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Get started with Nora: deploy your first agent in 15 minutes

Install Nora, open the dashboard, add an LLM provider key, deploy your first agent runtime, and validate it with chat, logs, and a live terminal.

1

Install Nora

Run the one-line installer for your platform, or bring up the stack manually with Docker Compose if you prefer full control over the setup.

macOS WSL2

Windows (PowerShell)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/solomon2773/nora/master/setup.sh | bash

The installer clones the repository, verifies Docker and Docker Compose, generates platform secrets, walks you through access mode, platform mode, runtime/backend choices, and optional bootstrap admin creation, then starts the full Nora stack.If you prefer to configure things manually, clone the repo and bring up the stack yourself:

git clone https://github.com/solomon2773/nora.git
cd nora
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your secrets, then:
docker compose up -d

When the installer or Docker Compose finishes, it prints the base URL it configured. Local mode uses http://localhost:8080 by default, but the installer automatically offers another free web port such as 8081 if 8080 is already in use.

2

Open the dashboard

Navigate to the Nora dashboard in your browser. In local mode, use the URL printed by setup. The default URLs are:

URL	What it opens
http://localhost:8080	Entry page
http://localhost:8080/login	Log in
http://localhost:8080/signup	Create an operator account
http://localhost:8080/app/dashboard	System overview
http://localhost:8080/app/deploy	Deploy your first agent

If setup selected another port, replace 8080 with that port. If you configured a public domain during setup, the same paths apply on your origin — for example, https://app.example.com/app/dashboard.

3

Create an account or log in

Go to the printed /signup URL and create your operator account. If you set DEFAULT_ADMIN_EMAIL and DEFAULT_ADMIN_PASSWORD during setup, that account is already created — go to /login and use those credentials instead.

4

Add an LLM provider key

Open Settings in the dashboard. Add an API key for a supported provider such as Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google. Nora encrypts provider keys at rest with AES-256-GCM and stores them centrally so you can sync them to any running agent at any time.

No API key yet? Click Try the demo agent on the Getting Started page instead. It enables Nora’s built-in demo provider — a deterministic stub model served by your own control plane — and deploys a working agent you can chat with immediately, zero keys and zero cost. Swap in a real provider whenever you’re ready.

5

Deploy your first agent

Go to Deploy and fill in the deployment form:

1. Enter an agent name
2. Choose a runtime mode
3. Set CPU, RAM, and disk resource limits
4. Click Confirm & Deploy Agent

The agent will provision and start within a few seconds.

OpenClaw is the best-supported runtime today and the recommended choice for your first deployment.

6

Validate the agent

Open the agent detail page and work through the following checks:

1. Confirm the agent shows a running status
2. Click Sync Keys if you need to push your provider keys to the running runtime
3. Open Chat and send a test message to confirm the LLM connection is working
4. Click Logs and inspect the output to confirm the runtime is healthy
5. Open Terminal to confirm you have an interactive session

If all five checks pass, Nora has demonstrated its core value — a single surface for deploying, observing, and operating an agent runtime.

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What’s next