Install

Pulse runs as a single Python process on your machine. No cloud account. No data leaves your system. Two commands and you have a board.

Prerequisites

Python 3.11 or higher
pip

python --version

If you are on macOS with Homebrew: brew install python@3.12

Install Pulse

pip (recommended)
Docker
From source

pip install okto-pulse

Verify:

okto-pulse --version

Pull and run the signed image from GitHub Container Registry:

docker run \
  -p 8100:8100 \
  -p 8101:8101 \
  -v ~/.okto-pulse:/root/.okto-pulse \
  ghcr.io/oktolabsai/okto-pulse:latest

The image is signed with Sigstore keyless signatures. SLSA provenance and a CycloneDX SBOM ship as image attestations. The embedding model is pre-baked — no first-run download needed.Open http://localhost:8100 once the container is up.

Clone both active repos as siblings:

git clone https://github.com/OktoLabsAI/okto-pulse-core
git clone https://github.com/OktoLabsAI/okto-pulse

Install in development mode:

pip install -e ./okto-pulse-core -e ./okto-pulse

Initialize

Run this in the directory where your agent will work. Pulse creates your board and writes the MCP configuration file your agent will use to connect.

okto-pulse init --agents

What it does:

Creates ~/.okto-pulse/ with your database and board data
Writes .mcp.json in the current directory with a scoped API key

.mcp.json contains an agent API key. Do not commit it to a public repository. Add it to .gitignore.

Start

okto-pulse serve --accept-terms

Pulse starts two listeners on a single process:

Endpoint	Default URL
Web board and API	`http://localhost:8100`
MCP server (agent access)	`http://localhost:8101/mcp`

Open http://localhost:8100. Your board is ready. First run note: If you installed via pip, Pulse downloads the semantic search model (all-MiniLM-L6-v2, ~90 MB) on first start. This takes 30–60 seconds depending on your connection. The model is cached; subsequent starts are fast.

Verify

okto-pulse status

Both ports should report as live. If you used custom ports:

okto-pulse serve --api-port 9000 --mcp-port 9001 --accept-terms
okto-pulse status --api-port 9000 --mcp-port 9001

If MCP port changes after initialization, regenerate .mcp.json:

okto-pulse init --agents

Where your data lives

All Pulse data is stored locally at ~/.okto-pulse/:

~/.okto-pulse/
  data/pulse.db            SQLite database (boards, specs, cards, decisions)
  boards/{id}/graph.lbug   per-board knowledge graph
  uploads/{id}/            file attachments
  global/discovery.lbug    cross-board discovery index

Nothing is sent to a remote server.

Next steps

Connect your agent

Wire up Claude Code, Cursor, Cline, or any MCP-compatible agent.

First workflow

Idea → spec → cards in your first session.

Get started

Concepts

Configuration

Reference

Permissions & Agents

Guides

KG Operations

Operations

Help

Install

Install

Prerequisites

Install Pulse

Initialize

Start

Verify

Where your data lives

Next steps

Connect your agent

First workflow

​Install

​Prerequisites

​Install Pulse

​Initialize

​Start

​Verify

​Where your data lives

​Next steps

Connect your agent

First workflow

Install

Prerequisites

Install Pulse

Initialize

Start

Verify

Where your data lives

Next steps