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Warp quickstart

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Get up and running with Warp in about 10 minutes. Install, run your first commands, talk to an agent, and discover what makes Warp different.

This guide walks you through installing Warp, trying the terminal features you’ll use every day, and firing off your first agent prompt. After completing the steps in this guide, you’ll have a working Warp setup and a clear picture of how terminal commands and agents work together.



Download Warp from warp.dev and follow the installer for your platform.

Download and drag Warp into your Applications folder, or install with Homebrew:

Terminal window
brew install --cask warp

When you launch Warp, you’ll see a terminal session ready for input. You can optionally sign up for an account (top right), or skip and start using Warp immediately.

Run any command you’d normally use, for example:

Terminal window
ls -la

You’ll notice the output looks different from a traditional terminal. Every command and its output is grouped into a Block — a contained unit you can copy, search, filter, and navigate independently. Blocks are the foundation of how Warp organizes your terminal.

What you can do with Blocks:

  • Click a Block to select it, then press ⌘C (macOS) or Ctrl+Shift+C (Windows/Linux) to copy the output
  • Use ⌘↑/⌘↓ (macOS) or Ctrl+↑/Ctrl+↓ (Windows/Linux) to navigate between Blocks
  • Click the filter icon on a Block to search within its output

Learn more about navigating, selecting, and acting on output in Block basics.

Warp’s input isn’t a standard terminal prompt, it’s a real text editor. Try the following functionality:

  • Multi-line editing - Press Shift+Enter to add a new line. Try typing three separate echo lines, pressing Shift+Enter between each, then Enter to run them all at once.
  • Click to place your cursor - Click anywhere in your input to move the cursor, just like a text editor.
  • Select and edit - Click and drag to select text, then type to replace it.

All three commands run in sequence, and each produces its own Block. No need to run commands one at a time.

Learn more about cursor movement, selections, and multi-line input in Modern text editing.

Start typing a command you’ve run before. You’ll see a faded suggestion appear inline based on your shell history. Press to accept it instantly.

Press Tab while typing to see completions for commands, flags, and file paths. Warp provides enhanced completions beyond what your shell offers natively.

If you mistype a command, Warp detects the error and suggests a correction. Accept the fix or dismiss it and continue.

Learn more about Autosuggestions and Tab completions.

Everything you’ve done so far has been in terminal mode, running shell commands the way you normally would. Warp also has Agent Mode, a dedicated conversation view where you interact with Oz, Warp’s built-in agent, using natural language.

Start an agent conversation by pressing ⌘↩ (macOS) or Ctrl+Shift+Enter (Windows/Linux). Then type a prompt:

Explain the architecture of this project

Oz reads your codebase, understands its structure, and responds with a context-aware explanation. From here you can ask follow-up questions, have Oz write or refactor code, debug errors, or run commands on your behalf — all within the same conversation.

Warp also works with third-party CLI agents like Claude Code and Codex. Learn more about third-party CLI agents.

To learn more about switching between modes, see Terminal and Agent modes.


Now that you have the basics, check out the features that make Warp a full development environment:

  • Customizing Warp — Pick a theme, configure your prompt, choose your AI model, and import keybindings from another terminal.
  • Codebase Context — Index your Git repositories so agents understand your code and give context-aware answers across large, multi-repo systems.
  • Oz cloud agents — Run agents in the background for PR review, issue triage, dependency updates, and other tasks that don’t need your immediate attention.
  • Keyboard shortcuts — The full shortcut reference for power users.