auto-discovery doesn’t find your tools, you can set explicit paths in Settings. Open the settings panel and configure custom paths for git, tmux, or Claude Code. Leave a field empty to revert to auto-discovery.

Verifying Your Setup

After completing the wizard, you can re-check dependencies at any time by reopening Settings. The setup wizard also runs each time you launch Sidequest until all required dependencies are found.

To verify tools are working from your terminal:

claude --version
tmux -V
git --version
gh --version