---
title: Quickstart
description: Get up and running with NIKI in under 5 minutes.
sidebar:
  order: 3
  label: Quickstart
---
Get your first verified branch with NIKI in under five minutes.

---

## Prerequisites

1. **Rust:** Rust 1.85+ (2024 edition) installed.
2. **Container Engine:** [Podman](https://podman.io) (recommended) or [Docker](https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/) running in rootless mode.
3. **LLM API Key:** At least one API key from Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter, Google, or a local Ollama instance.

---

## Step 1: Build the Sandbox Image

NIKI executes code and test suites inside a hardened container image with `git`, `node`, `npm`, `python3`, `rustc`, and `cargo` pre-installed.

```bash
# Build sandbox image using Podman or Docker
podman build -t niki-sandbox:24.04 -f docker/Dockerfile .
# or: docker build -t niki-sandbox:24.04 -f docker/Dockerfile .
```

---

## Step 2: Configure Your API Key

Create `niki.toml` in your project root or set environment variables:

```bash
cp niki.example.toml niki.toml
```

Set your API key via environment variable (takes precedence over config file):

```bash
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
# or export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
# or export GOOGLE_API_KEY=AIza...
```

---

## Step 3: Run Your First Task

Describe what you want to implement in plain English:

```bash
niki run "Add a GET /health endpoint returning { status: 'ok', uptime }" --project ./my-app
```

Watch the pipeline execute across all four stages:

```text
 ◈ ⟠ ◉ ◆   NIKI
   "Add a GET /health endpoint…"

 [Planner]   Done — Spec: 1 file to modify
 [Coder]     Done — Changed 1 file · src/api.rs [modified]
 [Tester]    Done — 8/8 tests passed
 [Reviewer]  Done — Approved · correctness 10/10 · quality 9/10 · coverage 10/10
 [NIKI]      Task complete — Branch: niki/6d281d6d · Verdict: Approved · Revisions: 0
```

---

## Step 4: Review and Merge

Switch to the generated branch in your target project to inspect the code:

```bash
git -C ./my-app switch niki/6d281d6d
```

View the complete decision audit report:

```bash
niki report 6d281d6d
```