# Quickstart > From nothing to a shared notebook: point slivingdoc at a bucket, prove it from the command line, then add it to an MCP host. Canonical URL: https://www.slivingdoc.dev/docs/quickstart/ · Version: 0.1 · Updated: 2026-09-21 Full site index: https://www.slivingdoc.dev/llms.txt This page goes from an empty machine to a notebook that an agent and you share. It takes four commands. Every command here is safe to repeat. ## Before you start - **Node.js 22 or newer.** The `npx` launcher downloads the native binary for your platform, verifies its checksum, and runs it. No Git and no toolchain are needed. See [Installation](/docs/installation/) for the direct download instead. - **An S3-compatible bucket that already exists.** slivingdoc never creates or configures one. - **Credentials for that bucket**, in your shell. They come from the normal AWS chain, so an exported `AWS_PROFILE` or an active SSO session works too. > **Tip:** No bucket yet? [Tigris](https://www.tigrisdata.com) gives you > one with a single global endpoint, and a local SeaweedFS container > gives you one with no account at all. Both are in > [Set up a bucket](/docs/guides/bucket/), with the endpoint and region > settings each of them needs. Come back here afterwards. The examples use a bucket called `my-notes` in `us-east-1`. Substitute your own. ```text export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID= export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY= export AWS_REGION=us-east-1 export SLIVINGDOC_BUCKET=my-notes ``` ## 1. Check the launcher ```text npx -y slivingdoc version ``` It prints `slivingdoc` and a version number, and touches nothing else — no bucket, no configuration. If this fails, the problem is Node.js or the platform, not your storage. ## 2. Pull the notebook ```text npx -y slivingdoc pull notes ``` This is the first contact with the bucket. Before anything else, slivingdoc runs a compatibility probe that proves the store does conditional writes the way the publication protocol needs; a store that fails it is refused here, at startup, rather than halfway through a commit. On an empty notebook the report is short: ```text OK generation 0 /home/you/work/notes 0 files changed, 0 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) ``` `OK` is the status token, the generation is the accepted remote state you are now looking at, and the path is the notebook directory — every result names it. The directory `notes/` now exists and holds the notebook. > **Warning:** A refusal here is almost always the bucket or the > credentials. The diagnostic names the reason with every secret > redacted — an `INCOMPATIBLE_STORE` category means the store itself is > not suitable; an access error means the key or the policy is. See > [S3 requirements](/docs/reference/s3/). ## 3. Write something and commit it Create a file under `notes/`. It must be UTF-8 text; empty files are fine. ```text echo "Standup: shipped the cache fix." > notes/today.md ``` Publish it: ```text npx -y slivingdoc commit notes -m "first note" ``` ```text OK generation 1 /home/you/work/notes today.md +1 1 files changed, 1 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) ``` The generation moved, and the per-file line says what the publication added. That is the whole write path: edit files with any tool, then commit. Run `npx -y slivingdoc pull notes` again from a second machine, or a second directory, and the same note comes back. ## 4. Give it to an agent Now register the same command in your MCP host. In Claude Code: ```text claude mcp add slivingdoc \ --env SLIVINGDOC_BUCKET=my-notes \ --env AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID= \ --env AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY= \ -- npx -y slivingdoc serve ``` Verify it with `claude mcp list`, or `/mcp` inside a session. Other hosts take the same command in their own syntax, or a JSON block — [Connect an MCP host](/docs/guides/mcp-hosts/) has all of them, and the credential choices that beat pasting keys into a configuration file. The agent now has two tools, `notes_pull` and `notes_commit`. Ask it to read the notebook and add to it. It needs no path: each server takes its own notebook directory and names it in every result. That directory is private to the server process, so it is not the `notes/` you just used. To share one directory between the agent and yourself, add `--workspace-root` to the arguments — see [Share a directory with humans](/docs/guides/shared-directory/). ## Where to go next - [Connect an MCP host](/docs/guides/mcp-hosts/) — every host, and how credentials reach the server. - [Share a directory with humans](/docs/guides/shared-directory/) — one directory for agents and people. - [Resolve conflicts](/docs/guides/conflicts/) — the one case slivingdoc hands back to you. - [Configuration](/docs/reference/configuration/) — every flag, environment variable, and default.