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Quick start

Get Aisman running with your AI coding agent in five minutes.

You need:

  • An Aisman account (sign up at aisman.com)
  • An AI coding agent installed (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, RooCode, or similar)
  • A project folder on your local machine
  1. Open the Dashboard and sign in.
  2. Type a project name in the filter box and press Enter.
  3. Choose a short acronym (e.g. AIM) — this prefixes all issue numbers.
  4. Go to the Details tab and click Browse to set your project’s root folder.

Project details — the dashboard with projects list on the left, and a selected project's detail pane showing name, acronym, description, and root folder path on the right.

① Project list on the left — filter, click, or right-click for context menu ② Details tab on the right — project name, acronym, root folder, and machine

Aisman creates a .aisman folder in your project root. This is where instructions and output files are exchanged with your AI agent. Everything stays on your machine.

Your AI agent needs to know about Aisman’s input/output format. This is a one-time setup.

  1. Go to Dashboard → Settings → Host instructions.
  2. Select your AI tool from the dropdown (e.g. GitHub Copilot, Cursor).
  3. Grant file access when prompted — Aisman needs to read/write the instruction file.
  4. Click Create file if no instruction file exists yet.
  5. Click Insert Aisman instructions to add the required header.
  6. Click Add basic coding principles to insert recommended guidelines.
  7. Click Save.

Host instructions — Settings tab with host dropdown at top, instruction file path field, and Insert / Create buttons in the middle.

① Host dropdown — select your AI coding agent from the list ② Instruction file path — the file Aisman will read and write ③ Insert Aisman instructions — one-click insertion of the required Aisman directive

The instruction file points to .aisman/instructions.md — when Aisman updates instructions, your agent automatically picks up the changes.

HostInstruction file path
GitHub Copilot.github/copilot-instructions.md
Cursor.cursor/rules
Claude CodeCLAUDE.md
Windsurf.windsurfrules
RooCode.roo/rules
KiloCode.kilocode/rules
Continue.continue/config.json
Aider.aider/conventions.md
Codeium.codeium/instructions.md
CustomUser-defined path

Every AI coding session follows four steps:

In the Workflow tab, check the issues to include. You can also type new free-form instructions — Aisman decomposes them into discrete issues automatically.

Add any extra context, constraints, or design preferences. This text is included verbatim in the prompt.

Click Generate. Aisman compiles all selected issues — with their history, relationships, and notes — into a structured prompt saved in .aisman/inputs/. It’s copied to your clipboard automatically.

Generated prompt preview

① Selected issues — the issues you checked in Step 1 ② Generate button — creates the input file and copies it to clipboard

Paste it into your AI agent and let it work.

When your agent completes the task, it drops a JSON result file into .aisman/outputs/. Aisman detects it automatically, parses it, updates issue statuses, and records the session history.

Process output — the Workflow Step 4 panel showing output file displayed, with the Review button visible once all issues pass validation.

① Output file — the JSON result written by your AI agent ② Review button — click to go back to Step 1 and see the updated issue statuses

If the output has errors, Aisman shows a detailed error list and provides a targeted fix prompt you can send back to the agent.

Error list shown when output file has validation issues — each error is displayed with the issue ID and the specific field that needs correction.

  • Issue statuses update automatically (not started → in progress → implemented → confirmed)
  • Session history records what the agent did, lines changed, and issues touched
  • New issues appear if the agent discovered bugs or created sub-tasks
  • Relationships between issues are tracked (dependencies, parent-child, extensions)

Review everything from the Dashboard, Issues tab, or Sessions & Steps tab.