Getting started

Windlass is a hosted AI agent workspace. You sign up on the website, pick a plan and open your Workspace in the browser. There is nothing to install: the agent, its Linux container, your files and your conversation history all live in your account and are ready whenever you open a tab.

This page takes you from sign-up to your first finished task.

Create your account

1. On the Windlass website, choose Sign up and enter your email address and a password.
2. Open the verification email and confirm your address.
3. Pick a plan. Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial, and no card is needed to begin.
4. Open your Workspace.

During the trial you get a reduced weekly usage allowance, enough to try every feature. You can upgrade at any point during the trial. When the trial ends, the workspace pauses until you subscribe; your files and sessions stay exactly where you left them.

Meet the Workspace

The Workspace is built on the open-source DeepSeek Harness (Apache-2.0) and runs entirely in your browser. On the left, a sidebar lists your Projects and Sessions:

• A project is a folder in your workspace storage. New accounts start with Project 1 and Project 2, and you can create more whenever you need a separate working directory.
• A session is a conversation with the agent inside one project. The agent can plan, write and run code, execute shell commands in your isolated Linux container, read and write files in your project folders, browse the web and call tools.

The message box is where you talk to the agent.

Run your first session

1. Pick a project in the sidebar and start a new session.
2. Describe what you want in plain language. For example: "Write a Python script that reads sales.csv and prints the ten largest orders, then run it."
3. Watch the agent work. It lays out a plan, runs commands, edits files and reports what it did.
4. Answer any questions it asks. Depending on your permission preset, it also pauses for your approval before risky actions, such as deleting files or installing system packages.

When the agent finishes, keep the conversation going: ask for changes, point out mistakes or move on to the next step. Everything it wrote is saved in the project folder, and you can browse it on the Files page.

Attach a file

Attach a file to your message and send it. Windlass saves the file in the project's Attachments folder, so the agent can open it by path, for example /workspace/Project 1/Attachments/sales.csv.

If you attach an image, Windlass also creates a text file ending in .ocr.txt next to it, containing the text recognized in the image. This lets the agent read error messages, tables and notes straight from a screenshot.

Useful things to know early

• Type @ in the message box to reference a file in your project, so the agent knows exactly which file you mean.
• Slash commands give you quick actions. /compact compresses a long conversation to free up context, and /export downloads the session.
• Sessions can be renamed, archived, forked and searched from the sidebar. Fork a session when you want to try a different approach without losing the original thread.
• Your weekly usage allowance is shown on the account Overview page, together with the time until it resets. There are no daily or 5-hour caps.
• DeepSeek V4 Flash is the default model on every plan. Pro and Max plans add DeepSeek V4 Pro for harder reasoning and agentic coding.

Next steps

• Workspace explains sessions, permissions and slash commands in depth.
• Projects and files covers storage, uploads and the Attachments folder.
• Models and effort helps you choose between Flash and Pro and set the reasoning effort.
• Usage and limits shows how the weekly allowance works and how to make it last.

If anything is unclear, write to [support email] from the Support page. We are happy to help.