Quickstart

Run Helpin on your own machine and answer your first support conversation. All you need is Docker.

Prerequisites: Docker with Compose v2, 8 GB of memory available to Docker, and 20 GiB of free disk. See System requirements.

1. Install

curl -fsSL https://helpin.ai/install.sh | bash
~/.local/bin/helpin install

Choose local when asked. Press Enter to accept the defaults, and type skip for email and AI. You can add them later.

The installer verifies the release, generates your secrets, starts every service, and waits until Helpin is ready. The first run downloads images and takes a few minutes.

✓ Helpin services are ready
Open http://localhost:8085 to create your account and workspace.
Next: allow your website origin in workspace settings and copy the widget snippet.
Optional AI: Settings → AI.

2. Create your workspace

Open http://localhost:8085 and sign up. As the first account, you're the server admin. Create your organization and workspace.

Just exploring? In the Setup guide, choose Load sample data to fill Helpin with a fictional company's conversations, articles, projects, and CRM records. It sends no email and makes no AI requests, and you can remove it in one click.

3. Start a conversation

Go to Settings → Chat widget and add the origin of the site where you'll test, for example http://localhost:3000.
Copy the install snippet and paste it into that page, before </body>.
Open the page, send a message from the widget, and reply from the Helpin inbox.

Don't have a test site? Select Create test conversation in the inbox instead.

4. Turn on AI (optional)

helpin configure

Choose a provider (openrouter, openai, or anthropic) and paste your API key. Every workspace can then use it for Ask Agent, the support agent, and your other agents. With OpenRouter or OpenAI, knowledge search also becomes semantic. See AI providers & knowledge search.

5. Publish a help article (optional)

In Docs → Help Center, write and publish an article, then preview it at:

http://localhost:8086/?subdomain=YOUR_HELP_CENTER_SLUG

Useful commands

helpin status      # what's running
helpin logs        # follow logs
helpin doctor      # health and capability checks
helpin stop        # stop (your data is kept)

Next steps

When you're ready to…	Read
Put Helpin on your own domain with HTTPS	Deploy on a public server
Send invitations and password resets	Application email
Link repositories and coding agents	Connect GitHub
Protect your data	Back up and restore

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