What happens during first-run setup?

Charyl walks you through it herself, one step at a time, with a running estimate of how much is left rather than a raw step count.

First you name your home and set the password that protects it. Then you tell her what she should help with — smart home, your belongings, or, if you keep horses, the barn — and choose how she should run: through Charyl Cloud, or with AI keys you provide yourself. That choice branches the next few steps: the Cloud path signs you in and pairs automatically, with no key for you to copy; the self-host path asks for one AI provider key and, optionally, a couple of others.

If you enabled the smart home, she looks for a Home Assistant on your network before asking anything. If she finds none, a bundled copy she’s already running gets adopted quietly; if she finds yours, she walks you through connecting it.

From there: pair a phone now, or skip it, a short tour of what’s enabled, and a first suggestion — adding your first appliance or device. Every step accepts a typed answer instead, if you’d rather just tell her what you want.

One honest limitation: the wizard doesn’t let you step backward once you’ve moved on. Anything you want to change afterward, you can adjust in Settings.

The full step order, both paths, is in The first-run wizard, step by step.