Getting Started

This guide covers the essential commands and daily workflow to get value from Vita immediately.

Note: Two interfaces, same commands. You can drive Vita from a CLI session (the slash commands below) or from Telegram, which is the primary day-to-day surface for many flows — /checkin, /log, and proactive outreach (morning kickoffs, reminders, nudges) all run there. See Telegram for the chat interface.

Quick Start

1. Daily Check-in

The most important habit is the daily check-in:

/checkin

Vita will ask about: - Sleep quality and duration - Energy levels - Any notable symptoms or conditions - Progress on active goals

The check-in adapts its depth based on time of day and what you've already logged.

2. Log Activities

As you complete activities throughout the day:

/log 45 min run, felt good, average pace 8:30/mi

Natural language works. Vita extracts the relevant data and categorizes it automatically.

3. Morning Brief

Every morning, Vita sends an email with: - Weather forecast - Calendar events - Health metrics from Garmin - Goal status and suggestions - Tasks and habits from Precedent

If you're not receiving briefs, run /brief to trigger one manually.

Essential Commands

Daily

Command	When to Use
/checkin	Daily - log your health state (adaptive depth)
/log [activity]	Throughout day - record what you did
/now	Anytime - see current dashboard
/capture [text]	Quick capture a thought, idea, or note
/day	Morning - set today's objectives (max 5)
/day done	Throughout day - mark objectives complete
/help	When stuck - see all commands

Weekly

Command	When to Use
/week	Weekend - summarize the past 7 days
/week-plan	Monday - set weekly objectives (max 3)
/schedule	Review frequency goals (date nights, training, etc.)
/insights	Analyze patterns and correlations
/goal [action]	Manage goals (list/add/update/complete)

Weekly Rhythm

Monday: Set the Week

/week-plan

Set your weekly objectives (max 3). These are the big things you want to accomplish this week.

/schedule

Review your frequency goals (date nights, training sessions, etc.) and see what's planned.

Mid-week: Check Progress

/goal

See how you're tracking against active goals. Adjust if needed.

Weekend: Reflect

/week

Get a summary of the past 7 days. What went well? What needs attention?

Syncing Data

Vita pulls from external sources. Run these as needed:

Command	Source
/sync-garmin	Sleep, HRV, steps, activities
/sync-rwgps	Cycling routes
/sync-today	Tasks and habits
/update-trends	Process new source files in memory/sources/

Most syncs happen automatically, but you can trigger them manually if data seems stale.

Working with Goals

Create a Goal

/goal add "Run a sub-20 minute 5K"

Vita will guide you through setting metrics, deadlines, and check-in prompts.

Track Progress

/goal

Lists all active goals with current status.

Complete a Goal

/goal complete "Run a sub-20 minute 5K"

Moves it to achieved and captures the completion context.

Identity & Coaching

Build Your Profile

Command	Purpose
/interview [domain]	Deep-dive identity Q&A session
/reflect [--synthesize]	Show identity state, process observations
/who-am-i [--refresh\|--raw]	Display identity narrative
/identity-refresh	Update Identity Page with accumulated data

Interview topics include values, motivations, communication preferences, health priorities, and life context. The more Vita knows, the better it coaches.

System Commands

Command	Purpose
/improve	View/develop improvement proposals
/sleep	Deep reflection, revise and rerank proposals
/brief	Generate daily email brief
/commitments	Track promises and follow-ups
/ask-ai [model] [q]	Delegate to a single non-Anthropic model (GPT / Grok / Gemini)
/council "question"	Multi-model consensus across top-tier models (roster defers to model-guidance.md / .claude/skills/council)
/test	Run automated tests and browser testing
/commit-code	Pre-commit documentation check and commit
/post-x	Post an approved X draft
/x-content-gen	Generate X/Twitter content from identity data

Note (for reimplementers): Slash commands resolve through two mechanisms. Most have a markdown file in .claude/commands/*.md; others (e.g. /council, /brief, /sleep) have no command file and resolve via a skill in .claude/skills/, the /help listing, or a daemon. If you go looking for a council.md command file you won't find one — check .claude/skills/council/SKILL.md instead.

Web Dashboard

Vita's three application HTTP services—and its optional documentation server—are all managed via ./run:

Service	Port	Started by	Role
API	33800	./run api	Internal API + scheduler
Web UI	33801	./run web	Vite dev server (the dashboard)
Public API	33802	./run public-api	Read-only API for public tunnels, no scheduler
Docs	47447	./run docs	Built MkDocs site, agent-readable artifacts, and vita-docs.ham.xyz tunnel

For visual exploration, open the web UI:

http://vita.localhost

Setup: vita.localhost requires the Caddy reverse proxy, which serves the dashboard and proxies API calls. Config at /etc/caddy/conf.d/vita.caddyfile. If Caddy isn't running, the Vite dev server is reachable directly at http://localhost:33801 (and the API at http://localhost:33800).

A few of the sections:

• Goals - Visual goal tracking
• Board - AI-facilitated board meetings drawn from a roster of 7 personas (3-5 seated per meeting; quorum 3, max 5)
• Media / Feed - Content queue from HN, RSS, podcasts, X (Media and the newer Feed view coexist)
• Identity - Your profile, timeline, relationships, and quotes
• Inference - Model usage analytics and session deep dives (route /inference; also /dashboard/tokens)
• Data Browser - Raw data exploration (/data)
• Proposals - System improvement ideas
• Docs - This documentation

The dashboard is much larger than this — there are 50+ top-level routes including the executive loop, briefing, health/body/doctor/genetics, canvases, education, the Workshop index, growth, agents, sentinel, and more. See Architecture for the full surface.

Tips for Success

Tip: Consistency beats intensity. A brief daily check-in is more valuable than sporadic detailed logs.

Note: Vita learns from corrections. If it misunderstands something, tell it—this updates your profile.

Warning: Don't skip check-ins for too long. Vita's insights depend on recent data. After 3+ days of silence, patterns become unreliable.

Next Steps

1. Run /checkin to start building data
2. Run /interview to help Vita understand you
3. Set up a goal with /goal add
4. Check your brief tomorrow morning

The system improves the more you use it. Give it a week and you'll see patterns emerging that you wouldn't have noticed otherwise.