---
url: https://bishop.agentdeployment.co/index.md
description: >-
  What Bishop is, what you need, and the commands that get an agent answering in
  Slack, email or Teams.
---

# Quick Start

Bishop puts an agent where your team already works. Point it at a directory an agent already works in, and the agent becomes something your team can talk to: a Slack thread, an email thread, a Teams conversation, or all of them at once. Bishop handles the connection and the mapping between threads and agent sessions.

```sh
npm install -g @agentdeploymentco/bishop
cd path/to/agent
bishop slack setup
bishop
```

Invite the bot to a channel, or DM it directly.

## Set up with a coding agent

These docs are published for agents too.

* <https://bishop.agentdeployment.co/llms.txt>: every page, indexed as markdown
* <https://bishop.agentdeployment.co/llms-full.txt>: the whole site in one file

To have Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor walk you through setup, run it in your agent's directory and paste:

```text
Read https://bishop.agentdeployment.co/llms.txt and the pages it links to. Then help me install Bishop and connect the agent in this directory to Slack, email, or Microsoft Teams. Ask me which interface I want before running any setup command, and set an allow list so only the people I name can reach the agent.
```

## What you need

* Node 24 or newer.
* A directory the agent works in, meaning `claude` or `codex` runs there and does something useful.
* At least one interface: [Slack](/interfaces/slack), [email](/interfaces/email), or [Microsoft Teams](/interfaces/teams). Each page lists what its setup needs.

[Install](/install) has the details, including building from source.

## What setup writes

```
.bishop/config.json    configuration, commit this
.env                   credentials, gitignored for you
```

Setup also adds `bishop.db*` to `.gitignore`. `bishop` creates the database on its first run to hold the thread-to-session mapping.

## Next steps

* **[How It Works](/how-it-works):** threads, sessions, and what Bishop does with each message.
* **[Choosing the Agent](/running/agent):** keep Bishop's files apart from the agent's, or run an agent straight from a git repository.
* **[Access](/running/access):** decide who can use the agent before you point anyone at it.
* **[Deploying](/deploying/):** run Bishop under systemd or in a container.