Get started

Complete the first run

Choose a model provider, verify chat, and establish a safe starting configuration.

Prove a simple conversation before adding channels, users, scheduled jobs, or broad tool access. This gives you a known-good model configuration to return to when later administration changes fail.

Choose a provider and model

Open the model selector:
```
maia model
```
Select the provider you are authorized to use.
Complete its API-key or OAuth flow.
Select a model from the live catalog returned for that account.

Provider catalogs change.

Use the models shown by Maia for the connected account. A model name documented elsewhere does not guarantee that your provider or organization can access it.

Verify chat

On a desktop, the bare command opens the dashboard. Use terminal mode explicitly when you want the terminal interface:

maia
maia --tui

Send a short prompt that does not require tools, such as:

Explain which Maia model and provider are active in this session.

Expected result. Maia answers without an authentication error and identifies the selected runtime.

Verify session persistence

End the terminal session normally.
Resume the latest session:
```
maia --continue
```
Ask Maia to summarize the previous exchange.

Establish a safe baseline

Keep secrets in Maia's managed .env flow, never in prompts, memories, skills, or documentation.
Enable only the toolsets required for the first use case.
Configure governance before inviting additional gateway users.
Define folder policies before asking Maia to work with company files.

For a company rollout, continue with Configure the gateway and Configure users and governance.