About five minutes

From a clean machine to useful browser work.

You need Node.js 22 or newer and a working Docker daemon. The first start downloads the bundled model, and CPU inference can take time; no fixed startup duration is promised.

1. Check the machine

Confirm Node and Docker, then let the CLI inspect the setup.

node --version

docker info

npx virtualme doctor

2. Start Virtual Me

npx virtualme start

Wait for services to become healthy, then open http://localhost:8080. Keep the console on a trusted computer and private network: v1 has no authentication or TLS.

3. Ask one concrete task

Open Chat and ask: “Visit the project repository, read the latest release notes, and summarize the operational changes with links.” Interactive chat starts work now and streams the agent's progress.

4. Watch and take over

Open Desktop. It shows the real local Chromium window. You may use it directly whenever the agent is not actuating it; Jobs records the work.

5. Create recurring work

Open Projects, create “Weekly project check,” enter a concrete browser task, choose a weekly selector, enable it, and save. Projects are scheduled independently from interactive chat and own a scratch directory.

6. Find the result

Jobs shows queue and activity history. Data browses artifacts under the mounted data directory, including project files and agent screenshots.

7. Keep, stop, and update

The default host directory is ~/.virtualme. It survives container replacement and holds Valkey state, Chromium profile, metrics, projects, agent artifacts, speech cache, and mail state.

npx virtualme stop

npx virtualme update

If health stays red, run npx virtualme status and npx virtualme logs -f. Continue with how it works or the current README troubleshooting guide.