| title | llmwiki Quickstart: Compile Your First Wiki in Minutes |
|---|---|
| sidebarTitle | Quickstart |
| description | Install llmwiki, set your API key, and run llmwiki quickstart to compile a URL or local file into a browsable, interlinked wiki in minutes. |
This quickstart walks you through installing llmwiki, setting your API key, and running llmwiki quickstart against a real source - a URL or a local file - to produce a browsable, interlinked wiki in a single command. By the end you'll have a compiled wiki you can query with natural language and explore in a local browser UI.
```bash
npm install -g llm-wiki-compiler
```
Verify the installation completed successfully:
```bash
llmwiki --version
# or
llmwiki --help
```
```bash
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
```
If your Anthropic-compatible gateway expects a different header, use `ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN` instead - either variable satisfies Anthropic authentication. You only need one.
```bash
# Alternative: use ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=<token>
```
**Already using another provider?** llmwiki supports OpenAI-compatible servers, Ollama, GitHub Copilot, and the Claude Agent SDK (which authenticates through your local Claude Code login with no separate API key). See [Provider Setup](/installation#provider-setup) or the full [Provider Configuration](/configuration/providers) reference to configure those instead.
```bash
mkdir my-wiki && cd my-wiki
# Compile from a Wikipedia article
llmwiki quickstart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrej_Karpathy
# Or compile from a local file
llmwiki quickstart ./notes.md
```
`llmwiki quickstart` ingests the source, runs the two-phase LLM compile pipeline, and opens the local viewer when pages are ready. Pass `--no-open` to stop after compile without launching the viewer, or `--review` to queue generated pages as candidates instead of writing them directly to `wiki/`. For a large source, `--concurrency <n>` raises how many LLM calls the compile step runs in parallel (default 5).
Expected output after a successful compile:
```
llmwiki quickstart
──────────────────────
* Ingesting [web]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrej_Karpathy
+ Ingested → sources/andrej-karpathy.md
1. Ingested source → sources/andrej-karpathy.md
2. Compiled wiki → 8 new, 0 skipped
Starting viewer. Press Ctrl+C to stop.
Viewer ready at http://127.0.0.1:3000
```
The compiled pages land in `wiki/concepts/`, each with YAML frontmatter, paragraph-level citations, and `[[wikilinks]]` to related concepts.
```bash
llmwiki query "What terms did Andrej coin?"
```
Add `--save` to write the answer back as a new wiki page, which makes it available as context for future queries:
```bash
llmwiki query "What is the relationship between scaling laws and LLM training?" --save
```
```bash
llmwiki view --open
```
The viewer binds to `127.0.0.1` and is private by default. It renders `wiki/` without mutating any files - all writes go through the CLI.
The default quickstart creates the classic concepts-and-queries wiki. For a typed domain project, install a template before adding content:
```bash mkdir research-wiki && cd research-wiki llmwiki template inspect autosci llmwiki template init autosci llmwiki profile validate llmwiki workflow list ```AutoSci declares papers, sources, ideas, experiments, manuscripts, methods, people, reviews, research outputs, typed relations, five workflows, seven artifact types, and the Crossref DOI connector. Continue with the [AutoSci practical guide](/guides/autosci-research-workflow).
Newsroom declares articles, desks, bylines, editorial relationships, and a story pipeline. It intentionally uses the same generic lifecycle substrate for a domain unrelated to research. Continue with the [Newsroom practical guide](/guides/newsroom-editorial-workflow).
Template installation is intended for a new or empty typed project. The selected profile is materialized at .llmwiki/profile.json; the advisory template lock records install provenance but never changes validation or write authority.