Getting started

You just installed cix. Here is everything you need to go from nothing to an AI assistant that understands your codebase — about five minutes, start to finish.

cix is cloud-based. Your repository is parsed and indexed on cix's servers, and your AI assistant queries that index through the Model Context Protocol. You install a small command-line tool locally; the heavy lifting happens in the cloud.

Before you start

You will need:

• Python 3.11 or newer — cix installs as a Python package.
• Git — your project must be a Git repository.
• An AI client — Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, or Cursor.
• A free cix account — created the first time you log in.

A GitHub-hosted repository is recommended but not required. Connecting GitHub is the smoothest path — your index refreshes when you push, and your team can share it — but you can index a repository that isn't on GitHub, or one you'd rather not connect, with cix index --push. See How cix gets your code.

The five steps

1. Install cix — pip install usecix.
2. Log in — cix login.
3. Install your AI clients — cix install --client all.
4. Connect your code — authorize the GitHub App, or index privately without it.
5. Initialize a repository — cix init inside your project.

The first three set up your machine and are the same whatever you work on. The last two are per-repository, and you repeat them for each project you add.

Once those are done, head to First steps to see what to ask your assistant.

If anything goes wrong along the way, run cix doctor — it checks every part of your setup and tells you what to fix. See Troubleshooting.