Quickstart: from download to your first greeting

Get Tropo, open it in your AI tool, and say hello. About five minutes.

This page takes you from nothing to a working Studio: a folder on your computer where you and your AI agents keep your work. At the end, Po, the Tropo concierge, greets you and asks what you want to do. The setup steps are written in full here; the docs home repeats only the four first messages.

Before you start

You need two things on your computer:

• An AI tool that can work in a folder on your computer. It must be able to read and write the files in the Studio folder and run commands there, with your permission. Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor and Windsurf can all do this. A chat that only sees the text you paste into it cannot.
• Python 3.9 or newer. Tropo's tools are Python scripts that your AI tool runs for you. You never type them yourself, but Python must be installed. To check, ask your AI tool to run python3 --version. If it reports a version below 3.9, or no Python at all, install a current version from python.org/downloads first.

Step 0: Get the box

1. Go to tropo-ai.com/download.
2. Enter your email address and press Download Tropo.
3. A window titled "Before you download Tropo." shows the terms. Read them, tick I understand and agree to these terms., and press Confirm and Download.
4. A zip file downloads. Unzip it wherever you keep your work.

The unzipped folder is your Studio. Your agents, their memory and your work are saved as files inside it.

Step 1: Open the folder in your AI tool and say hello

Pick your tool. Each one opens the Studio folder and sends one first message.

Step 2: Say yes to setup

Po greets you in one line: "Hi — I'm Po, the Tropo concierge." Because the Studio is new, she asks before doing anything:

This folder is a Tropo Studio. Setting it up creates its index and identity here and checks online for updates, about a minute. Go ahead?

Say yes. Nothing is written until you do. If you say no, Po stops and nothing changes.

While she works, Po builds the Studio's index, gives this Studio its own identity (so two people who unzip the same download get two different Studios), and checks whether a newer Tropo is available. You do not run anything yourself.

Step 3: Name your Studio and meet the companions

Po asks your name and what this Studio is for. Two answers, under a minute.

Then she offers two ready-made agents:

• Darin, strategist: framing, priorities, decisions, clean handoffs.
• Cal, architect and builder: building things and checking them in a way someone else can re-run.

Say yes to either, both, or neither. You can also build your own agent instead. Nothing is created without your word.

You're done when

Po has greeted you, your Studio has a name, and she asks what you would like to work on. That is a working Studio.

If something goes wrong

• The AI answers but never mentions Po. The tool may not be open in the Studio folder. Check that you opened the unzipped folder itself, not the folder that contains it, and send the first message again.
• Po reports an error during setup. She shows the tool's own message. First ask your AI tool to run python3 --version:
  • No Python, or a version below 3.9: install Python from python.org/downloads, then start again from Step 1.
  • Python 3.9 or newer: ask it to run python3 vault/tools/tropo-preflight.py from the Studio folder. It lists any missing Python package and the command that installs it.
• You pasted the files into a chat. That cannot work: the Studio has to be opened as a folder. Use one of the tools in Step 1.

Next

• Create an agent: your own agent for one job, in about five minutes.
• What is Tropo: what you just installed, and why it is built from files.
• My AI session was compacted: what to do when a long session is shortened in the middle of work.