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From nothing to a tracked issue. Five minutes if you read slowly, two if you skip the jokes.

Watch the walkthrough

The four-step workflow in 70 seconds, in a sample workspace. The music is there for morale. For English captions, turn them on from the player’s captions button; the transcript below covers the same ground. Watching doesn’t complete or reset your checklist. You can come back from Help & feedback → Watch the walkthrough, even after hiding the checklist.

If playback fails, download the video or read the transcript. No account is needed to watch.

Transcript

Cockpit. Alex’s new workspace, Juniper, already has the team’s work in it. Cockpit shows Alex’s issues and a checklist: Four steps to a tracker that works for you. All names and data are made up.
Capture. Alex presses New issue, types “Write the launch checklist. Before launch.” and creates it. It lands in Backlog, marked Needs refinement, and the first step checks itself off.
Connect. Connect your agent opens Settings → Agents with Claude Code selected. In a terminal, Alex runs claude mcp add --transport http hydrant https://hydrant.dev/api/mcp, then claude mcp login hydrant. The recording blurs its own local address and skips ahead to the sign-in page the agent opens: Spigot wants in. Spigot is a scripted agent made for this video; Connect an agent covers the real thing. Alex keeps one workspace and Read and write, approves, and the connection shows verified. An optional npx skills add command installs the setup skill; asking the agent to run hydrant-setup adds the workflow.
Hand off. Open #3 opens Hand me to your agent. Alex uses Copy refine prompt and pastes it into the agent. Hydrant doesn’t run agents; yours runs where it already does. Spigot reads the issue, writes scope and acceptance checks, marks it Refined and Ready, and comments, all through Hydrant’s MCP tools. The recording skips the short wait until New updates — view latest appears; choosing it shows the comment without a reload.
Accept. Alex reads the comment and moves the issue to Done. Hydrant says Accepted. That’s the whole trick. and all four steps are checked.

Watch the film

Who Did It? is a song about finding out what your agents did overnight. 1:14, no voice-over. Everyone in it is made up, people and agents alike. The lyrics are captions: turn them on from the player’s captions button.

If playback fails, download the film.

Before you start

An email address or a GitHub account. Hydrant never stores a password for you: you sign in with GitHub or with a six-digit code sent to your email.
A browser with JavaScript and cookies on.
An MCP agent client for the handoff: Claude Code, Claude, Codex or anything that speaks Streamable HTTP. Hydrant doesn’t run agents or sell a model, so yours runs where it already does. Filing issues works without one.

Steps

Go to hydrant.dev. Continuing means you agree to the Terms and Privacy policy. If either changes later, Hydrant asks again before letting you back in.
Pick a way in:
- Continue with GitHub, then approve Hydrant on GitHub.
- Continue with email, type your Email address and press Send code. Type the Six-digit code from the email. It expires in 10 minutes.
A brand-new account without a name gets one question first: What should we call you? Then you land on All workspaces.

Both ways lead to the same kind of account, and you can add the other one later in Settings › Account (see Sign-in methods).

Create a workspace

With no workspaces yet, you get a welcome page, Give the chaos an address., instead of an empty list. Type a Name and, if you like, pick an Icon. The previews beside the form show it in the rail, the switcher and All workspaces as you type.
Answer the optional questions, or skip them: which agents you use, how you heard about Hydrant, and who’s working here. Hydrant asks about agents and how you heard once per account; your first agent becomes the preselected client in Settings › Agents. If you pick A team on Free, it tells you then and there that Free seats one human per workspace.
Press Create workspace. You land inside it, in Cockpit, your personal view.

Later workspaces start from New workspace on All workspaces, or the + at the bottom of the workspace switcher. Both open the same page, at /new: Name, an optional Description and Icon (a built-in icon and color, or Upload image), with the same previews. No questions. Create workspace takes you into it; Cancel goes back to where you were.

A new workspace isn’t empty. It comes with three starter issues assigned to you: one to move to In Progress, one blocked by it, and Hand me to your agent. Above them sits a four-step checklist: capture an issue, connect your agent, hand it an issue, accept its work. Each step checks itself off when it actually happens, not when you click something. Accepting your agent’s work, the last step, gets a little confetti, unless you’ve hidden the checklist or turned Celebrations off. Hide checklist puts it away in this browser, and Clear starter issues moves the starters to Trash, where you can restore them for 30 days. The four-step checklist is for the person who created the workspace, and only while they still own it. If you joined by invitation, Cockpit shows a three-step version instead: connect your own agent, hand it an issue, accept its work. Only your own agent and your own Done moves count toward it. Nobody gets starter issues because you joined. If you answered A team, your checklist also shows Invite your team. It doesn’t count toward the four steps, and it ticks itself off once someone is invited or joins.

File your first issue

Press Quick capture in the top bar, or just press c.
Type a title where it says “Name the problem.”
Press Create issue, or ⌘Enter (Ctrl+Enter on Windows and Linux).

Hydrant opens the new issue. Status, priority, assignee and everything else sit beside the description, ready when you are. Capture and edit issues covers the rest.

What you should see

Your issue in Backlog, marked Needs refinement, with a number like #4 (the starter issues took 1 to 3). Back in Cockpit, the checklist’s first step is checked.

It won’t show in Cockpit yet, because Cockpit only shows work assigned to you or to agents you own. Assign it to yourself, or find it under All issues in the Back room.

The workspace has its own address: its name plus a short code, like hydrant.dev/side-project-k2m4p7q3xa. Issues live under it by number, at …/issues/4. Bookmark either. Renaming the workspace doesn’t break old links.

Everyone starts on the Free plan. It covers two workspaces you own, one person per workspace and two agent connections per workspace, which is plenty for kicking the tires. Plans and billing has the full comparison and how to upgrade.

Next steps worth five minutes each:

Find your way around: the sidebar, Find it and shortcuts.
Status, Refined and Blocked: how Hydrant thinks about progress.
Connect an agent: let your AI tool read and update issues.

If it goes sideways

“Our front door is making a scene.” Hydrant couldn’t reach GitHub to start sign-in. Press Try again, or use Continue with email. If it keeps happening, check service status (opens in a new tab).
“An entrance. Minus the entering.” Sign-in didn’t finish. Try again. If your browser blocks cookies for hydrant.dev, it can’t keep you signed in.
You were invited, but the workspace isn’t listed. Invitations wait in the strip at the top of All workspaces, and only for the account whose email matches the invitation: one signed in with a code sent to that address, or with the GitHub account that has it as its verified primary email.
No code arrived. Check spam, and the address you typed. If your account signs in with GitHub only, Hydrant emails a note instead of a code: sign in with GitHub, then add email codes in Settings › Account.
“That’s a lot of codes.” Hydrant limits how many codes one address or network can ask for. Wait the time it shows.
“This account is suspended.” Email bots@hydrant.dev if you think that’s a mistake.
Creating a workspace is refused. You already own as many workspaces as your plan allows. See Plans and billing.