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Before you begin
A first session has two different decisions: setting up AII OS, and authorizing it to contact a model. Decide where your information will go before supplying credentials or beginning a founding conversation.
Choose the current release and a model destination
Use the latest published release, not a development branch or an older manual. Match the download to your operating system. The installation guide describes source-derived platform routes; none is yet clean-state replayed, and hardware requirements are not verified.
A provider supplies a model endpoint; a model is the selected system that produces responses. Choose an endpoint you trust, a model it actually offers and the required authorization. The setup interface may offer an API key, provider sign-in or a local-server address depending on the provider. Do not assume every provider uses the same credentials.
- External service: requests leave your machine. Check the service's privacy and retention terms, account permissions and charges. Decide what you are willing to send and spend; this page cannot promise a price or a spending cap enforced by AII OS.
- Local model server: the server must already be running at the intended address and offer a compatible model. A local-looking interface or provider name is not proof of local-only processing. Verify the actual endpoint and server arrangement.
Selecting a provider or changing its credentials/address can already trigger model discovery. Do not treat Birth as the first possible network contact. First-time startup also obtains signed founding material from platform services; choosing a local model does not establish offline setup.
Enter secrets only through appropriate product authorization controls. A password-style API-key field hides characters on screen; it does not make the credential temporary. The inspected Birth path can store the key in its provider configuration. Do not paste keys into a conversation, documentation issue or screenshot.
Understand what Birth does
Opening the desktop application is not the same action as creating an identity. In the inspected macOS/Linux launcher, opening can create an empty identity slot and start its background service. The initial setup view then offers provider/model choices and Birth. These are source findings, not an observed clean installation; the installation guide also traces the Windows launcher; neither route has been replayed here.
Birth is consequential, not a preview. It submits the verified founding prompt to the selected model endpoint. A qualifying provider refusal can cause an additional request. A usable answer is followed by provider/configuration persistence and identity creation, including a key and signed founding record. Later startup or conversation-recording steps can still fail.
Authorize the destination and possible costs before proceeding. Use a deliberate place for the identity and decide how you will retain its records. No deletion, reset or repeated Birth is needed to try this draft. If you already have an identity, do not create another merely to match an illustration. If you intend to recover an existing one, stop before Birth: creating a new identity is not restoring the old one. Read backup and restore; that route remains unrehearsed.
Before your first ordinary message
Read what happens in a conversation: model context can include earlier conversation and identity information, not only your newest sentence. Tool requests can have separate effects and their results can enter later model calls. Use non-sensitive text until you understand the chosen endpoint and available capabilities.
The composer reference explains the source-defined send controls. Setup and delivery problems separates errors before Birth, after possible identity creation and during ordinary chat.
Continue to install and open, then the first-conversation candidate. Still unverified: clean installation, replayed first use, real screenshots, platform stop behaviour and a tested restore. Source-derived instructions do not establish that setup succeeded.