Quick Start — Tesseract Documentation

TL;DR

Install Tesseract
Register Tesseract as an MCP server
claude mcp add -t http tesseract http://localhost:7440/mcp
Ask Claude to generate an architecture diagram for your project

1 Install Tesseract

Download the installer for your operating system from the Downloads section.

A Linux

Download the .AppImage file, make it executable, and run it.

Terminal

chmod +x Tesseract-*.AppImage
./Tesseract-*.AppImage

B macOS

Open the .dmg file and drag Tesseract into your Applications folder.

C Windows

Run the .exe installer and follow the setup wizard.

2 First launch

When you open Tesseract for the first time, an authentication modal appears:

Enter your email address and confirm
Check your inbox — you will receive a verification code
Enter the code in the modal to activate your account

Once authenticated, a project selection dialog appears with two choices:

Empty Project — start with a blank canvas
Load Demo — open "Chirp", a pre-built microblogging app architecture

Pick Empty Project to follow the rest of this guide — Claude AI will generate your architecture in the next steps. Pick Load Demo if you just want to explore a finished architecture right away.

You are now in the editor. Here is what you see:

Top toolbar — file menu, Add Component, Add Connection, view controls
3D canvas — the isometric grid where components live
Layer legend (bottom-left) — color-coded layer list

3 Connect Claude AI

Tesseract integrates with Claude AI to generate entire architectures from a text prompt. There are two ways to connect — pick whichever fits your workflow:

Option A — Claude Console (built-in)

The Console is embedded directly inside Tesseract. To activate it:

Open a terminal and run claude to log in to your Anthropic account (one-time setup)
Back in Tesseract, expand the Console panel (bottom-left toggle)
Click Sign in — a green dot appears once connected

See Claude Console for details.

Option B — Claude Code + MCP (terminal)

If you prefer working from the terminal, register Tesseract as an MCP server:

Terminal

claude mcp add --transport http tesseract http://localhost:7440/mcp

Then start Claude Code from your project directory with claude. It will automatically discover the Tesseract MCP tools.

See Claude Code & MCP for the full setup guide.

Console is ideal for quick brainstorming — describe what you want and see it appear instantly. Claude Code + MCP is best when Claude needs to read your codebase (Dockerfiles, package manifests, routes) to generate an accurate architecture.

4 Generate your architecture

From the Console

Type a natural-language description of the system you want. For example:

Console prompt

Design a microservices e-commerce platform with:
- A React storefront
- An API gateway
- Product, Order, and User services
- PostgreSQL and Redis databases
- A message queue for async order processing

Claude creates components, assigns them to the right layers, and wires connections — all in real time on the 3D canvas.

From Claude Code

In your terminal, ask Claude to analyze your existing project:

Terminal

claude "Scan this repository and generate a Tesseract architecture"

Or use the built-in skill for a structured overview:

Terminal

claude "/arch-overview"

Claude reads your Dockerfiles, package manifests, routes, and database configs, then builds a matching architecture in Tesseract.

Tesseract ships with 5 pre-built skills that cover common workflows like architecture overview, detail expansion, and flow mapping. See the pre-built skills reference.

5 Explore & refine

Once your architecture appears on the canvas:

Press Z to zoom to fit all components in view
Click any component — the Side Panel shows its properties (name, layer, tech stack, description)
Double-click a component to dive into its nested sub-architecture

Keep iterating with follow-up prompts:

"Add a CDN in front of the storefront"
"Show the order data flow from cart to fulfillment"
"Detail the API Gateway as a subgraph with rate-limiting and auth middleware"

All changes appear in real time on the canvas. You can keep iterating until the architecture matches your vision.

6 Save your project

Click File → Save (or press Ctrl+S). Your architecture is saved as a .tesseract.json file that contains all components, connections, and layers.

Your work is also auto-saved to local storage, so you won't lose progress if the app closes unexpectedly. See Save & Load for more details.

Fine-tuning by hand

You can always edit the architecture manually. Press N to open the Component Library and place new components, or click Add Connection in the toolbar to wire them together. Click any component or connection to edit its properties in the Side Panel.

For full details, see Components and Connections.

Next steps

You have a complete architecture in Tesseract. From here you can:

Nest sub-architectures — double-click a component to create detail levels with Navigation & Subgraphs
Use pre-built skills — automate common tasks with the 5 built-in AI skills
Visualize data flows — record and replay paths through your system with Data Flows
Explore the editor — learn every toolbar control in the Editor Interface guide
Browse the library — use pre-built components from the Component Library
Keyboard shortcuts — see all shortcuts at a glance on the Keyboard Shortcuts page

Documentation

Core Concepts