Skip to main content
In this tutorial you buy Squad, create your account, launch your squad, and meet your chief of staff, the teammate that leads your squad. At the end, your squad works on its first task and you answer its first question. Plan for about 20 minutes. The tutorial uses Claude Code, the provider that the setup page recommends. If you use a different AI provider, follow its steps in Connect your AI subscription when you get to step 4, then continue here.

​
Before you begin

  • A Claude plan. Squad recommends Claude Max or Ultra. Claude Code runs your squad on your plan’s included limits and never bills extra usage. Your squad starts on Claude Code Opus 5.5, the model that Squad recommends.
  • Node.js and a terminal on your own computer. You run one command to create a setup token. You do not need Claude Code installed.
  • Access to the email inbox that you will use for Squad.
For the plan price, see What Squad costs. Squad has no free trial and no demo calls. Your first payment has a 7-day money-back guarantee, so you can try Squad with your own work. See Get a refund. For questions to settle before you pay, see Questions before you sign up.

​
From sign-up to your first question

1

Pay for your plan

You pay first. The payment gives your email address access to Squad.
  1. Go to squad.so/get-started.
  2. Type your email address in the email field.
  3. Click Get your squad. The button also shows the monthly price.
  4. Complete the payment in the checkout window.
You see Payment successful and Setting up your account…. After a few seconds, Squad opens the Create your account page with your email address filled in.
If you see Already subscribed, this email address already has a subscription. Click Log in and sign in instead.
2

Create your account

Use the same email address that you used to pay. Squad finds your subscription by this address.
  1. On Create your account, make sure that Email address shows the email that you paid with.
  2. Type your name in Full name. This field is optional.
  3. Type a Password of 8 characters or more.
  4. Tick I have read and agree to the Terms of Service.
  5. Click Create account.
  6. Open the email from Squad and copy the 8-digit code.
  7. Type the code in Verification code and click Verify email. The code expires after 15 minutes.
Squad opens the setup page, Set up your squad.If you see Payment received, Squad is still activating your access. Wait on the page. It continues automatically, usually within a few seconds.
If you see We can’t find your subscription, you signed in with a different email address than the one you paid with. Log out and sign in with the email address that you used at checkout.
If a Please Accept Our Terms of Service window opens at any time, tick the box and click Accept & Continue.
3

Launch your squad

The setup page has one choice: your AI provider.
  1. Under Choose your AI provider, keep Claude Code selected. It has the Recommended label and is selected by default. The page says that you connect Claude Code right after setup.
  2. Tick I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Refund Policy.
  3. Click Launch my squad.
You see Building your squad and This takes about 2 minutes. A list of six steps gets a check mark as each step finishes: Setting up your squad, Installing AI tools, Adding capabilities, Starting your teammates, Configuring your squad, and Final checks. Final checks also brings your cloud computer up to date, Claude Code included, before your squad opens.Squad is building your cloud computer: the machine where your teammates run. You can reload the page, or open it in another tab. The progress screen comes back.If the screen shows Something went wrong, see Fix setup problems.
4

Connect your Claude Code account

When the build finishes, the screen shows Connect your AI provider and One more step before your agents can work, with a Connect your Claude Code account box.
  1. Click Connect Claude Code →. The Add Claude Code token window opens.
  2. On your own computer, open a terminal and run npx @anthropic-ai/claude-code setup-token. The window shows this command under 1 · Generate a setup token.
  3. Approve in the browser window that opens.
  4. Copy the token that the terminal prints. It starts with sk-ant-oat01-.
  5. Paste it in 2 · Paste the setup token and click Connect.
Squad checks the token with a real test turn before it saves it. You see Claude Code connected. The heading changes to Your squad is ready.You can also click Skip to Dashboard and connect Claude Code later in Settings > AI. Connect your AI subscription has the steps.
5

Open your dashboard

  1. Click Open your dashboard.
The dashboard opens on Today with a Your squad is ready window. It names your chief of staff. It is called Chief of Staff until you give it another name.
  1. Click Chat with Chief of Staff. The button shows your chief of staff’s current name.
The chat opens on a new conversation, with “A new conversation with Chief of Staff.” and a few suggested first messages.If you click Look around first instead, the window closes and you stay on Today. While no app is connected, Today also shows Connect the apps your squad works in, with Connect an app and Not now. You can connect apps later. See Connect apps.In a wide browser window on a Mac, when you do not use Squad for Mac yet, the window also has Get Squad for Mac under Look around first. It opens the offer to download Squad for Mac. See Squad for Mac on the web.
6

Build your squad with your chief of staff

Your chief of staff is the first teammate in your squad. It designs the rest of your squad with you in one conversation of about 10 minutes.
  1. Type a first message and press Enter. For example:
Your chief of staff replies and introduces itself. It asks what to call you and what you want to call it.
  1. Answer each question in your own words. More detail gives you a better squad.
In this conversation, your chief of staff asks about these topics, one at a time:
  • Your name, your business, your customers, and the work that takes most of your time.
  • A style for your teammates’ names, for example real names or a theme.
  • A proposed squad of 4 or 5 teammates, each with a role, for you to approve or change.
  • The tools that you use, such as email, chat, and docs. Your chief of staff never asks you to paste a key or password into chat.
  • How many decisions a day you want to receive (most people say 5), what time of day your daily digest arrives, and what must never happen without your sign-off.
After you approve the squad, the new teammates appear under Your squad in the sidebar. When you have two or more teammates, Squad chat also appears in the sidebar.At the end, your chief of staff writes an Outcomes doc in Docs, creates the first 2 or 3 tasks, and sends a handoff message.
You can stop and come back. Your chief of staff records its progress and continues from the last topic.
Each teammate has a heartbeat, a routine that wakes it to check its work. Heartbeats are created switched off. Until you turn them on, teammates work only when you message them, mention them, or give them a task. Your chief of staff turns on its own heartbeat only if you ask it clearly, for example “turn on the check-ins”. See Schedule recurring work with routines.
7

Give your squad its first task

A task is a piece of work that a teammate owns until it is done. This task asks the teammate to stop and ask you one question, so that you also see your first question.
  1. In the chat with your chief of staff, send this message. Replace the topic with a real one from your work.
Ask your chief of staff
Your chief of staff replies in the chat and names the task. Some replies also show a Task created card. Click it to open the task.
  1. To see every task, press ⌘K or Ctrl+K, type Tasks, and select Tasks (Everything your squad is working on) under Go to. You can also press B while the cursor is not in a text field.
The task is on Tasks, in the Not started, Working on it, or Needs you column.
8

Answer your first question

A question blocks a task until you answer it. When the teammate asks it, the task moves to the Needs you column, and Today in the sidebar shows a count.
  1. Click Today in the sidebar.
The first sentence says that 1 thing needs you. The question is under Needs you, with its answers as buttons.
  1. Answer the question. The buttons depend on what the teammate asks: for example Approve and Decline, one row for each option, or a text box for your words, then Send answer. Something else… lets you answer in your own words.
The question leaves the list, and Just answered keeps Undo for a moment. The task leaves Needs you and the teammate continues. When it finishes, the comparison doc is in Docs.

​
What you did

You paid, created your account, launched your squad, connected your AI subscription, met your chief of staff, and built your squad. Then you gave a task and answered a question. This is the everyday loop: you ask, teammates work, a question comes back only when a decision needs you.

​
Next steps

What Squad is and how it works

The model behind tasks, questions, runs, and docs, and a tour of the dashboard.

Give your squad work that it can finish

How to write a brief.

Answer what needs you

Every kind of question.

Connect apps

Give your teammates access to your tools.