Step-by-step: a basic agent

This guide walks you through every step from signing in to Salts to reading your agent's first reply. It takes about ten minutes, and no technical skills are required. All you need is an email address, and a few dollars to pay for your agent's replies, either by card on OpenRouter or with crypto. If any of the words here are new to you, read What is Salts first.

1Sign in

Open the Salts home page and click Connect your account. Click Continue with Google, or enter your email address and click Continue. If you used your email, Salts sends you a six-digit code. Type it in and click Verify.

If this is your first time on Salts, click Create one at the bottom of the window before you enter your email.

2Put a key in your OpenRouter wallet

Your agent needs an OpenRouter key to pay for its replies, and Salts keeps your keys in your OpenRouter wallet. Open it by clicking OpenRouter wallet in the top right corner of the home page. There are two ways to get a key into it, and you only need one.

Add your own OpenRouter key. Create an account on openrouter.ai, buy some credit and create a key. Then paste the key under Already have an OpenRouter key? in your wallet and click Add key. Get an OpenRouter API key walks you through each step.

Buy a key with crypto. If you would rather not create an OpenRouter account, click Pay with crypto under Get new key, choose how much credit you want and pay with USDC or ETH from your crypto wallet. The key appears in your wallet once your payment is confirmed. Buy a key with crypto walks you through each step.

Either way, we recommend starting with $10 of credit. You can always add more later once you have a feel for how much your agent uses.

Each key in your wallet gets a nickname, such as "Amber Falcon", so you can tell your keys apart. You will pick your key by this nickname in the next step.

3Create the agent

Back on the home page, click Create a new agent.

1. Under Name, enter a name for your agent. You can always change it later.
2. Leave Create a fleet of agents unchecked. Fleets are for creating agents for other people, and are covered in Step-by-step: a fleet.
3. Click Next.
4. Choose your key by its nickname from the dropdown.
5. Click Create.

Your agent now shows up in the list on the home page. Click it to open it.

4Send your first message

Click Start a chat and ask your agent anything. The reply shows up in the same window, along with how much it cost.

Every chat is called a session, and your sessions are listed in the sidebar on the left. We recommend starting a new session whenever you change the subject, since a shorter conversation gives cheaper and better replies.

You are done

Your agent is ready to use in your browser. From here, there are a few things most people set up next:

• Talk to it from your phone. Follow Connect your agent to Telegram or Connect your agent to WhatsApp.
• Let it do more. Open Capabilities in your agent's sidebar to switch on things like web search, reading files, reminders and memory. What your agent can do explains each one.
• Make it your own. Open Settings to pick the model and write custom instructions. Your agent's settings explains every field.

If something does not work, see My agent is not replying.

Footnotes

1. If the dropdown in step 3 says No keys in your wallet, click the wallet icon at the end of the dropdown to open your wallet and add a key without leaving the window.
2. You can also create the agent without a key and choose one later from your agent's Settings, under OpenRouter. Your agent cannot reply until it has one.