Quick Start: Your First 5 Minutes
You've installed Vellum. You've opened it. There's a friendly mascot on your screen waiting for you.
Now what?
Here's what your first 5 minutes look like. Think of it less like a tutorial and more like meeting someone new.
Minute 1: Set up
On first launch, you'll walk through a short setup:
- Choose your path — sign in with your Vellum account, or enter your own Anthropic API key to run locally
- Watch your assistant hatch — an egg cracks open in a short animated sequence while your assistant boots up
- Set your activation key — choose how to summon your assistant (Fn, Ctrl, Fn+Shift, or Off)
Minutes 2–3: Get to know each other
Once your assistant hatches, you drop into a conversation — not a form, not a wizard. Your assistant is genuinely figuring itself out alongside you. It'll:
- Ask for a name — what should you call it? If you don't have one in mind, it'll pick one itself.
- Figure out its vibe — what kind of creature is it? This emerges naturally from how you talk to each other.
- Ask who you are — your name, what you do, what help actually looks like for you.
Talk to it like you'd talk to a new coworker on their first day. There's a “Skip setup for now” link if you'd rather jump straight in.
Minutes 4–5: Your first task
At the end of the conversation, your assistant suggests two things it can take off your plate right away — based on what it learned about you. They show up as clickable buttons in the chat: pick one, or tell it something else entirely.
Either way, you're off and running.
Permissions
Vellum doesn't ask for all its permissions upfront. Instead, it asks when it actually needs them:
- Microphone — requested the first time you try voice input (“Turn on my ears?”)
- Screen Recording — requested the first time it needs to see your screen (“Turn on my eyes?”)
- Accessibility — requested the first time it needs to interact with your apps (“Use my hands?”)
Each prompt gives you three choices: Allow, Don't Allow, or Always Allow.