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Install

Page status: scaffold Source state: scaffold Applies to: Shepherd v1.0-dev Owner: @docs-system-owner (TBD) Validation: not yet validated

Quickstart — the fastest working run. To learn the concepts in order, see the tutorial; for exact APIs, see the reference.

Scaffold — not yet runnable

This page is a draft against a surface that has not shipped. Treat commands and code as illustrative until the page is promoted.

Everything on this page is the planned install surface — none of these distributions is on PyPI yet, and the source-state inventory tracks when that changes. What you can run today is the quickstart, whose examples execute against the recorded offline provider.

Requirements — unshipped

  • Python 3.11+.
  • No provider credentials for the offline path. One live provider key (for example ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=<your-key>) only when you opt into live runs.

Pick a distribution — unshipped

You want Install What you get
The product (tutorial path) pip install shepherd-ai The shepherd import package, the shepherd CLI, the local run path, the provider registry, the deterministic offline provider, and one live provider path.
Slim / audit install pip install shepherd-base Facade, CLI, slim runtime, minimal local placement support, and the offline provider — no live-provider SDK.
First-party workflows pip install "shepherd-ai[authoring]" Adds packaged workflow plugins on top of the product.

The tutorial and quickstart path is always shepherd-ai, never shepherd-base. shepherd-ai is the distribution name; the import is:

import shepherd as shp

Verify the install — unshipped

shepherd doctor

doctor reports installed packages, configured providers, available placements, workflow readiness, and capability gaps — each gap with a fix command.

shepherd demo --offline

demo --offline runs the packaged first-run demo against the deterministic provider: no credentials, no network, the same output every time.

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