Complete your first task

This walkthrough produces a one-page event plan from a short brief. It gives you a complete trip through Tau without needing GitHub, a website, or live voice.

Before you start

Finish Cloud setup or self-hosted setup, sign in to the workspace, and connect a model provider. You need permission to create a squad and run its agents. If controls are missing, ask your workspace administrator for access.

The Assistant can use text without live voice. When Realtime is not configured or your account does not have Realtime access, its text-only User Assistant handles requests. Your squad’s agents still need working model credentials.

1. Create a practice squad

1. Open Squads, then Create Squad.
2. Leave Team preset on Build your own squad for this example.
3. Choose Solo as the workflow. One worker is enough for a short plan.
4. Name the squad Workshop planning. Set its purpose to Plan small community workshops and prepare clear materials for organizers.
5. If Working directory (optional) appears, leave it blank to use Tau’s new squad directory. Choose Create Squad.

Tau opens the squad and creates its manager. Build your own squad skips a team preset’s additional default agents; it does not remove the manager. The squad gives future conversations a shared purpose and workspace. You do not need to create individual workers: the workflow starts them when needed.

2. Start from the Assistant

Open Assistant in the app header, or press ⌘K / Ctrl K. Search for Workshop planning, then select the squad result. The input now searches within that squad and can start a new conversation there.

Paste this brief into that input and press Enter while the start-conversation button is highlighted:

Create a work stream using the Solo workflow. Prepare a one-page plan for a free, two-hour beginner drawing workshop for 12 adults. Use these facts: we have a room with tables, paper and pencils, one facilitator, and a materials budget of $60. Include a timed agenda, a supplies checklist, and three questions to confirm with the venue. Save the plan as workshop-plan.md in the squad workspace and summarize the result here. Do not contact anyone, buy anything, or publish it.

A consultant conversation opens inside the Assistant. The consultant can clarify the brief and create a tracked work stream. Ask for the work-stream link if its response does not include one.

Search or send?

Typing filters results. Enter asks or starts a conversation by default. Press ↓ first when you want to open a matching result; press ↑ from the first result to return to the ask/start button.

3. Follow the work

Open the work-stream link. Its preview shows the work’s status and participating conversations. Open a worker’s conversation to see progress or ask a follow-up; use Back to return to the work stream.

You can also close the Assistant and look under Active work in the Feed, or open the squad’s Work tab. A queued stream has not been admitted to run; check whether it needs capacity, a dependency, or an explicit resume. Active work can show more detail, such as a current step or a blocker.

1. BriefDescribe the result
2. Work streamTrack one deliverable
3. Work and inputFollow progress; answer questions
4. DoneInspect the result

4. Answer if Tau needs you

If a question appears in Needs you, expand it and answer that question’s controls. For example, you might confirm that no previous drawing experience is expected. The answer goes back to the asking agent.

Some work can continue while another part waits. A question is not automatically an approval of the finished result. Read the review and intervention guide if you see a review request or a paused stream.

If there is a provider or runtime error instead, open the error details and correct the reported setup issue before continuing. Do not keep starting duplicate tasks to retry the same work.

5. Check the completed result

When the stream becomes Done, open its final conversation and follow the file or workspace reference. You can also open Workspace from the squad’s More menu to find workshop-plan.md.

Check that the plan contains a two-hour agenda, fits the supplied materials budget, and lists three venue questions. Agent output still needs your judgment; a Done status means Tau’s completion conditions were satisfied, not that every claim is independently guaranteed.

If something needs revision, reply in the conversation with the exact correction. Ask the consultant to track a new revision if the earlier stream is already complete. Keep the original brief and result available as context.

You have now used the Assistant to start a conversation, followed a work stream, and inspected a deliverable. For larger tasks, choose a workflow with independent review. For code work, first connect GitHub and specify the repository, branch, and merge expectations in your brief.