Workflow walkthroughs for running darkmux on your own hardware. Pick a section by what you're trying to do. They don't depend on each other in strict order, except Getting Started, which everything else assumes you've done.
The frontier model you use as the orchestrator (Claude Code is the proven path; other frontiers can drive it too) needs proper guidance to make the most of darkmux. This guide is a starting reference, not doctrine to enforce. Contradictory statements between this guide, your project's CLAUDE.md, and other frontier configs will cause more harm than good. Configure to your own strategy and goals; treat what's below as inspiration, not commandments.
darkmux deliberately leaves the operator in control of how their environment is shaped. The same command (darkmux dispatch, say) can feel different from one machine to another because the frontier driving it reads different doctrine. That's by design. The trade-off: don't expect identical experiences across operators. Expect consistent foundations (the CLI, the records, the viewer) and operator-shaped behavior on top.
doctor, declare your first profile, dispatch a role, launch a mission./flow viewer at it, watch darkmux operate.darkmux doctor's output is the canonical troubleshooting surface.
Want the precise model rather than a walkthrough: role families, the mission/phase schema, telemetry, the flow record? See the concepts reference, the canonical reference for what darkmux is made of.
darkmux is an AI-first local-AI orchestrator: a CLI that manages local LLM stacks on your machine and dispatches utility-agent models internally for bounded structuring tasks (compaction, phase estimation, mission proposal). The strategic reasoning loop lives in your frontier orchestrator: Claude Code is the proven path, and other frontiers like Gemini, Codex, and Copilot can drive it with their own guidance. The utility agent absorbs the routine bounded work; the orchestrator stays on strategy.
The intended division of labor:
This guide assumes you have an orchestrator and want to use darkmux as the local-tier resource it dispatches to. If you're running darkmux purely as a CLI (no orchestrator), most of the guide still applies: just skip the agentic sections (dispatch, mission launch review).