Set up on Windows

v0.10.7

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Type them exactly; every command on every page fills them in.

Before you start

  • A Windows 10 or 11 PC you can restart.
  • A Claude subscription (Pro or Max).
  • A free GitHub account, with access to this repository. Accept the invitation from the email GitHub sent, or at https://github.com/notifications.

Working in the Ubuntu window

  • Open it from the Start menu: type Ubuntu and press Enter. If you tick wezterm in step 7, open WezTerm instead.
  • Paste a command with Ctrl+V (or Ctrl+Shift+V) and press Enter to run it.
  • Run one block at a time. A command is finished when the line ending in $ (or ❯) comes back.
  • When sudo asks for a password, type your Ubuntu password. Nothing shows as you type.
  • Ctrl+C stops a command that is stuck.
  • Your Windows files are under /mnt/c/Users/<your Windows name>/; ls /mnt/c/Users shows the name.
  • Once Claude is installed (step 4), you can ask it to run any command in this guide instead of pasting it, except the ones that ask for your password: anything starting with sudo. Claude can't type a password, so run those yourself. Run ./install.sh yourself too: it opens screens you answer with the keyboard, and it may ask for your password.

Setup

  1. Windows

    Open the Start menu, type PowerShell, right-click Windows PowerShell, choose Run as administrator, and run:

    PowerShell
    wsl --install

    Restart when it finishes. Open Ubuntu from the Start menu if it has not opened on its own, and pick a short lowercase user name and a password you will remember.

  2. Windows

    Don't open a vault yet.

  3. Ubuntu

    Chrome is there to turn a resume into a PDF.

    Ubuntu
    sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y git gh jq curl wget unzip
wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
sudo apt install -y ./google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

    On a PC with an Arm chip (Windows says ARM in Settings, System, About), the amd64 file will not install; use google-chrome-stable_current_arm64.deb in both lines.

  4. Ubuntu
    Ubuntu
    curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

    Close Ubuntu and open it again, then run claude. Pick your Claude subscription when it asks how to log in, approve in the browser, and paste back any code it shows. Type /exit once you see Claude's prompt.

  5. Ubuntu

    The login prints a one-time code and asks you to press Enter; press Enter in Ubuntu, even if you open the page yourself, because the login waits for it. Type the code in the browser, approve, and wait for Logged in as in Ubuntu.

    Ubuntu
    gh auth login --hostname github.com --git-protocol https --web
gh auth setup-git
gh repo clone <owner>/leaven ~/leaven -- --branch "$(gh release view -R <owner>/leaven --json tagName -q .tagName)" -c advice.detachedHead=false

    <owner> is the account that invited you; the invitation names it. The last command downloads the newest finished version of the pack.

  6. Ubuntu

    It downloads its screens through gh, so the GitHub login in the last step has to be done first.

    Ubuntu
    cd ~/leaven && ./install.sh

    A full-screen installer opens. The first thing you see is the Leaven name rising on the screen. Press any key to skip it, then Enter to begin. The first time, a line says it is downloading the installer screens; wait for them to open. Q quits.

    The installer screens

  7. Ubuntu

    Each screen is a question; you can go back with Esc.

    • Who is this for? Pick "I'm new to the terminal" unless you know you want something else: press 1, or move with the arrow keys and press Enter. This sets the starting ticks on the next screen.

    • What should we set up? A checklist, already ticked for what you picked. Move with the up and down arrows, and press Space to tick or untick. Leave it as it is unless you want to change something. Your vault, its hooks and skills, and the plugins are always set up, so they are not on the list. There are seven rows, then job search. "I'm new to the terminal" ticks the first six and leaves workflow and job search unticked; "I build things" ticks workflow too. The rows are:

      • zsh: a friendlier command line that suggests as you type.
      • tools: handy helpers for finding files and reading them.
      • mise: keeps the languages other tools run on up to date.
      • statusline: a small bar in Claude Code showing what it is doing.
      • playwright: lets Claude open a web browser and look at pages.
      • wezterm: a fast, good-looking terminal app to work in.
      • workflow: agents, review, and git rules for working on code.
      • job search: a workspace for job applications and resumes. Tick it only if you are job hunting. It installs Node (which the tracker runs on) and poppler (which reads text out of PDFs) for you when they are missing.

      If a line says mise is ticked because playwright needs npx (a small tool that comes with Node), that is expected: leave it ticked.

    • Where your notes go. The vault location should start with /mnt/c/Users/<your Windows name>/Documents/Memory, so the vault sits on the Windows drive where Obsidian can open it. If it shows something else, such as ~/memory, type that path in its place. Press Enter to move on. Then the question about backing up to GitHub; press Enter on "Yes, back up" unless you don't want a copy of your notes on GitHub.

    • Ready to set up. This lists what you picked. Press Enter to install. Press Q to cancel instead; nothing is installed and nothing changes, and you can run ./install.sh again later.

  8. Ubuntu

    After the last screen the installer runs in plain text for a few minutes; it may take longer if you ticked mise, since Rust is the big download. Ubuntu asks for your password once, just before it installs the first system package. That is early with job search ticked and usually after the plugins step otherwise. It asks again on a rerun with zsh, tools, or mise ticked. Type it, and nothing shows as you type. It:

    • creates the vault (on the Windows drive, at Documents\Memory) and ~/memory pointing at it;
    • backs the vault up to a new private GitHub repo named memory, if you said yes; from then on Claude saves each change there, so you never run git;
    • copies the hooks and skills into ~/.claude, merges ~/.claude/settings.json, and writes a Memory section into ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md (when either file changes, the old one is first copied beside it with .bak- and the time added to its name);
    • installs the plugins;
    • installs the parts you ticked, and the job-search workspace if you ticked it;
    • prints the Windows path of the vault.

    It leaves alone every setting you already had, and any skill or hook of yours that has the same name as one of the pack's; for those it prints skipped. On a rerun it puts the pack's own skills and hooks back as released; if you edited one, your copy is saved first in ~/.config/leaven/backup-<stamp>/. Keep your own under other names.

    If you ticked wezterm, Windows may ask near the end whether to allow WezTerm to install; choose Yes. When the installer finishes, close Ubuntu, open WezTerm from the Start menu, and pin it to the taskbar. It opens straight into Ubuntu. To add or drop a part later, run ./install.sh again: the checklist opens with your choices ticked. Unticking a part stops its updates and does not remove what is already installed.

  9. Windows

    Choose Open folder as vault and pick the path the installer printed, C:\Users\<your Windows name>\Documents\Memory. In Settings, Core plugins, turn on Bases and Daily notes. In Settings, Daily notes, set the new file location to Daily and the date format to YYYY-MM-DD.

  10. Ubuntu

    Claude asks before each change to Atlas.md and Bearing.md; say yes. Type /exit to end a session.

    Ubuntu
    cd ~/memory && claude

    Ask Claude:

    Ask Claude
    Fill in Atlas.md and Bearing.md with me.

Next, read how-it-works.md for what you just installed and how to use it.