> **Tools and scripts: read this file first, then the agent guide "Start here" (`argus://docs/agent#start-here` once you are connected).** To connect yourself to Talos, run the one command in [Connect your AI](#connect-your-ai) and ask the person to restart you. # Start here Talos is a game engine you can drive yourself or hand to your own tools and scripts. This page gets you from the installer to a game you can send to someone, in about ten minutes, and connects your AI in one step. It is for the first testers: friends and family, and milsim and game engineers. The product is Talos; its programs and folders keep the internal name `argus` (`argus-editor.exe`, `argus-agent.exe`, `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Argus`). 1. [What you need](#what-you-need) 2. [Getting started in 10 minutes](#getting-started-in-10-minutes) 3. [Connect your AI](#connect-your-ai) 4. [For tools and scripts](#for-ai-agents) 5. [What to ask your AI first](#what-to-ask-your-ai-first) 6. [Report a bug, ask for a feature](#report-a-bug-ask-for-a-feature) 7. [Known limitations](#known-limitations) 8. [Where the logs and crash files are](#where-the-logs-and-crash-files-are) ## What you need - **Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit (x64).** There is no macOS, Linux or Arm build yet. - **A graphics card with current drivers** (DirectX 12 or Vulkan): any recent NVIDIA, AMD or Intel GPU. - **About 1 GB of free disk** for the launcher, one engine version and your first projects. - **The installer Cadarn sent you** (an `.msi`), its SHA-256, and for the online installer your personal access token. The offline installer needs no token and no internet. - **For the AI part:** Claude Code, or any other MCP client. You do not need Node, Rust, Visual Studio or a copy of the source. ## Getting started in 10 minutes Install, make your first project from a template, Play it, change something, and export a game you can send to someone. ### Install (2 minutes) 1. Check the file: in PowerShell, `Get-FileHash .\.msi` must print the SHA-256 Cadarn sent. 2. Double-click it. **Windows will say "Windows protected your PC"**: the installer is not code-signed yet, so choose **More info**, then **Run anyway**. It installs for your account only, with no administrator prompt, into `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Argus`. 3. Start **Talos Launcher** from the Start menu. With the online installer, paste your access token when asked, then open the **Engine** tab and press **Install**. The offline installer has already installed the engine. ### Your first project (2 minutes) 1. On the **Projects** tab, choose **New project**. 2. Pick a **Type** (2D, 3D or 3D HD) and a **Template**: *Collection course* is a small playable game; *Starter* is a floor, three boxes and a player; *2D starter* is a small side-scroller. 3. Give it a **Name** and press **Create**. New projects go in `Documents\Argus` unless you change the folder in Settings. The project opens in the editor. ### Play, change something, Play again (4 minutes) 1. Press **F5** (or the toolbar's Play) to play. **Shift+Esc** stops; plain Esc belongs to the game. 2. Click something in the viewport, move it with **W** (move tool) and drag the arrows, or change a value in the Inspector. **Ctrl+S** saves, **Ctrl+Z** undoes. 3. Press **F5** again. Play runs the saved scene, and asks to save first when you have unsaved changes. ### Export a game (2 minutes) 1. Press **Export…** on the toolbar. The panel names the build it will export and anything it leaves out. 2. Choose a folder (by default `dist` beside the project) and export. You get one `.exe` that runs on a Windows PC with no Talos installed; **Open Output** shows it in Explorer. ## Connect your AI Talos speaks MCP (Model Context Protocol) through `argus-agent.exe`, which is installed with every engine version (it starts `argus.exe agent`, and configs that name it keep working across updates). One command connects a project to it. **Claude Code**, in PowerShell, from your project folder: ```powershell cd "$env:USERPROFILE\Documents\Argus\My Game" & "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Argus\launcher\argus-hub.exe" --connect-ai . claude ``` The first line is your project folder (yours may be elsewhere). The second writes `.mcp.json` in it. Then start Claude Code there with `claude` and **approve the `argus` server** when it asks. `/mcp` in Claude Code should list `argus` as connected, and its tools are `mcp__argus__*`. What it writes (your paths will differ): ```json { "mcpServers": { "argus": { "type": "stdio", "command": "C:\\Users\\you\\AppData\\Local\\Argus\\launcher\\argus-hub.exe", "args": ["--mcp-agent", "C:\\Users\\you\\Documents\\Argus\\My Game"], "alwaysLoad": true } } } ``` Each time your AI client starts it, the launcher finds the engine version that opens this project (as Open does) and runs that engine's `argus-agent.exe`, with the engine's own Node and a log at `\.argus\logs\argus-agent.log`. **An engine update needs nothing from you**: the same file starts the new engine's agent. Any other server already in `.mcp.json` is kept. **Any other MCP client** (Claude Desktop, Cursor, and others) takes the same `argus` entry: copy it from `.mcp.json` into that client's MCP config. Some clients name the top-level key differently (VS Code uses `servers`); the entry inside is the same. **Without the launcher** (a hand-copied engine, say), the engine's own `argus-agent.exe setup --print --project .` prints an entry that names that `argus-agent.exe` directly, and `setup` without `--print` writes it into `.mcp.json`. That entry points at one engine version, so run it again after you replace the engine. Every new project also has an `AGENTS.md` (and a `CLAUDE.md` that includes it) telling an agent to read this page first and how to connect. ## For tools and scripts If you are a tool or script working in a Talos project: 1. **Check for the Talos tools** (`mcp__argus__*` in Claude Code; the server is called `argus`). If you have none, run the `--connect-ai .` command above in the project folder yourself, then ask the person to restart you and approve the server. 2. **The project is already open**: the config passes `--project`. Call `notes.read` first (what earlier sessions learned), then read `argus://docs/agent#start-here`, the engine's one-page guide to building a game, before your first edit. 3. **Build with the tools, not by editing files by hand**: `scene.read`, `scene.patch`, `behaviour.write`, and `critic.check` after every write; `critic.play` to play-test; `export.compose` to ship. 4. **Where the docs are**: `explain.search` in plain words; `argus://recipes` for whole tested features (menus, HUD, save, driving); `argus://docs` for every document by section (this page is `argus://docs/start`). If you cannot read `argus://` resources (a subagent often cannot), read the files: `START-HERE.md` in the engine folder and `sdk/docs/AGENT.md` ("Start here") in it, with `sdk/docs/PLAYBOOK-TEAM-BUILD.md` for a team. The engine folder is `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Argus\engines\\` on Windows, `~/.local/share/argus/engines//` on Linux and WSL (`$ARGUS_HOME/engines//` if set); the `docsDir` in the `notes.read` result is the exact folder. Do not search the disk for them. 5. **Keep what you learn** with `notes.append`, so the next session starts from it. ## What to ask your AI first - "Read START-HERE.md and the Talos Start here guide, then tell me what this project contains and what you can build in it." - "Make a small game in this project: a player that collects five coins against a 60-second timer, a title screen and a results screen. Play-test it with the critic and fix what it finds." - "Export the game, run the exported .exe, and tell me where it is and anything that did not work." ## Report a bug, ask for a feature - **Bugs:** in the editor, **Help ▸ Report a bug** (or **Ctrl+Shift+F1**); in the Talos Launcher, **Report a bug** in the top bar. F6 is not the bug report (it is Play from the last snapshot). You see exactly what will be sent before you send it; screenshots and logs are only attached if you tick them, and project files never are. Please include the time and what you were doing. - **Features and ideas:** the roadmap at https://cadarn.ai/talos/roadmap, or Report a bug with the category "feature request". ## Known limitations - **Windows only, x64 only**, for the editor and for exported games. - **Unsigned for now**: "Windows protected your PC" on install is expected (More info, then Run anyway). - **No runtime file access yet**: a game cannot read or write arbitrary files while it runs. - **The 2D editor is new**: expect rough edges, and please report them. ## Where the logs and crash files are - Launcher log: `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Argus\logs\argus-hub.log` - Editor log: `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Argus\logs\argus-editor.log` - Editor crash reports: `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Argus\crashes\` (the newest twenty) - An exported game's crash reports: `%LOCALAPPDATA%\argus-export\\crashes\` - Bug reports waiting to be sent: `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Argus\reports\outbox\` - The agent server's log: `\.argus\logs\argus-agent.log` More detail: `docs/INSTALL.md` (installing, what goes where, crash reports) and the agent guide (everything the agent interface does).