> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vendo.run/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Try Vendo without installing

> npx vendo try serves a live demo of your product's agent in seconds: read-only extraction, zero commitment, live chat when a model key resolves.

See your product's agent before you install anything. Two venues, same
surface:

* **`npx vendo try`** in your app's repo: the real extraction against your
  code, served locally.
* **[vendo.run/playground](https://vendo.run/playground)**: paste your
  product's domain, no terminal needed.

## Run it locally

```bash theme={null}
npx vendo try
```

Run it from your app's repo. A deterministic read-only pass extracts your
tools and brand theme, and the demo opens in the browser in seconds: your
product's agent, on your data shapes, in your brand. Host-authored `.vendo/`
files (`theme.json`, `brief.md`, `design-rules.md`) are carried over and win
over anything try derives itself.

The page stages the agent over a brand-tinted skeleton of your product — one
of five app archetypes (dashboard, finance, commerce, content, docs) picked
deterministically from your extracted tool domains — with the overlay already
open: a product-named greeting, a capability line, and your use-case chips
inside the panel.

The first paint never waits on AI. After the server is up, the AI pass
deepens the profile in the background through the same engine ladder
`vendo init` uses: product brief, risk polish, use-case chips, and synthetic
fixtures, streamed into the surface as each stage lands.

### Zero commitment

Nothing is written to your repo, byte for byte. Every artifact lands in a
temp profile, and Ctrl+C sweeps it. No key is required, no account, no
sign-up.

### With a key and without

Chat is live when a model credential resolves at startup: a provider env key
(`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`, `OPENAI_API_KEY`, or `GOOGLE_GENERATIVE_AI_API_KEY`) or
`VENDO_API_KEY` through the Vendo Cloud model gateway, the same
[dev-mode credential ladder](/connect/dev-mode) the runtime uses. An
Anthropic or Vendo Cloud key works alone (Vendo ships `@ai-sdk/anthropic`);
a non-Anthropic key needs its matching `@ai-sdk/*` provider installed in
your app. With zero keys the surfaces still serve against scripted data,
so there is always something to click.

### Refine in the surface

With a model resolved, in a repo where extraction found tools, the surface
takes corrections in conversation: "call these workspaces, not projects",
"the accent is wrong". Proposals arrive as
reviewable diffs and apply to the temp profile only, never to your repo. To
make corrections permanent, install with `vendo init` — from then on
[`vendo sync`](/reference/cli#vendo-sync-dir) owns `.vendo/` curation, and
your own edits to `.vendo/overrides.json` are respected forever.

### Flags

* `--port <port>`: listen on a fixed port (default: any free port).
* `--no-open`: print the URL without opening the browser.
* `--engine <claude|codex|npx>`: pin the deepening engine family instead of
  first-available. An unavailable pin skips deepening; it never falls back to
  a different provider.
* `--no-ai`: skip background deepening; the demo stays on the deterministic
  profile.

## The hosted venue

No repo handy? Paste your product's domain at
[vendo.run/playground](https://vendo.run/playground). Your brand is fetched,
use-case chips and synthetic data are generated from what your product does,
and chat runs live through Vendo Cloud. Share the result with
`?d=<domain>` links.

The hosted venue works from a domain alone, so it stays shallower than the
local command: `npx vendo try` reads your actual API and theme tokens.

## Install for keeps

When you like what you see, the real install is one command:

```bash theme={null}
npx vendo init
```

Init writes the wiring try only simulated: the handler route, the component
registry, the extracted `.vendo/` contract, and the visible surface in your
layout. Start at the [quickstart](/quickstart).