kill9

Start here

First session

Use one small safe task after setup is complete.

On this page

After onboarding, do one safe session before trusting kill9 with real changes. The goal is to confirm that kill9 understands your codebase and can make a small change correctly.

Pick a project you know

Use the workspace you created during onboarding. Pick a codebase you understand well — you need to be able to judge whether the agent's explanation and changes are correct.

Avoid production emergencies or huge refactors for the first session. You want something small and verifiable.

Open Work

Press Mod+2 to open Work. This is the main chat surface where you talk to agents. You'll see the conversation history and a text input at the bottom.

Ask for orientation first

Before asking kill9 to change anything, ask it to explain your workspace:

text
Explain this workspace. What are the main apps, packages, and how are they organized?

Read the answer carefully. Check that it identified the right packages, found your tests, and mentioned realistic commands. If the explanation is wrong — say it thinks your frontend is the backend — correct it before proceeding.

This step is important because it confirms kill9 can read and understand your codebase. An agent that can't explain your project structure will struggle to edit it safely.

Try a small task

Once the explanation looks right, pick something tiny that you can verify with your own eyes:

text
Add a log statement to the main entry point that prints the current version.

Or:

text
Find the function that handles user login and tell me what it does.

These are safe because they either don't change code (explanation) or change something trivial (one log line). After the agent responds, check the change yourself. Open the file it edited and confirm it did what it said.

What to look for

A good first session answers three questions:

  1. Did the agent understand the project structure? It should name the right packages and entry points.
  2. Did it edit the right file? If you asked for a log in the entry point, it should not touch a test file.
  3. Did it explain what it changed? You should understand the change without reading the diff yourself.

If all three are yes, your setup is solid. If any are no, check your provider connection in Settings → Models, or try a different workspace.

What not to do yet

Don't start with "refactor the entire authentication system" or "build a new feature from scratch." Those are for later, once you trust that kill9 understands your codebase and stays in scope.

Next step

Once the first session feels safe, you have three good paths:

  • Plan a feature — Open Plan (Mod+3) and create a feature initiative
  • Fix a bug — Wait for an issue to arrive in Inbox (Mod+1), then click Work on this
  • Explore the surfaces — Try Mod+1 through Mod+7 to see what each workspace surface does