# Getting Started

> Download, activate, grant the one permission that matters, and get a real result inside another app — in about five minutes.

Source: https://triplo.ai/docs/getting-started  
Last updated: 2026-10-18

## 1. Install

Every build lives on one page: [Downloads](https://triplo.ai/docs/downloads). It marks the one for the machine you are reading this on, covers desktop and mobile, and says how to tell an Apple silicon Mac from an Intel one.

> **Tip:** [Get Triplo AI for your platform →](https://triplo.ai/docs/downloads) Then come back here and pick up at step 2.

Triplo AI has no dock or taskbar icon by design. Once running it lives in your **menu bar (macOS)** or **system tray (Windows and Linux)**. Click the tray icon to show or hide the window, or right-click it for Open, Settings and Exit.

> **Note:** Triplo AI starts with your computer by default. You can turn that off later under Settings → Preferences → Run at Startup.

## 2. Activate your licence

1. **Open Settings**: Press `Option`+`Space` to show the window, then click the gear icon in the top-left. Or right-click the tray icon and choose Settings.
2. **Paste your key**: Under **Licensing**, paste the key from your purchase email. The clipboard button next to the field pastes for you; the eye button reveals what you have typed.
3. **Click Validate**: Triplo registers this computer against your licence and reads back which features your plan includes.

### What the states mean

- **Active**: The key is valid and this device is registered. The row shows your product name, the email on the licence, and whether it is a trial.
- **Pending approval**: Your key is recognised but this device needs approving — usually on a team or managed licence. Leave the window open and focused; Triplo re-checks automatically and flips to Active the moment approval lands. No need to click again.

  Approval is not automatic and it is not yours to grant. The administrator of the licence decides which devices may be activated, and can revoke any of them at any time, from [control.triplo.ai](https://control.triplo.ai). If the status does not change, that is who to ask.
- **Invalid key**: The server rejected the key. Click Remove to clear it so you are not stuck with a bad value, then try again.
- **Could not verify right now**: A network problem, or too many attempts in a short window. Wait a moment and retry. Triplo deliberately treats this as "unknown", not "invalid", so a flaky connection never locks you out.

### No key at all

Without a licence key, Triplo does not gate anything — every feature is reachable so you can evaluate it. Restrictions only apply once a key is validated and the server reports which features that plan includes.

### Moving to a different computer

Click Revoke in Settings to release this device from your licence, then activate on the new machine. To see and manage every registered device, use Manage Devices, which opens [control.triplo.ai](https://control.triplo.ai). More detail in [Devices & Sync](https://triplo.ai/docs/sync#devices).

## 3. Grant the permission that matters

Triplo's single most useful trick — acting on text you have selected in another app — needs your operating system's permission to read that selection. Without it, everything else works but `//selected//` silently comes back empty.

| Platform | What is needed | How to grant it |
|---|---|---|
| **macOS** | Accessibility permission | System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility → enable **Triplo AI**. Triplo also prompts you the first time you switch on Awareness Mode. |
| **Windows** | Nothing | Works out of the box. |
| **Linux (X11)** | `xsel` or `xclip` | Install either from your package manager. `xdotool` is used as a last-resort fallback. |
| **Linux (Wayland)** | `wl-clipboard` | Install it to provide `wl-paste`. Note that some compositors do not expose the primary selection at all, in which case capture cannot work. |

> **Warning:** On macOS you must **quit and reopen Triplo AI** after granting Accessibility. macOS does not apply the change to an already-running app.

## 4. Pick a model

Triplo needs to know which AI model to send your prompts to. Click the **model selector** in the top bar — the robot icon next to the gear.

If your plan includes them, **Allowance Models** are already listed and need no setup: they are provided by Triplo, and they are the fastest way to get moving. Pick any one and you are done. Each device gets a monthly token allocation — see [how much you get](https://triplo.ai/docs/allowance#how-much).

To use your own provider or a local model instead, see [Models & Connections](https://triplo.ai/docs/models). You can add those later — nothing below depends on it.

> **Important:** If you see **"No model selected. Please select a model from the dropdown above."** when you send a prompt, this step was skipped. Open the model selector and choose one.

## 5. Your first five minutes

Three exercises, in order. By the end of the third you will have used the feature most people never find.

### Exercise 1 — Ask a question

1. **Press `Option`+`Space`**: The prompt bar appears over whatever you were doing.
2. **Type a question and press `Enter`**: The answer streams in below the input.
3. **Press `Esc`**: The window hides. Press `Option`+`Space` again and it comes back where you left it.

### Exercise 2 — Use a SmartPrompt on text you selected

SmartPrompts are ready-made prompt templates. Triplo ships with hundreds.

1. **Select a paragraph in any app**: An email, a document, a web page — anything.
2. **Press `Option`+`Space`, then type `/`**: A list of SmartPrompts appears. Keep typing to filter — by command (`imp`) or by name (`improve`).
3. **Press `Tab` to insert it**: The prompt collapses into a coloured chip. It is a placeholder for a much longer instruction you do not have to see.
4. **Type `//selected//` after the chip, then press `Enter`**: Triplo grabs the text you highlighted in step 1 and runs the SmartPrompt against it.

*Animation: This is where the permission from section 3 pays off — without it, `//selected//` comes back empty.*

### Exercise 3 — Do it all without opening the window

This is the one that changes how you work. You will assign a hotkey to a SmartPrompt so it runs in the background and pastes the result straight back into the app you were in.

1. **Open the Prompts drawer**: Click the grid icon at the bottom of the window, then Prompts.
2. **Create a SmartPrompt**: Under **Custom SmartPrompts**, click Add SmartPrompt…. Give it a title such as *Fix grammar*, a command such as `fix`, and this as the prompt:

   ```
   Correct the spelling and grammar of the following text.
   Preserve the original tone and meaning. Return only the
   corrected text, with no commentary.
   ```
3. **Assign a hotkey**: In the same editor, click the **Hotkey** field and press your combination — `Cmd`+`Shift`+`F`, say. Triplo warns you if it is already taken. Click Create.
4. **Go and use it**: Switch to any app. Select a sentence with a typo in it. Press your hotkey. Do not touch anything else.

Triplo captures the selection, sends it to your model, and pastes the corrected text over your selection — without the window ever appearing. Your clipboard is left exactly as it was.

> **Tip:** That is the core loop. Everything else in Triplo AI makes this loop smarter: [Instructions](https://triplo.ai/docs/instructions) give it standing context, [Minds](https://triplo.ai/docs/training) ground it in your own documents, and [Magnets](https://triplo.ai/docs/magnets) pin a specific model and setup to a specific prompt.

## 6. A tour of the window

The window is a single floating card. Out of the box it grows and shrinks to fit its contents, and it remembers where you dragged it. You can also **resize it yourself** — drag any edge or corner, the same as any other window. See [Resizing the window](https://triplo.ai/docs/settings#resizing).

![The main window. Left to right along the top: settings, model, output language, the active instruction, and the active Mind.](https://triplo.ai/docs/assets/ui/01-main-window.png)

### Top bar — what the answer is made from

- **Gear**: Opens [Settings](https://triplo.ai/docs/settings).
- **Model selector**: Which model answers. Search, filter by provider, refresh the list. See [Models & Connections](https://triplo.ai/docs/models).
- **Language selector**: Forces the reply into a chosen language. 33 available. See [Languages](https://triplo.ai/docs/prompting#languages).
- **Instruction selector**: Which standing instruction is applied. See [Instructions](https://triplo.ai/docs/instructions).
- **Mind selector**: Which knowledge base grounds the answer. See [Training](https://triplo.ai/docs/training).
- **History**: Past conversations. (Paid plan)
- **Question mark**: Help & About: version, backup and restore, debug data, support links.

### Prompt bar — where you type

Types text, accepts `/` for SmartPrompts and `//` for awareness tags and commands, has a paperclip for attachments and — when Voice Features are on — a microphone. `Enter` sends; `Shift`+`Enter` makes a new line.

### Bottom bar — four toggles

![The action grid, opened from the grid icon. Every editor in Triplo AI is reached from here.](https://triplo.ai/docs/assets/ui/04-action-grid.png)

- **Grid**: Opens the action grid: Prompts, Instructions, Automation, Training (Minds), Hotkeys, LLM Models, Help Docs.
- **Pin**: Keeps the window open when it loses focus. On by default. `Cmd`+`Shift`+`P`
- **Magnet**: Whether a SmartPrompt's pinned settings are applied. On by default. `Cmd`+`Shift`+`M`
- **Bug**: Web scraping. When on, links in your prompt are fetched and their text, or a video's transcript, included. See [Scraping](https://triplo.ai/docs/scraping). `Cmd`+`Shift`+`S` (Paid plan)
- **Speech bubble**: Chat mode. When on, Triplo remembers the conversation. When off, every prompt starts fresh. `Cmd`+`Shift`+`C` (Paid plan)

### The status dot

A small draggable dot that floats above every window, including full-screen apps, and shows what Triplo is doing when the main window is hidden — useful when you are running prompts by hotkey. It is off by default; enable it under Settings → Status Dot. See [Appearance](https://triplo.ai/docs/settings#appearance).

## Where to go from here

You now have a working setup. The next page is the one that saves the most time overall: it explains the eight objects Triplo is built from and how they combine, so the rest of the app stops feeling arbitrary.

- [**Core Concepts**](https://triplo.ai/docs/concepts): The mental model. Read this before anything else.
- [**Prompting**](https://triplo.ai/docs/prompting): Everything the prompt bar can do, in depth.