Quick Start

This tutorial walks you through using Tessera to generate your first project in under 10 minutes.

Installation

Choose your preferred method:

# Option 1: Run directly with uvx
uvx tessera-agents init

# Option 2: Install globally, then use shorter commands
uv tool install tessera-agents

For the rest of this guide, we'll use tessera commands (assumes you've installed globally). If using uvx, replace tessera with uvx tessera-agents.

Step 1: Initialize Configuration

Run the interactive setup wizard:

tessera init

The wizard will ask: - Which LLM provider to use (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) - Your API key - Default agent configuration

This creates ~/.config/tessera/config.yaml.

Step 2: Generate Your First Project

Start Tessera in interactive mode:

tessera

Interactive Prompts

? What would you like to build?
> A simple Python CLI tool that fetches weather data

? Complexity level: Simple

? Interview mode (recommended for better results)?
> Yes

Interview Phase

The Interviewer agent will ask clarifying questions:

Q1/5: Which weather API should we use?
> OpenWeatherMap

Q2/5: What data should be displayed?
> Current temperature, conditions, and 5-day forecast

Q3/5: How should users provide location?
> City name as command-line argument

...

Planning Phase

The Supervisor agent generates a comprehensive plan:

✓ Plan generated: 8 tasks across 5 phases
✓ Agents required: 4 (code-architect, python-expert, test-engineer, tech-writer)
✓ Estimated cost: $1.20 | Time: ~45 minutes

Tasks:
  1. Design CLI architecture
  2. Implement weather API client
  3. Create command-line interface
  4. Add error handling
  5. Write unit tests
  6. Write integration tests
  7. Create README documentation
  8. Generate usage examples

? Approve this plan? [Y/n]:

Execution Phase

Starting execution...

Progress: ██████░░░░░░ 50% (4/8 tasks) | Cost: $0.62

ACTIVE AGENTS (2/3):
  ● python-expert     [T2] Weather API client (3m)
  ● test-engineer     [T5] Unit tests (1m)

COMPLETED:
  ✓ T1  CLI architecture design      2m12s  $0.08
  ✓ T3  Command-line interface      5m32s  $0.24

[Press 'P' to pause | 'Q' to quit]

Completion

✓ Project generation complete!

Generated:./weather-cli/
  ├── src/
  │   ├── __init__.py
  │   ├── client.py
  │   └── cli.py
  ├── tests/
  │   ├── test_client.py
  │   └── test_cli.py
  ├── README.md
  ├── pyproject.toml
  └── .gitignore

Summary:
  - 8 files created
  - 245 lines of code
  - 92% test coverage
  - All tests passing ✓
  - Documentation complete ✓

Total cost: $1.18 | Duration: 42m

? Open project directory? [Y/n]:

Step 3: Review the Generated Project

cd weather-cli
cat README.md

The README will include: - Project description - Installation instructions - Usage examples - API documentation - Development guide

Step 4: Run the Generated Project

# Install dependencies
uv sync

# Run tests
uv run pytest

# Use the CLI
uv run python -m src.cli "San Francisco"

Next Steps

Customize Agents

Edit ~/.config/tessera/prompts/python-expert.md to customize how the agent writes code.

Adjust Configuration

Edit ~/.config/tessera/config.yaml to: - Add more agents - Configure cost limits - Enable tools and plugins - Set up Slack notifications

Generate Another Project

uvx tessera "Build a REST API with FastAPI and PostgreSQL"