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Installation

Tessera is distributed as a Python package and can be run directly with uvx (recommended) or installed globally.

Requirements

  • Python: 3.13 or higher
  • uv: Package manager (recommended)
  • API Keys: OpenAI, Anthropic, or compatible provider

Installation Methods

Tessera is published to PyPI as tessera-agents. You can either run it directly with uvx or install it globally.

Use uvx to run Tessera without installation:

uvx tessera-agents init
uvx tessera-agents main "Build a FastAPI app"

Benefits: - No installation needed - Always uses latest version - Isolated execution environment

Note: When using uvx, you must include tessera-agents in the command (e.g., uvx tessera-agents <command>).

Option 2: Global Installation

Install once, then use the shorter tessera command:

# Install the package
uv tool install tessera-agents

# Now use the 'tessera' command directly
tessera init
tessera main "Build a FastAPI app"

Benefits: - Shorter commands after installation - Faster execution (no download each time) - Works offline after installation

Note: The PyPI package name is tessera-agents, but after installation, you use the tessera command.

What Gets Created

Both installation methods create the same configuration:

~/.config/tessera/
  ├── config.yaml           # Main configuration
  └── prompts/              # Agent system prompts
      ├── supervisor.md
      └── ...

~/.cache/tessera/
  ├── metrics.db            # Task history and costs
  └── otel/
      └── traces.jsonl      # LLM call traces

Configuration

On first run, Tessera creates:

~/.config/tessera/
  ├── config.yaml           # Main configuration
  └── prompts/              # Agent system prompts
      ├── supervisor.md
      └── ...

~/.cache/tessera/
  ├── metrics.db            # Task history and costs
  └── otel/
      └── traces.jsonl      # LLM call traces

API Keys

Tessera needs LLM API keys. Set them via environment variables:

# Option 1: .env file (in your project directory)
echo "OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-key-here" >> .env

# Option 2: Export directly
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-key-here
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-your-key-here

Verify Installation

tessera version

Expected output: 

Tessera v0.1.0
Multi-Agent Orchestration Framework

Next Steps