User guides

One job per guide. Each says what you need, the steps in order, and what to do when a step does not work.

Getting started in ten minutes

Install Borago Board, let it set up Docker, create a project with your API key, and watch your first task run to Done, using the app's own labels.

Installing Docker with the app

How Borago Board installs Docker for you on Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, macOS and Windows, with one administrator prompt, and what to do when a step fails.

Creating a project

Create a Borago Board project from a folder or a git URL, choose its base image, ports, startup script and AI key, and get its container started.

Choosing an AI provider

Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Grok or a self-hosted model server. Where the API key goes in Borago Board, what each provider bills, which tools its runs get.

Writing tasks the agent can do

How to write a Borago Board task that finishes in one run, with an acceptance check, mentions, prerequisites, attachments and the pre-run review.

When the agent asks a question or needs you

How to answer the agent's question or clear a needs-attention note on a task from the desktop, a browser or a phone, and why the card waits in the meantime.

Secrets and environment variables

Give a Borago Board project its database passwords, API tokens and git keys as environment variables and saved keys, encrypted, never in the task text.

Cloud sync, browser and phone

Create a Borago Board account, sign the desktop app in, turn on cloud sync, and open the same board in a browser and on your phone, with two-factor sign-in.

The terminal, scripts and the file browser

Open a shell into a project's container, run named scripts and keep their output, and browse the container's files, from the desktop, a browser or a phone.

Recovering things

How to get back a closed task, a deleted project, a board damaged by an update, a lost credential or an unsaved comment, and what an uninstall leaves behind.

Chat to tasks

How to plan a feature in the chat panel, let it read the repository with a mention, and approve the tasks it proposes. Nothing is created without you.

Flows

How to write a scheduled job as a few plain-language steps, have the app analyse them into code and AI steps, switch it on, and read its runs.

Attachments, screenshots, paint and camera

How to attach files to a task, take a screenshot and circle the bug, draw a sketch or take a photo, and what the agent receives.

Connecting a repository

Three ways to give a project its code. Sign in to GitLab for a deploy key, paste an SSH key or a token, or point at a local folder. What is stored and cloned.

Container management

How to let the agent start a database or another service beside the project container, what the policy proxy allows and refuses, and the Linux firewall rule.

Connected projects

How to put a frontend and a backend project on one private network so each container reaches the other by name, and how to move a project onto its own network.

Ports and LAN access

How to publish a dev server port from the project container, check it is free, keep it on this computer or open it to the local network, and why that matters.

Notifications

How the notification bell works, what each notification means, how reading one on any device clears it everywhere, and how to turn on desktop notifications.

Cost and usage

How to read what a run cost in tokens, time and estimated dollars, set a per-project cost budget that pauses the queue, and keep the AI bill down.

Business accounts

How to create a business on the cloud board, verify a domain, invite members and share an AI provider key that members use without ever seeing it.

Switching accounts on one machine

How two cloud accounts share one computer in the desktop app, each with its own database and project files, and what a switch does and does not touch.

Browser access on your network

How to open your desktop board in a browser on the same computer or on your local network, what a network browser can do, and the risks of doing it.

Dictation

How to dictate into the chat composer and notes in the desktop app, where speech to text runs on your own computer and nothing is sent until you press Enter.

Keyboard and mouse

What the keyboard, the right-click menu, dragging and touch gestures do on the board, in the terminal and in text fields, with the mention picker keys.