Help Center / Getting Started

Getting Started

Install Sidekick, connect Forge via OpenRouter or MiniMax, and delegate your first coding task — all in under 10 minutes.

What is Sidekick?

Sidekick is a Claude Code plugin that gives Claude a team of specialized AI coding agents. Forge is the first sidekick — it's ForgeCode, the #2 ranked model on Terminal-Bench 2.0 (81.8% score), configured as a Claude Code sub-agent that Claude can delegate entire coding tasks to.

When you activate Forge delegation mode, Claude stops writing code directly and instead composes structured task prompts, submits them to Forge, monitors the output, and handles failures automatically using a three-level fallback ladder.

Why delegate to Forge? Forge is optimized for agentic coding tasks — it operates autonomously, makes atomic commits, and handles multi-file changes without supervision. Delegation frees Claude to focus on task composition, quality review, and learning from failures.

Prerequisites

You need the following before installing Sidekick:

  • Claude Code — npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
  • API key — Forge needs a provider key. Two options: OpenRouter (openrouter.ai — routes to Qwen3 Coder Plus, recommended) or MiniMax Coding (platform.minimaxi.com).
  • Node.js 18+ — Required by Claude Code
No separate Forge install needed. Sidekick auto-installs and configures ForgeCode when you first run /forge. Just have your OpenRouter or MiniMax API key ready.

Installation

Add the following to ~/.claude/settings.json:

~/.claude/settings.json
{ "extraKnownMarketplaces": { "alo-exp": { "source": { "source": "github", "repo": "alo-exp/sidekick" }, "autoUpdate": true } }, "enabledPlugins": { "sidekick@alo-exp": true } }

On the next Claude Code session, Sidekick installs automatically and makes the /forge skill available in all future sessions. No project-specific setup is required — Sidekick works in any git repository.

Health Check

After installing, verify Forge is ready by running the health check:

in any Claude Code session
/forge # Claude will activate Forge delegation mode and run a health check

On first activation, Forge checks ~/forge/.credentials.json for your API key and ~/forge/.forge.toml for the configured provider. If absent, it guides you through skills/forge.md STEP 0A setup.

A successful health check looks like:

✓ Forge binary found (~/.local/bin/forge) ✓ Provider configured (forge info exit 0) ✓ Credentials present (~/forge/.credentials.json has api_key) ✓ Config valid (~/forge/.forge.toml has provider_id and model_id) ✓ Bootstrap skills loaded (4 skills) ✓ Forge delegation mode active
Health check failing? See Troubleshooting → Health check failures for common causes and fixes.

Your First /forge Task

Once the health check passes, Claude is in Forge delegation mode. Every task you give Claude will be delegated to Forge via a structured 5-field task prompt.

  1. 1

    Describe what to build

    Tell Claude what you need in plain language. Claude will compose the OBJECTIVE, CONTEXT, DESIRED STATE, SUCCESS CRITERIA, and INJECTED SKILLS fields automatically.

  2. 2

    Claude submits to Forge

    Claude sends the structured prompt to Forge (max 2,000 tokens). Forge works autonomously — making changes, running tests, creating commits.

  3. 3

    Claude monitors output

    Claude watches for three failure signals: error output, SUCCESS CRITERIA not met, or Forge asking a clarifying question without progress.

  4. 4

    Review and confirm

    Claude presents Forge's output for your review. If Forge succeeded, the task is done. If Forge failed, the fallback ladder kicked in automatically.

First task recommendation: Start with a small, well-scoped task like "add a --verbose flag to the CLI" or "write unit tests for the auth module." This lets you observe the delegation flow without risking complex failures.

AGENTS.md Bootstrap

On your first /forge invocation, if no AGENTS.md exists in the project root, Sidekick creates one. This file accumulates standing instructions for Forge — project conventions, preferences, and patterns Claude discovers over time.

The bootstrap file contains the default Forge output format expectations (STATUS, FILES_CHANGED, ASSUMPTIONS, PATTERNS_DISCOVERED) and delegation principles. You can edit it at any time to add project-specific rules.

AGENTS.md tiers

Sidekick maintains instructions at three levels: Global (~/forge/AGENTS.md — cross-project), Project (./AGENTS.md — this repo), and Session log (docs/sessions/ — per-session evolution). Claude writes to all three after each completed task.

What's Next

Now that Forge is running, explore the rest of the documentation:

Core Concepts