> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://linkly.ai/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Quick Start

> Follow this guide to install and integrate Linkly AI in just a few minutes

This quick start guide will help you build your first AI-ready local knowledge base with Linkly AI in just a few minutes, and learn the basic usage.

<Tip>
  **Want the easy way? Let an AI install it for you.** If you already have an AI assistant that can run commands — Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and the like — send it the line below. It will read the [Setup Guide for Agents](/docs/en/agent-setup) and walk you through installation, configuration, and verification step by step — including the parts you have to do yourself, which it will spell out clearly.

  ```
  Set up https://linkly.ai/docs/en/agent-setup.md
  ```

  Of course, reading on is perfectly fine too — this page is a complete manual setup guide in its own right.
</Tip>

## Before You Begin

Linkly AI includes the following core applications and capabilities:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Linkly AI Desktop" icon="desktop" iconType="duotone">
    The desktop application (referred to as Linkly AI). After installation, it automatically indexes documents and provides search, outline, and reading tools.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Linkly AI CLI" icon="terminal" iconType="duotone">
    A command-line tool that connects to your Linkly AI app via Bash and invokes its tools. Ideal for AI Agent usage.
  </Card>

  <Card title="MCP Server" icon="plug" iconType="duotone">
    An open protocol for Agents to retrieve context. The MCP service starts automatically after installing Linkly AI. Ideal for AI Agent invocation.
  </Card>

  <Card title="linkly-ai-skills" icon="wand-magic-sparkles" iconType="duotone">
    Official Agent Skills that guide Agents on how to connect and use Linkly AI's tool services. Strongly recommended.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Step 1: Install Linkly AI

Go to the official download page and select the version for your operating system:

<Card title="Download Linkly AI" icon="download" href="https://linkly.ai/#download">
  Choose the version for your operating system
</Card>

Then double-click the installer. Installation steps for each platform:

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="macOS" icon="apple">
    <Steps>
      <Step title="Open the installer">Double-click the downloaded `.dmg` file to mount the disk image</Step>
      <Step title="Drag to Applications">Drag the **LinklyAI** icon into the **Applications** folder</Step>
      <Step title="Launch the app">Find **LinklyAI** in Launchpad or the Applications folder in Finder, and double-click to launch</Step>
    </Steps>
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Windows" icon="windows">
    <Steps>
      <Step title="Run the installer">Double-click the downloaded `.exe` installer</Step>
      <Step title="Complete installation">Follow the installation wizard prompts. By default, it installs to the user directory</Step>
      <Step title="Launch the app">Start **LinklyAI** from the Start menu or desktop shortcut</Step>
    </Steps>
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Linux" icon="linux">
    <Steps>
      <Step title="Run the AppImage">`bash chmod +x LinklyAI-*.AppImage ./LinklyAI-*.AppImage `</Step>
    </Steps>

    <Note>The current Linux build is an x86\_64 AppImage and requires glibc 2.35 or newer (e.g. Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 12+). If it will not start, follow the [Linux AppImage troubleshooting guide](/docs/en/faq) to check permissions, FUSE, runtime libraries, and CPU architecture.</Note>
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Step 2: Initialize Linkly AI

When you first launch Linkly AI, a guided window walks you through the setup. After that, you add your own documents:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Complete the first-launch wizard">
    The wizard has four screens — **cover → sign-in → preparing → get-started panel** (the step counter in the corner only covers the middle two):

    * **Cover**: choose your interface language and theme, and tick **I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy** — this is required to continue. The **Help improve Linkly AI** telemetry toggle is on by default and can be turned off.
    * **Sign-in**: sign in through your browser to unlock the official AI model quota and cloud knowledge base features. **You can skip this** — there is a **skip sign-in** link in the small print at the bottom. Local indexing, local search, and the MCP service all work without an account.
    * **Preparing**: Linkly AI unpacks a set of sample documents and indexes them, usually within seconds. Wait for the **Get started** button to light up.
    * **Get-started panel**: six feature cards. Click any card, or the × in the top-right corner, to finish the wizard.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add your own documents">
    <Warning>
      When the wizard ends, only the bundled sample documents are indexed. **Your own files are not indexed yet.** Skip this step and searches will never turn up your real content.
    </Warning>

    Either approach works:

    * Open **Settings → Folders** and add the directories you want indexed — Documents, Downloads, a project directory, and so on;
    * Or drop files into the `~/LinklyAI` folder. It is watched by default, so anything you put there is indexed automatically.

    If the system reports insufficient permissions (common on macOS), go to **System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access**, add Linkly AI, then restart the app.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Connect your AI tools">
    Add Linkly AI's MCP service to your frequently used AI tools for intelligent document search.

    <Card>
      We recommend using Skills to assist with integration — it's the simplest approach. Just copy the following prompt to your AI assistant and follow the instructions to complete both tool and Skills integration:

      <Prompt description="Please install Agent Skill linkly-ai-skills and...">
        Please install Agent Skill linkly-ai-skills and complete LinklyAI tool integration. Reference: [https://linkly.ai/docs/en/use-skills](https://linkly.ai/docs/en/use-skills)
      </Prompt>
    </Card>

    You can also manually integrate the MCP tools, but we still recommend [installing Skills](use-skills) for a better experience:

    <Tabs>
      <Tab title="Claude Code">
        Run in your terminal:

        ```bash theme={null}
        claude mcp add --transport http linkly-ai http://127.0.0.1:60606/mcp
        ```
      </Tab>

      <Tab title="Cursor">
        1. Open Settings → MCP Servers → Add Server
        2. Name: `linkly-ai`
        3. Type: `StreamableHTTP`
        4. URL: `http://127.0.0.1:60606/mcp`
      </Tab>

      <Tab title="Codex">
        Run in your terminal:

        ```bash theme={null}
        codex mcp add linkly-ai --url http://127.0.0.1:60606/mcp
        ```
      </Tab>

      <Tab title="Cherry Studio">
        1. Open Settings → MCP Servers → Add
        2. Name: `linkly-ai`
        3. Type: `StreamableHTTP`
        4. URL: `http://127.0.0.1:60606/mcp`
      </Tab>
    </Tabs>

    <Tip>`60606` is the default port for Linkly AI's MCP service. If you can't connect, check the actual port number in the app settings.</Tip>
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Step 3: First Use

After launch, Linkly AI will immediately start indexing your documents and continuously monitor for changes. Full indexing will complete within a few minutes to tens of minutes (depending on the number of documents and machine performance).

<Note>
  After the first launch, Linkly AI downloads about **710MB** of model files in the background — roughly 639MB for semantic search and 70MB for OCR. Depending on your connection this can take from a few minutes to over an hour.

  **Keyword search works right away** and is unaffected. Natural language (semantic) search becomes available once the download and indexing have both finished.
</Note>

<Tip>**Got meeting recordings, podcasts, or course videos to search?** Speech transcription for audio and video is **off by default** — those files still get indexed and can be found by filename, but you can't search what was said inside them. Turn on **Audio transcription** and **Video transcription** under **Settings → Index** and the app works through your existing files automatically. Every index switch is documented in [Index Settings](/docs/en/indexing).</Tip>

You have two ways to use Linkly AI:

<Card title="Search documents with the Launcher" icon="keyboard">
  Use the global shortcut `⌘/Ctrl + Shift + L` to open the search launcher window, then enter keywords or descriptive language to find target documents. You can also **right-click** the L icon in the system tray and pick the first menu item, **Search** (left-clicking the tray icon opens the AI chat window instead).

  You can further preview, view metadata, open documents, copy links, and more. For detailed usage, see the [Full-Text Search Launcher documentation](use-launcher).
</Card>

<Card title="Use with AI Agents" icon="robot">
  This is our more recommended approach — you'll enjoy an unprecedented interactive experience and research efficiency.

  After integrating with your AI assistant or installing [Skills](use-skills), append `use linkly-ai` after any prompt to actively leverage Linkly AI's powerful search capabilities.
</Card>