---
id: start-index
title: "Start"
description: "Decide whether discern fits, set up your project, and review your first change."
order: 0
publish: true
kind: tutorial
aliases:
  - "start-index"
  - "Getting started"
  - "setup"
---

# Start

Setting up discern gives your agents a shared way to work in your project. These pages take you from deciding whether it fits to understanding what your agent has prepared and reviewing a real change.

You can direct setup in ordinary language. Your agent studies the repository, proposes the checks and instructions it needs, and asks you about decisions the code cannot answer.

## Choose your starting point

- [Evaluate discern](evaluate-discern.md) if you're considering it. Learn what it changes about your work, what setup asks of you, and what stays yours if you remove it.
- [Install and set up discern](installation-and-setup.md) when you're ready to try it. Follow the installation, agent handoff, and review of the setup.
- [Make and review your first change](first-real-change.md) to try the everyday workflow on a small, visible improvement.
- [After setup](after-setup.md) when you want to understand the files your agent added and how to change them later.

You'll need a Git repository, a supported coding agent, and macOS, Linux, or Windows through WSL 2. [Platforms and providers](../30-reference/platforms-and-providers.md) lists the supported tools and versions.

## Once you're ready to work

[Finish and land a change](../10-guides/finish-and-land-a-change.md) explains the everyday exchange: you describe an outcome, your agent makes and checks the change, and you review what comes back. [Proof](../20-understand/proof.md) shows how to read the evidence of those checks.

You can explore the rest of the [guides](../10-guides/README.md) as you need them. You don't have to configure every capability before your first task.