Quick Start

You have Quazzar Cloud OS installed and the service is running. This guide covers your first five minutes: the first-run setup, finding your way around the desktop, installing an app from Launchpad, adding a domain with SSL, and checking monitoring.

Step 1: First run

Open http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:8080 in your browser.

1. Ignition. A fresh node greets you with Press any key to ignite. Press a key (or click) to play the short boot sequence, or press again to skip it. It plays once per browser session. You can replay it later from the command palette (Replay ignition).
2. Setup. The first-run setup takes four short steps:
   1. Account. Enter your name, email and a password (8+ characters, with a strength meter). You become the owner of the node. Family members or teammates can be invited later.
   2. Name. Give the machine a name. It is shown in the menu bar and on the sign-in screen.
   3. Mode. Pick Personal (docs, photos, music and a private AI for you and your family) or Server (containers, domains, monitoring and security). You can switch at any time.
   4. Apps. Choose starter apps to install straight away. Your plan’s app limit applies.
3. More options (optional): time zone, reverse proxy with a base domain, certificate email and HTTPS, a Control Center token to link the node to the Control Panel, and the hardening you’ve already done (disk encryption, firmware and boot-loader passwords).
4. Summary. If everything went through, you land on the desktop. If a step failed (an app install, for example), the Setup summary lists each step with its result. Retry a failed step in place, go back and fix it, or continue to the desktop and finish later in Settings. Skip setup is always available.

The full reference is in Setup Wizard.

Step 2: Sign in

The sign-in screen remembers who last used this browser. You can sign in with:

• Email and password. If 2FA is on, you’re asked for your 6-digit code next. Back returns to the password step.
• Sign in with a passkey (Touch ID, Windows Hello, your phone or a security key). Only offered over HTTPS or on localhost.
• Approve on your phone. The screen shows a 2-digit code. Type it on a device where you’re already signed in to let this one in.
• QR code. Scan it with the paired Quazzar mobile app.
• Sign in with Quazzar Cloud, if the node is linked to the Control Panel.

Step 3: Find your way around

The desktop is built around a live quasar: your node is the black hole, its disk spins faster under load, and every installed app orbits it. On top of that:

• Modes. Server, Personal and Cluster. Pick one from the first button in the dock or cycle through them with Ctrl+Shift+S. Cluster mode appears once this node is a cluster primary.

• Spaces. Each mode has three spaces, shown as tabs in the menu bar. Press 1, 2 or 3 to switch.

  Mode	1	2	3
  Server	Overview	Launchpad	Monitoring
  Personal	Home	Orbit	Launchpad
  Cluster	Constellation	Nodes	Placement

• The dock at the bottom groups every tool into popovers (for example Infra, Security, AI and Admin in Server mode), and has buttons for Molly and the Terminal.

• The menu bar at the top shows the time, a live load indicator, notifications, sounds, Appearance, the lock button and your account menu.

• Command palette. Press Ctrl/⌘+K to jump to any page, app, setting, note or file. End a question with ? and Molly answers inline.

Press ? at any time to see every keyboard shortcut. The full tour is in The desktop.

Step 4: Install your first app

Open Launchpad (space 2 in Server mode, 3 in Personal mode). It lists 115+ app templates by category, with installed apps marked In orbit.

1. Type Nextcloud (or any app) in Search apps.
2. Click the card to see its description, requirements and dependencies.
3. Click Install. Apps with settings open a short configuration dialog first.
4. The button shows progress while Cloud OS pulls images and starts the containers.
5. When the button changes to In orbit · Open, the app is running, and a new satellite joins the orbit around the quasar.

See Launchpad for updates, start/stop and the app detail page.

Step 5: Set up a domain with SSL

To reach your app through a custom domain with automatic HTTPS:

1. Open the dock’s Infra group and choose Domains & SSL (or press Ctrl/⌘+K and type “domains”).
2. Click Add Domain.
3. Enter your domain name (for example, cloud.example.com).
4. Point your DNS A record to your server’s public IP address.
5. Select the app or service to route traffic to.
6. Click Save. Cloud OS uses its embedded Caddy reverse proxy to provision a free Let’s Encrypt certificate automatically.

Your app is now reachable at https://cloud.example.com, and the certificate renews automatically. The Domain Wizard does all of this in one step if your DNS is on Cloudflare.

Step 6: Check monitoring

Press 3 in Server mode to open the Monitoring space:

• Live: the current CPU load with the processor model and temperature, per-core bars, a 60-second CPU and memory chart, network and disk I/O, and a card per disk with its SMART health.
• History: further down, CPU, memory, disk and network over time, per-app metrics, predictions and diagnostics.

Metrics are stored at three resolutions: 1-minute for the last 24 hours, 1-hour for the last 30 days, and 1-day for long-term history. See Monitoring.

Step 7: Connect your first AI client (30 seconds)

Quazzar ships a built-in Memory MCP server that exposes your notes as durable memory for Claude Desktop, Claude Code, ChatGPT, Cursor, and VS Code Copilot. To try it:

1. Open Settings → MCP & Memory → New key.
2. Name it (“Claude on my laptop”), pick claude_desktop as the client type, leave the namespace on default, grant read_memory + write_memory, click Generate.
3. Copy the quaz_... bearer immediately. It is shown only once.
4. In the Connect a client card, copy the Claude Desktop snippet and paste it into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (Windows). Replace <KEY> with the bearer.
5. Restart Claude Desktop. Ask: “Create a memory titled ‘Hello Quazzar’ with body ‘memory works’.”

The memory appears instantly in Notes (Personal mode → dock Work group, or g n), tagged #mcp and #claude-desktop. See Memory MCP quickstart for the full guide and the other five clients.

Next Steps

• Browse Launchpad and deploy more applications. There are 115+ templates available.
• Set up Backups to protect your data with AES-256-GCM encryption to S3, SFTP, or local storage.
• Configure VPN access via WireGuard or Pritunl for secure remote connectivity.
• Explore the AI Hub to run local LLMs or connect to cloud APIs like OpenAI and Claude.
• Try the Orbit productivity suite: Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Notes.
• Customise Overview and Home: widgets, hero blocks, the accent colour and motion are covered in Dashboard Customization.
• Open the Terminal from the dock for a shell on the node.
• Set up Alerts rules with Email, Telegram, Slack, Discord, or Webhook notifications.
• Create a cluster when you add a second machine.
• Connect to the Control Panel if you manage multiple servers.