From nothing to a running Barkpark with a clean paper + media workspace. Three routes, one wizard. Written 2026-06-10 against the premium-setup branch; commands marked (wizard) ship with that release.

Install bp

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FRIKKern/barkpark/main/scripts/install-cli.sh | sh
bp version

Windows (PowerShell) — see WINDOWS.md for the full guide:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FRIKKern/barkpark/main/scripts/install-cli.ps1 | iex

Binaries are sha256-verified against the release's checksums.txt (hard-fail on mismatch; if a release ships no checksums the installer warns and continues).

First run

bp

With no config and a real terminal, bare bp launches the wizard and falls through into the TUI; bp setup runs the same wizard and exits when done. Non-TTY / -o json / --yes never prompt — bp setup without --target exits with code 2 and directs you to bp setup -h.

Local

bp setup --target local --yes

Destructive: runs mix ecto.reset. A running dev server holds DB connections and blocks the reset (object_in_use) — stop it first, or use --target connect. Native mix by default; --docker uses compose. With no existing checkout in a parent directory, bp clones to ${BARKPARK_HOME:-~/.barkpark}/src. Missing prereqs print the exact install command — bp never runs brew/apt:

Deploy

bp setup --target deploy --ssh-host root@VPS_IP --domain api.example.com --yes

--domain must be the public DNS name — baking an IP behind an HTTPS name will break the Studio (check_origin; see PROD_OPS.md). Lands on the box: ASDF Erlang/Elixir, Postgres, the systemd barkpark unit.

Connect

bp setup --target connect --server https://api.example.com --token $TOKEN

Re-running connect with no --server reconnects to the active saved server. bp servers lists saved servers; bp use <name> switches; --name saves a handle.

Provision

bp setup --target provision --provider hetzner --dry-run

Staged: plans only unless the provider CLI (hcloud / az), a credential, and --yes are all present. Chains into deploy.

Headless / CI

bp setup --target local --dry-run -o json | head -c 400   # plan shows profile: clean

Every target supports --dry-run (plan only, runs nothing) and -o json (one machine-readable object).

Verify

bp whoami                                   # active server + auth tier
bp capabilities -o json | head -c 400       # the API surface, via your saved config
curl -s localhost:4000/api/schemas | head -c 200   # local target only

Demo data

Fresh installs seed the clean profile (wizard): a welcome paper at /papers/welcome, one admin token, the paper/media schemas — nothing else. The 8-schema / 27-document demo set is opt-in:

bp setup --target local --profile demo --yes              # via bp
BARKPARK_SEED_PROFILE=demo mix run priv/repo/seeds.exs    # raw mix, in api/ — additive,
                                                          # keeps your admin token (ecto.reset would wipe it)

Use it as a task system

The clean profile ships the Tasks plugin enabled — your AI gets a claimable, dependency-aware work queue out of the box:

bp task ready                                    # unblocked queue, priority-ordered
bp task next agent-1                             # atomically claim the next ready task
bp task claim t1 agent-1                         # …or claim a specific one
bp task close t1 agent-1 1                       # <id> <worker> <observed_epoch>

Full guide — agent loop, Studio collaboration, goals/phases, troubleshooting: TASK-SYSTEM.md.

Golden path

• --dry-run before --yes, always.
• Local DB ops are bare mix in api/ — never make seed/migrate (prod wrappers).
• Deploys take a DNS name in --domain, never an IP.
• The clean seed prints its admin token once — store it (bp saves it to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/barkpark/config.json — default ~/.config — 0600).
• Server updates: ssh in, git pull (the post-merge hook rebuilds + restarts).
• Reconfigure by re-running bp setup, not by hand-editing config.json.

Canon: ../cli/HANDBOOK.md (bp semantics) · SETUP.md (from-source) · ../ops/PROD_OPS.md (server ops).