Getting Started

This guide will walk you through installing Epilogue Tracker and creating your first user-centric work model.

Installation

macOS (Homebrew)

The easiest way to install on macOS:

brew tap svetzal/tap
brew install epilogue-tracker

Verify the installation:

et --version

To update later:

brew update && brew upgrade epilogue-tracker

Windows

Coming Soon

Windows installation instructions are in development. For now, please use the From Source installation method.

Linux

Coming Soon

Linux installation instructions are in development. For now, please use the From Source installation method.

From Source (Developers)

If you're contributing to Epilogue Tracker or need to run from source:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/svetzal/epilogue-tracker.git
cd epilogue-tracker

# Install dependencies (requires Bun - https://bun.sh)
bun install

# Set up an alias for easy access
alias et="bun run dev"

To build a standalone binary:

bun run build
./et --version

Quick Start: Bootstrap Your AI Agent

Epilogue Tracker is designed to be used by AI agents (like Claude, GPT, etc.) to manage work in your project. The easiest way to get started is to let your agent bootstrap itself.

1. Tell Your Agent to Bootstrap

Simply ask your AI agent:

Run `et docs --agents` and follow the instructions to set yourself up.

The agent will:

1. Run the command to get usage instructions
2. Add those instructions to your project's CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md
3. Be ready to use et for all future work

2. Start Working

Once bootstrapped, your agent knows how to use et. When you ask it to implement features or fix bugs, it will:

• Identify the user who benefits (Actor)
• Identify what they want to achieve (Goal)
• Document how this work helps them (Interaction)
• Implement the work
• Validate that everything is connected

Example Conversation

You: "Add a shopping cart feature"

Agent: checks existing actors and goals

I see we have a "customer" actor with a "complete_purchase" goal. I'll create an interaction for the cart feature that supports this goal, then implement it.

et create interaction \
  --id "manage_cart" \
  --description "Add, remove, and update items in shopping cart" \
  --performed-by "customer" \
  --goal "complete_purchase"

Then implements the feature...

Manual Usage

You can also use et directly from the command line. See the CLI Reference for all available commands.

Quick Example

# Review outstanding work
et list

# Define who your users are
et create actor --id "customer" --name "Customer" --description "Online shopper"

# Define what they want to achieve
et create goal --id "checkout" --description "Complete a purchase" --actor "customer"

# Define how you help them
et create interaction --id "add_to_cart" --description "Add items to cart" --performed-by "customer" --goal "checkout"

# Validate everything is connected
et validate

# Mark work as complete when done
et close goal checkout

What's Next?

• Core Philosophy: Why user goals matter
• Actors: Deep dive into modelling users
• Breaking Down Work: How to approach new tasks