Quick Start

From download to your first session is a few clicks.

1. Download Palette Desktop

Palette Desktop is a local Mac app. It runs on your machine, not in a browser. Download it from palette.team.

On Windows? We're working on it. Join the Windows waitlist and we'll let you know as soon as it's ready.

2. Choose how to start

Palette Desktop opens to a welcome screen with three paths:

• New folder. Pick a name and a location on your machine. Good if you're starting fresh.
• Existing folder. Point Palette at any folder you've already got. Local, or synced through Google Drive, Dropbox, or iCloud.
• Template. Select Start from template to browse Marketplace and create a new folder from a folder system or workflow.

If you point at a folder your team already syncs, the whole team is in. No invite flow, no separate workspace to set up.

Turn on the starting guide

When you create a new folder, you can check Include the starting guide. We recommend it for your first folder.

The starting guide opens a guided first chat that:

1. Asks who you are and what you do
2. Suggests a first workflow to try, like drafting product specs, weekly recaps, or account reviews
3. Can scaffold a starter skill for that workflow
4. Writes an initial CLAUDE.md with context about you and the workspace

By the end, you've got a real workflow you can run, not just an empty folder.

3. Run your first session

Whether you used the starting guide or not, you're now in your first session. A session is a sandboxed clone of your folder. The agent works inside the clone, so nothing touches your real folder until you decide.

Inside a session, you run chats. Pick your agent per chat, from Palette's own agent, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, or Mistral Vibe. Different chats in the same session can use different agents, and you can run multiple sessions in parallel.

If an agent isn't installed yet, Palette installs it for you in one click from Settings. Palette's own agent is built in and needs nothing. For the others, bring your own subscription or API key, or use Palette's own agent, which needs no third-party subscription. See Agents.

4. Review and save back

When you're done, review every change the agent made. Then save the session back to the shared folder.

Nothing writes to the shared folder until you approve it. That's what makes it safe for the whole team to work in the same folder.

Next

• Agents, the five agents you can run and how model access works
• Sessions, the sandboxed unit of work
• Chats, running one or several at once with different agents
• Workspaces, how Palette works with folders on your computer
• Sharing workspaces, how teams work in the same folder
• Marketplace, install a folder system or workflow
• FAQ