Quickstart

Install paper, run your first captured Claude Code session, and view it in paper console.

Use this guide to install paper, run your first captured agent session, and view the session in paper console.

paper has two parts:

  • paper CLI runs locally and captures supported agent sessions.
  • paper console stores those sessions as durable history so you can inspect, search, and learn from the work your agents do over time.

By the end of this guide, you will have a captured Claude Code session available in paper console.

Before you start

You need:

  • A paper console account
  • Claude Code installed and available in your terminal
  • A project where you can safely run an agent session

Install the paper CLI

Install the paper CLI globally:

curl -fsSL https://download.papercompute.com/install | sh

Confirm that paper is installed:

paper --version

Authenticate with paper console

Sign in to paper console from your terminal:

paper login

Follow the browser-based authentication flow. After authentication, your local paper CLI can send captured session data to your paper console account.

The paper CLI runs a local daemon called paperd; you can check it with paper status.

Run your first captured Claude Code session

In a new terminal window, open a project directory:

cd path/to/your/project

Run Claude Code through the paper CLI:

paper start claude

Then use Claude Code normally.

For your first session, try a small, easy-to-review task. For example:

Review this repository and summarize the main files, scripts, and likely development workflow.

or:

Find one small improvement I could make to the README and suggest a patch.

The goal is to create a short session that gives the paper CLI useful activity to capture: prompts, turns, tool calls, duration, token usage, cost, and completion status.

View the session in paper console

Open paper console in your browser:

https://console.papercompute.com/

You should see your recent session in your session history. Open the session to inspect what happened.

Depending on your workspace, you may be able to review:

  • Session status
  • Prompts and responses
  • Tool calls
  • Token usage
  • Cost
  • Duration
  • Errors or retries
  • Session metadata

Use the session history

A single captured session gives you a record of what happened.

As you capture more sessions, paper console becomes more useful. You can start to see patterns across agent work, including:

  • Which prompts produce useful results
  • Which workflows are expensive
  • Where agents retry or get stuck
  • Which tools are used most often
  • Which sessions are worth sharing with teammates
  • Which successful workflows could become reusable skills

paper is most valuable when agent work doesn’t disappear after the terminal closes.

What to do next

Now that you have captured your first session, you can:

Learn more about the paper CLIInstall options, daemon, common commands, and orgs.Explore paper consoleWhat you can do once your sessions are captured.Review session dataWhat is inside a session detail page and how teams use it.Troubleshoot capture issuesResolve daemon, auth, and connection problems.

Troubleshooting

I do not see my session in paper console

Check that:

  • You are authenticated with paper login
  • paperd is running
  • You ran Claude Code through the paper CLI
  • Your session completed or produced activity
  • You are signed into the correct paper console account

Claude Code starts, but nothing is captured

Make sure you started Claude Code with the paper CLI:

paper start claude

If you started Claude Code directly, the paper CLI will not be able to capture the session.

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