Talon Quick Start
This page points you to the right doc for what you want to do. For the full documentation map, see docs/README.md.
Which path is yours?
1. I have an existing app that calls OpenAI or Anthropic.
→ Add Talon to your existing app
1a. I want the fastest OpenAI-compatible local drop-in (no gateway YAML).
→ OpenAI proxy quickstart
2. I'm building something new and want controls from day one.
→ Your first governed agent
3. I want to understand how it works before touching anything (no API key).
→ 60-second demo (no API key)
4. I need to review what an auditor handoff looks like.
→ Sample auditor pack
Install (native binary)
See the README install matrix. Summary:
| Platform | Recommended |
|---|---|
| macOS / arm64 Linux | git clone … && make install or go install github.com/dativo-io/talon/cmd/talon@latest |
| linux/amd64 server | Release tarball or curl -sSL https://install.gettalon.dev | sh |
| No install | Docker Compose demo |
On macOS, if linking fails with unsupported tapi file type, use make install (sets system Clang) or CC=/usr/bin/clang CGO_ENABLED=1 go install ….
Minimal commands (if you already know Talon)
# Install (from repo)
make install # → $(go env GOPATH)/bin/talon
# Secrets key (required for vault)
export TALON_SECRETS_KEY="$(openssl rand -hex 32)"
# New project
mkdir my-agents && cd my-agents
talon init --scaffold --name my-agent
# Policy check without LLM spend
talon run --dry-run "Your query here"
# Live run (needs provider key)
export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-proj-...
talon run "Your query here"
# Server (API + dashboard + optional gateway/proxy)
export TALON_ADMIN_KEY="replace-with-strong-admin-key"
talon serve --port 8080
Verify the cold-start path from repo root: make verify-newcomer.