Quickstart

Any agents you create in Letta Code are viewable and fully interactable in the Agent Development Environment. If you are using the Letta Developer Platform, they will be placed into your default project.

First launch

On first launch, Letta Code presents you with two default agents:

• Memo — A stateful coding agent with persistent memory. Use this for ongoing projects where you want the agent to remember your codebase, preferences, and past conversations.
• Incognito — A stateless agent that forgets everything between sessions. Use this for one-off tasks or when you don’t want context to carry over.

Select an agent with the arrow keys and press Enter. You can also press N to create a new agent with a custom name.

After selecting an agent, Letta Code remembers your choice for that project directory. Future sessions will automatically use the same agent unless you specify otherwise with --agent, --new-agent, or --resume.

Setting up your agent

If you’re using a stateful agent like Memo for the first time, run the /init command to initialize the agent’s memory:

Initializing Letta Code's memory

> /init

This prompts your agent to research your project, ask about your preferences, and organize its memory blocks. The agent can do either standard (quick) or deep research (comprehensive). See the Memory guide for full details on what /init does.

Over time, the agent will update its memory as it learns. To actively guide your agent’s memory, use the /remember command:

Ask Letta Code to update its memory

> /remember [optional instructions on what to remember]

Connecting to an existing Letta agent

Letta users may have an existing agent designed for other purposes, such as writing or personal assistants. Letta Code is a general-purpose interface to any agent on your server.

To connect to an existing agent, use the --agent flag:

Connect to an existing agent

letta --agent [existing-agent-id]

If the agent wasn’t created inside of Letta Code, it won’t have access to coding tools (which allow it to connect to your computer) by default. Use the /toolset command to switch toolsets:

Switch toolsets

> /toolset

This opens a toolset selector where you can choose between different tool configurations (default, codex, gemini). Select the appropriate toolset for your use case.

Running Letta Code in headless mode

You can also run Letta Code in headless mode, which allows you to compose your agents as UNIX programs.

Running Letta Code in headless mode

letta -p "Look around this repo and write a README.md documenting it at the root level"

Next steps

Read more about Letta Code’s rich feature set:

• Skills - Create reusable modules to extend your agent
• Memory - Understand the hierarchical memory system
• Headless mode - Run Letta Code non-interactively
• Slash commands - Interactive commands and custom slash commands
• CLI reference - Command-line options and flags