Setup Wizard All Tiers

Interactive configuration guide for PairCoder projects.

Overview

The setup wizard provides an interactive way to configure PairCoder for your project. It guides you through essential settings and optionally configures integrations like Trello, GitHub, and MCP tools.

Launch the Wizard

bash 
bpsai-pair wizard

Setup Modes

Quick Setup

For users who want to get started immediately with sensible defaults. The wizard will configure essential settings and skip optional integrations.

Quick Setup Includes
  • Project initialization
  • License verification
  • Basic configuration
  • CLAUDE.md generation

Guided Setup

For users who want full control over configuration. The wizard will walk through each option and explain what it does.

Requires an Anthropic API key

Guided Setup uses Claude to power its chat flow, so it needs an ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in your environment before you start. See API Key Requirement below for how to get one and set it on macOS, Linux, or Windows.

Guided Setup Includes
  • Everything in Quick Setup
  • Trello board connection
  • GitHub repository setup
  • MCP server configuration
  • Editor preferences
  • Architecture limits customization

API Key Requirement

If you plan to use Guided Setup (the chat-based wizard flow), you'll need an Anthropic API key set in your environment. Quick Setup works without one.

Get your API key

  1. Open the Anthropic Console: console.anthropic.com/settings/keys.
  2. Sign in (or create an account) and verify your email if prompted.
  3. Click Create Key, give it a name (for example, paircoder-laptop), and click Create.
  4. Copy the key — it starts with sk-ant-. You won't be able to view it again after closing the dialog.
Heads up: billing

New Anthropic accounts need a payment method and a small prepaid credit before API requests will succeed. If your first wizard run fails with a 4xx error mentioning credits, top up under Billing → Plans & Billing and try again.

Set the key in your environment

Pick the block that matches your shell. Replace sk-ant-... with the key you just copied.

macOS / Linux (bash or zsh)

bash 
# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc for persistence
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."

# Reload your shell config
source ~/.bashrc   # or: source ~/.zshrc

Windows (PowerShell)

powershell 
# Current session only
$env:ANTHROPIC_API_KEY = "sk-ant-..."

# Permanent (user level) -- open a NEW PowerShell window after running this
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("ANTHROPIC_API_KEY", "sk-ant-...", "User")

Windows (Command Prompt)

cmd 
:: Current session only
set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

:: Permanent (user level) -- open a NEW Command Prompt window after running this
setx ANTHROPIC_API_KEY "sk-ant-..."
On Windows? Use a real terminal

The export ... syntax above is bash-only and will fail in PowerShell or Command Prompt. If you'd rather use the Linux-style commands, install WSL and run the wizard from your WSL shell.

Important

The wizard will check for your API key and warn you if it's not set. You can skip this check, but Claude Code won't function without it.

MCP Configuration

The wizard can automatically configure PairCoder's MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for use with Claude Desktop.

bash 
# The wizard will offer to add this to claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
"paircoder": {
  "command": "bpsai-pair",
  "args": ["mcp", "serve"]
}
  }
}

What Gets Created

After running the wizard, your project will have:

File/Folder Purpose
.paircoder/ Project configuration directory
.paircoder/config.yaml Main configuration file
.paircoder/context/ Context files (project.md, state.md)
.paircoder/tasks/ Task definition files
.paircoder/plans/ Plan definition files
CLAUDE.md Instructions for Claude Code

Running Without Wizard

If you prefer manual setup, you can initialize a project directly:

bash 
# Initialize without wizard
bpsai-pair init

# Or with specific options
bpsai-pair init --name "my-project" --type feature

Re-running the Wizard

You can re-run the wizard at any time to update settings:

bash 
# Re-run wizard (won't overwrite existing config)
bpsai-pair wizard

# Force reconfiguration
bpsai-pair wizard --force

Next Steps