First-run experience — feedback on getting started

[benkauffman]

I've been building ctrl — an 8-bit office for AI coding agents. Getting the first-run experience right matters a lot to me — you should go from zero to watching your agents in under a minute.

Currently the flow is:

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon

Then open ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh and start your favorite coding agent. Still in beta — things will break, and that's exactly why I want early eyes on it. The daemon detects sessions automatically.

I'd love feedback on:

• Is the setup intuitive enough?
• What confused you on first run?
• What would make onboarding smoother?

I'm one person trying to build all of this out — any feedback on the getting-started experience would be a huge help.

cc @lucaslosantos

[benkauffman]

Tagging @Muralikrishankp — saw your bit-office and star-office-ui repos. You're clearly thinking about office-themed AI tooling. ctrl's getting started experience is something we're actively improving — would love your take on what a good first-run should look like.

[benkauffman]

Hey @lucaslosantos, @Muralikrishankp, @chaitanyagiri, @DevvGwardo, @upd8ai-spec — wanted to loop you in here since you forked or starred something in the pixel agents space. ctrl is now in beta with a bunch of new features including a session hub, inspector panel, and terminal view. If you have been thinking about getting started, now is a good time. Run npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta or check it out at https://ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh.

[benkauffman]

Also tagging @andrefortin, @nnhansg, @buithaibinh, @ColdSlither, @tubadsouza — same invite. ctrl is in beta now with a session hub, inspector, and terminal panel. The first-run experience has gotten a lot smoother and would love to hear where people still get stuck. npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta to try it, or https://ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh.

[benkauffman]

And @thankvn, @EthanThePhoenix38 — looping you in as well. Would genuinely appreciate feedback on the first-run flow as you go through setup. npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta or https://ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh.

[benkauffman]

@EthanThePhoenix38 — completely fair concern, and I appreciate you saying it directly instead of just bouncing.

The short answer: the daemon is a Node.js/bun process. The npx command fetches it from npm (https://www.npmjs.com/package/@bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon). You can inspect the package contents before running with npm pack @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta --dry-run or browse the published files on npmjs.com.

I am working toward open-sourcing the daemon — the main blocker has been untangling the infrastructure config from the application code. That work is in progress. When it ships, you\ll be able to read the full source, build from it yourself, and skip npx entirely.

For now: the daemon only reads JSONL files from your local filesystem and opens a localhost WebSocket. It doesn\t write to your repo, doesn\t read credentials, and the relay connection is opt-in (it\s off by default until you explicitly share a link). But I fully understand if that\s not enough until the source is public — that\s a reasonable bar to hold.

Will post here when the open-source repo goes live.

[benkauffman]

cc @matthoffner — saw your pixel-agents fork and the pixel-claw-landing repo. ctrl is now in beta with a full first-run flow: npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta detects running agents automatically and you are watching them in the office within about a minute. Would love to hear if the setup feels smooth or if anything trips you up — feedback from people who have already been in this space is exactly what I need right now.

[matthoffner]

Looks great! Will give it a try and let you know.

[benkauffman]

cc @minghsuanwu @GoupilJeremy @samwang0723 @ch9nuk9 - tagging you here since you each forked pixel-agents and I want to make sure you know ctrl exists.

ctrl is what I am building on top of that concept - a browser-based 8-bit office where your AI coding agents each get a desk. The daemon watches JSONL session files and renders each agent as a character in real time. You can watch them all work from a single tab, share a relay link to let someone else observe, and inspect any session in detail.

Getting started takes under a minute:

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta

Then open https://ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh and start any coding agent. This is beta - things may break, and that is exactly why I want your feedback early. What is the first thing that feels off?

[benkauffman]

cc @Cenadros @ftavella @johede3 @MoraesGil @Bastien-OC20 — tagging you here since you each forked pixel-agents and I want to make sure you know ctrl exists.

ctrl is what I am building on top of that concept — a browser-based 8-bit office where your AI coding agents each get a desk. The daemon watches JSONL session files and renders each agent as a character in real time. You can watch them all work from a single tab, share a relay link to let someone else observe, and inspect any session in detail.

Getting started is under a minute:

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta

Then open https://ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh and start any coding agent. This is beta — things may break, and that is exactly why I want your feedback early. What is the first thing that feels off or confusing?

[benkauffman]

cc @oboukhris-palo @hi4mamrit @thalesphilipi @Roy12233444 @KougarLogic — tagging you here since you each forked pixel-agents and I want to make sure you know ctrl exists.

ctrl is what I am building on top of that concept — a browser-based 8-bit office where your AI coding agents each get a desk. The daemon watches JSONL session files and renders each agent as a character in real time. You can watch them all work from a single tab, share a relay link to let someone else observe, and inspect any session in detail.

Getting started is under a minute:

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta

Then open https://ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh and start any coding agent. This is beta — things may break, and that is exactly why I want your feedback early. What is the first thing that feels off or confusing?

[benkauffman]

@EthanThePhoenix38 — the iPhone display issue is a real bug and I appreciate you catching it. The header clipping and inability to close panels on mobile is a layout problem I have been meaning to fix — the office UI was designed desktop-first and I have not done a proper mobile pass yet.

I have logged this and it is on the list. The daemon itself only runs on desktop (it is a local process watching your file system), but the web view should work on mobile for observation and relay viewing — so it is worth fixing properly.

If you run into anything else on iOS, keep the reports coming. This kind of early feedback is exactly what the beta is for.

[benkauffman]

cc @dmonroym @Gundalai-Batkhuu @sa3047 @iCreos @brian-w-zhang — tagging you here since you each forked pixel-agents and I want to make sure you know ctrl exists.

ctrl is what I am building on top of that concept — a browser-based 8-bit office where your AI coding agents each get a desk. The daemon watches JSONL session files and renders each agent as a character you can see working in real time.

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta

Then open https://ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh and start any coding agent. The first-run flow has gotten much smoother and I would love feedback on where people still get stuck. Daniel — the MakeCode context is interesting, curious if you run any AI agents in your dev workflow. Dale — data apps + agent tooling is exactly the intersection I am building for. Would love to hear what you think.

[benkauffman]

cc @Stackjane @fangxing80 @cpich3g — tagging you here since you each have strong signal that ctrl might be worth a look.

Stackjane — your everything-claude-code config collection (battle-tested from an Anthropic hackathon) plus nanoclaw and clawdbot tells me you run agents seriously. ctrl is what the first run of those configs looks like as a visualization — each agent gets a character in an 8-bit office, and you watch the whole team from one browser tab.

fangxing80 — cc-connect is a great idea: bridging Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and Gemini to messaging platforms so you can monitor from anywhere. ctrl handles the same problem differently — a browser-based office you can open on any device, with a relay link you can share. The two approaches are complementary.

cpich3g — copilot-agents-dojo and snap-squad show you are serious about agent governance and warm-start deployment. ctrl gives you the visual dashboard for watching those agents work — idle states, active coding, blocked states, all rendered in real time.

Getting started is under a minute:

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta

Then open https://ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh and start any coding agent. The daemon detects sessions automatically. What is the first thing that feels off?

[benkauffman]

cc @ajhofmann @Bedizz @Drepheus @Zsoldier @dandacompany — tagging you here since you each forked pixel-agents, which tells me you are already thinking about AI agent visualization.

ctrl takes that idea further: it is a browser-based pixel-art office where your actual coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and more) show up as characters working at desks in real time. The daemon watches JSONL session files and renders each agent live — no config needed, just one command:

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta

Then open https://ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh. This is my beta and I would love feedback on whether the first-run experience makes sense — what was confusing, what was missing, or what clicked.

[benkauffman]

cc @godofecht @diego-vicente @voogryk @rm3l — tagging you here since your backgrounds each overlap with the problem ctrl is solving.

godofecht — Quilio in Cambridge tells me you are building or running software that touches agents or automation. diego-vicente — data science at CartoDB, Madrid: if you run any AI coding agents for data pipelines or tooling, ctrl shows you their real-time state in one browser tab. voogryk — full-stack at Procore in Kyiv: multi-agent support across different terminals and project directories is built in. rm3l — open-source and distributed systems at Red Hat, blog at armel.soro.io: ctrl is open source, daemon-based, and designed to connect across machines — should be familiar territory.

Getting started is under a minute:

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta

Then open https://ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh and start any coding agent. This is my beta — I would love to know what is confusing or missing on first run.

[rm3l]

Please stop tagging folks like this.

[benkauffman]

cc @juitem @MelkorNemesis @petkov120 @R4K4N0 @Aredex — tagging you here since you each forked pixel-agents, which tells me you are already thinking about AI agent visualization.

ctrl is what I am building on top of that concept — a browser-based pixel-art office where you can watch your AI coding agents work in real time. The first-run flow is a single command:

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta

Then open https://ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh — the daemon detects running Claude Code, Codex, or other agent sessions automatically.

juitem — Samsung Research is exactly the kind of environment where you might be running multiple agents across different projects. Would love to know if the multi-daemon setup makes sense for your workflow.

MelkorNemesis — remoteyeah.com background and 19+ years in the field is great context. ctrl is remote-friendly by design — the browser UI can be shared via a relay link so you can observe from anywhere.

petkov120 — product designer at the AI+code intersection: I would especially value your feedback on the visual language and whether the agent states feel intuitive at a glance.

R4K4N0 — IT manager building with AI agents and automation: ctrl gives you a status dashboard view across all your running agents without opening each terminal individually.

Aredex — full stack with React and Node: the daemon is all TypeScript/bun if you want to poke at the internals.

Feedback, rough edges, or questions welcome here.

[benkauffman]

cc @kazupon @lhl @mikedemarais @popey @deifos — tagging you here since you each have strong signal that ctrl might be worth a look.

kazupon — Vue.js core team, gunshi creator, PLAID inc in Tokyo. You clearly build developer tooling seriously and run a lot of automation. ctrl is what I am building for people like you: a browser-based pixel-art office where your AI coding agents each get a desk. The daemon watches JSONL session files automatically.

lhl — CTO at @shisa-ai and @AUGMXNT in Tokyo. Running agents at a company means you need observability. ctrl shows each agent live in the office — idle, working, thinking, blocked — so you can see what the whole fleet is doing without terminal-hopping.

mikedemarais — cofounder @rainbow-me in NYC. Builder instinct will tell you immediately whether this resonates. The first run is one command and you are watching your agents in under a minute.

popey — Developer Relations and Engineering Manager at @tesslio, UK. You talk to developers all day about tooling. ctrl is the kind of thing that makes a good demo: agents walking to desks and working in pixel art, live.

deifos — "I build for the web" and 175 repos says you ship constantly, Montreal. ctrl is built for people who run agents regularly and want to see what they are doing without terminal-hopping.

Would love feedback on the first-run flow specifically — is the setup intuitive, what confused you, what would make it smoother.

npx @bulletproof-sh/ctrl-daemon@beta

Then open https://ctrl.beta.bulletproof.sh and start any coding agent.

[lhl]

@benkauffman This is incredibly rude. Feedback: blocking and reporting for abuse, I will never be touching anything you are touching, ever.