# Set up Banquish

These steps are for an agent that runs shell commands on the user's Mac, such as Claude Code or Codex, when the user asks it to set up Banquish.

Banquish is a free Mac app: a browser where an agent puts the parts of real pages that answer a question (Panels) side by side in one window (a Workspace), and they stay live. It connects to you as a local MCP server. It has no AI of its own. More: https://banquish.space/docs

Before you start, tell the user in one line what you'll do: install Banquish, open it, and add it to you as an MCP server. Then run each step yourself. If a step fails, stop and tell the user what failed.

## 1. Check the Mac

```sh
sw_vers -productVersion
uname -m
```

Banquish needs macOS 13 or later (the first number 13 or more) on Apple silicon (`arm64`). If either check fails, stop and tell the user Banquish won't run on this Mac.

## 2. Install Banquish

If `/Applications/Banquish.app` already exists, skip to step 3.

With Homebrew (`command -v brew` prints a path):

```sh
brew install --cask banquish-app/tap/banquish
```

Without Homebrew, install it from the disk image:

```sh
dmg=$(mktemp -d)/Banquish.dmg
curl -fL -o "$dmg" "https://download.banquish.space/Banquish.dmg?ref=agent"
mnt=$(mktemp -d)
hdiutil attach -nobrowse -readonly -mountpoint "$mnt" "$dmg"
ditto "$mnt/Banquish.app" /Applications/Banquish.app
hdiutil detach "$mnt"
```

## 3. Open it

```sh
open -a Banquish
```

Tell the user: "macOS may ask whether to open Banquish, an app from the internet. It's notarized by Apple: click Open."

On its first launch Banquish installs the command you'll connect to, `~/.banquish/bin/banquish`. Wait for it (up to 2 minutes, while the user clicks Open):

```sh
for i in $(seq 120); do [ -x ~/.banquish/bin/banquish ] && break; sleep 1; done; ls -l ~/.banquish/bin/banquish
```

If it isn't there after that, ask the user whether Banquish's window opened, and wait again once they've opened it.

## 4. Add Banquish to yourself

The MCP server is `~/.banquish/bin/banquish mcp` (stdio). It starts Banquish if Banquish is closed.

First check whether you already have a server named `banquish`. If it already runs `~/.banquish/bin/banquish mcp`, you're connected: skip to step 5. If it runs anything else, ask the user before you replace it.

Claude Code:

```sh
claude mcp get banquish
claude mcp add --scope user banquish -- ~/.banquish/bin/banquish mcp
```

Codex:

```sh
codex mcp list
codex mcp add banquish -- ~/.banquish/bin/banquish mcp
```

If your Codex has no `codex mcp add`, add this table to `~/.codex/config.toml` instead, with the user's home folder in the path:

```toml
[mcp_servers.banquish]
command = "/Users/<user>/.banquish/bin/banquish"
args = ["mcp"]
```

Any other MCP client: add a stdio server named `banquish` whose command is the full path of `~/.banquish/bin/banquish` and whose argument is `mcp`.

## 5. The first ask

A session that's already running doesn't load a newly added MCP server, so Banquish's tools reach you in the next session. Tell the user to start one in Terminal with their first question.

If the user has told you what they'd like to see or keep an eye on, write the line with that, starting "Use Banquish to show me …" and quoted so the shell takes it as one argument. Otherwise give them this one:

```sh
claude "Use Banquish to show me what’s happening right now, live: the top stories on Hacker News, the Bitcoin price chart and a weather radar map. Pick pages that work without signing in."
```

For Codex, the same with `codex` in place of `claude`. In another client, the same question in a new chat.

Then tell the user, in one or two lines: the pages arrive live in Banquish's window, and a Workspace they keep is live when they come back. To show it to someone, the Share button at the top right of Banquish's window makes a link that opens a copy in their Banquish.