← Back to Tap

Getting Started

Install to first result in 2 minutes.

1 Install Tap

# macOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://taprun.dev/install.sh | sh

# Verify
tap --version
tap 0.6.3

This installs the tap CLI binary to /usr/local/bin/ and the Chrome Extension to ~/.tap/extension/.

2 Load Chrome Extension

The extension lets Tap observe and control web pages (one-time setup).

  1. Open Chrome and go to chrome://extensions/
  2. Enable Developer mode (top right toggle)
  3. Click Load unpacked
  4. Select the folder: ~/.tap/extension/
  5. Pin the Tap icon to your toolbar
Tip: If the icon shows a red !, the daemon isn't running. Run tap daemon in another terminal.

3 Run Your First Tap

No AI, no key, no setup — just run:

# Install 185+ community taps
tap update

# Scrape Hacker News top stories
tap hackernews hot
┌──────┬──────────────────────────────┬───────┐
│ rank │ title                          │ score │
│ 1    │ Show HN: Tap                 │   342 │
│ 2    │ Rust is eating Go              │   287 │
└──────┴──────────────────────────────┴───────┘
30 rows (245ms) Cost: $0.00

That's it. You just ran a deterministic program — zero AI, zero cost, runs forever.

Try more: tap github trending, tap weibo hot, tap list to see all available taps.

4 Forge Your Own Tap (Hacker/Pro)

Activate your license, then forge custom automations from natural language:

# Activate license (key from your Creem purchase email)
tap auth login your-license-key
✔ License activated (Hacker plan)

# Set up AI key (Hacker plan — bring your own key)
tap config set ai.key sk-ant-xxx

# Forge a tap from plain English
tap forge "scrape Hacker News front page with rank, title, score"
☉ Inspecting https://news.ycombinator.com...
☉ AI analyzing page structure...
☉ Writing tap code...
✔ Verified: 30 rows, score=1.0
✔ Saved: hackernews/hot.tap.js

# Run it forever at $0
tap hackernews hot
30 rows (0.8s) Cost: $0.00
Pro plan: AI is built in — no key needed. Just tap forge "..." and go.

5 Self-Healing & Scheduling

# Check all your taps are healthy
tap doctor

# Auto-heal broken taps (Hacker/Pro)
tap doctor --auto

# Watch for changes every hour
tap watch hackernews hot --every 1h

6 Use with AI Agents (Optional)

Tap works as an MCP server. Add it to Claude Code, Cursor, or any MCP client:

# Claude Code
claude mcp add tap -- tap mcp

# Now Claude can forge, run, and heal taps for you