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Getting Started
A Tour of the HQ Desktop App
Anyone who's installed HQ and wants to know what everything in the app does.
The HQ desktop app is where you message teammates and bots, keep up with your companies, projects, and meetings, and open your AI tools. It also keeps your HQ folder in sync in the background. If you haven't installed it yet, start with Installing HQ on macOS or Installing HQ on Windows.
Shortcuts on this page use Cmd and Option for Mac. On Windows, use Ctrl and Alt instead.
Opening HQ from anywhere#
Press Option-Shift-O from any app on your Mac to bring up the HQ window. On Windows it's Alt+Shift+O. It's the one shortcut worth remembering, and the guided setup shows it to you when you install.
The left rail#
The narrow strip down the left side of the window is the rail. From top to bottom:
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Home | Your message list: direct messages, group conversations, and project channels. See Messaging in HQ. |
| Meetings | Your meetings and what came out of them. See Meetings and Signals. |
| Company tiles | One tile for each company you've pinned, up to six. Click one to open that company's pane. |
| More companies | Search, pin, and switch between all of your companies. |
| Library | Your personal files and what's been shared with you. |
| Deployments | Everything you've deployed or shared from HQ. |
| Telemetry | Your own usage and session activity. |
| Secrets | Your personal secrets. See the Secrets Guide. |
| Connections | Your personal integrations, the apps you've connected. |
| Marketplace | Find and install new skills, workers, and packs. See Capability Packs. |
| Outpost | Your Outpost machine and its scheduled jobs. |
| Your picture | At the very bottom. Click it for Settings or Sign out. |
Company panes#
Click a company tile and its pane opens beside the rail. It lands on Atlas, a map of the company. The pane's menu is split into groups:
| Group | What's in it |
|---|---|
| Overview | Atlas, Projects, and Activity |
| People | Team, Bots, Groups, and Grants |
| Brain | Knowledge, Policies, Skills, and Workers |
| Files and connect | Vault, Integrations, Secrets, and Deployments |
| Settings | General, Brand, and Billing for the company |
To invite someone to your company, open People → Team and click Invite. It opens the HQ console at Team → Invites. You can also ask your HQ assistant to invite them. More in Rolling HQ Out to Your Team.
The top bar#
From left to right:
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sidebar toggle | Shows or hides the panel next to the rail. |
| Back and Forward arrows | Move between the screens you've visited. |
| Launch | Opens your HQ folder in an AI tool: Claude Code, Codex, or Grok Build. The Folder row at the bottom shows which folder opens, and Change… picks a different one. If a tool isn't installed, it says Not installed with an Install button. See Using HQ with Claude Code or Using HQ with Codex. |
| Sync label | Shows what sync is doing right now, like a sync in progress. Hover over it for details. See the Sync Guide. |
| Notifications bell | Your notifications. A dot means something's unread. When someone invites you to a company, the invite shows up here, and you click Accept to join. |
| Core | Your sync status and HQ's own updates. See below. |
The Core pill
Click Core at the right end of the top bar to see:
- Your sync status, like All synced and Last sync · 3m ago, or a warning if sync needs attention.
- Which versions of HQ and the app you're on, and Check for updates.
- Marketplace, and a list of the Packs you've installed.
- Restore, which appears only if some of HQ's core files have changed and need putting back.
Starting a conversation#
Press Cmd+N (or use New chat) and search for a person or bot to message them directly. To talk with several people, create a channel. More in Messaging in HQ.
To start a project channel, choose New channel (Cmd+Shift+N), give it a name, and click Create channel. The same menu also has New message (Cmd+Shift+K) and New bot (Cmd+Option+N). See Local Bots.
To bring a bot into a conversation, type @ and its name. Bots don't respond to @here.
Keyboard shortcuts#
Press Cmd+K to open the command palette. Start typing to jump to a company, conversation, or screen.
| Shortcut | What it does |
|---|---|
| Option-Shift-O | Opens HQ from anywhere on your computer |
| Cmd+K | Command palette |
| Cmd+1 to Cmd+9 | Opens the rail items in order: Cmd+1 is Home, Cmd+2 is Meetings, and Cmd+3 onward are your pinned companies |
| Cmd+Shift+A | Opens Atlas for the company you're in |
| Cmd+N | New chat |
| Cmd+Shift+K | New message |
| Cmd+Shift+N | New channel |
| Cmd+Option+N | New bot |
| Cmd+F | Search messages |
| Cmd+Shift+F | Jump to a conversation |
| Cmd+Shift+] and Cmd+Shift+[ | Next and previous conversation |
| Cmd+, | Settings |
| Cmd+/ | Show all keyboard shortcuts |
You can't change these shortcuts yet.
Settings#
To open Settings, click your picture at the bottom of the left rail and choose Settings, or press Cmd+,.
| Section | What's there |
|---|---|
| Profile | Your name, a short "about," and your account |
| Public profile | What other people see when they look at your profile |
| Billing | Your plan and payments |
| General | Launch at login, Show in Dock, and quick access from the menu bar |
| Appearance | Theme, window see-through, and text size |
| Notifications | Which notifications you get, and pausing them |
| Sync | Your HQ folder, automatic sync, and which companies sync to this computer. See the Sync Guide. |
| Meetings | Meeting detection and connecting your calendars |
| Updates | Automatic updates and which version you're on |
| Storage | How much space HQ uses on your computer, and ways to free it. See Storage and Disk Space. |
| AI tools | Install and sign in to Claude Code, Codex, and Grok |
| Bots | Every bot you work with, and New bot |
There's no Companies section in Settings anymore. Your companies are on the rail and under More companies, and each company's own settings are in its pane.
Badges and cards#
Profiles can show badges. Each badge has a holographic card. Click See all to view every badge on a profile. You can download a card as an image or as a 7-second video to share on social.
The menu bar icon#
HQ keeps running in your menu bar (Mac) or system tray (Windows) when you close its window, so sync keeps going. Click the HQ icon to open the HQ window. Right-click it for:
- Sync Now, to sync right away
- Open desktop view, to bring the window back
- Open Inbox
- Check for updates…
- Recovery…, if HQ isn't working properly (see below)
- Replay welcome intro, to see the setup intro again
- Settings
- Sign Out and Quit HQ
Updates and fixing problems#
HQ updates itself by default. To check yourself, use Check for updates in the Core popover, the menu bar icon, or Settings → Updates.
If HQ is acting up, try these in order:
- Core → Restore puts back any of HQ's core files that have changed. It only shows up when something needs restoring.
- Recovery… (from the menu bar icon) can check for updates, reinstall the latest version, or reset the app's display settings. Your HQ folder isn't touched.
Still stuck? See The "I'm Stuck" Guide, or report it with /hq-bug.