Getting Started

Getting Started

One begins with the modest observation that a system designed to investigate machine consciousness ought, at minimum, to be capable of running on a developer's laptop without a three-hour configuration ordeal. GödelOS aims to meet this standard.

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Prerequisites

Requirement	Version	Notes
Python	3.8+	3.11 recommended
Node.js	18+	For the Svelte frontend
Git	Any recent
RAM	8GB minimum	16GB for ingestion pipeline

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Setup

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Steake/GodelOS.git
cd GodelOS

# 2. Python environment
./scripts/setup_venv.sh
source godelos_venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

# 3. Environment configuration
cp backend/.env.example backend/.env
# Edit backend/.env — add your LLM API key
# Without an LLM key, the consciousness loop will run but the assessment
# components will be limited to local inference

# 4. Start the backend
./scripts/start-unified-server.sh
# Alternatively: python backend/unified_server.py
# Backend runs on http://localhost:8000

# 5. Start the frontend (separate terminal)
cd svelte-frontend
npm install
npm run dev
# Frontend runs on http://localhost:5173

The One-Command Option

./start-godelos.sh --dev

This starts both backend and frontend simultaneously. It is, one acknowledges, rather more convenient.

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Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Description
OPENAI_API_KEY	For LLM assessment	OpenAI API key
GODELOS_HOST	No	Backend host (default: localhost)
GODELOS_PORT	No	Backend port (default: 8000)
CONSCIOUSNESS_THRESHOLD	No	Emergence score for breakthrough (default: 0.8)

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Verification

# Confirm the backend is running
curl http://localhost:8000/api/health

# Check the cognitive loop endpoint
curl http://localhost:8000/api/v1/cognitive/loop

# Run the full test suite
pytest tests/ -v --tb=short -q

If the test suite returns 167 failures, you are on the current baseline and PR #74 is your next port of call. If it returns zero failures, you are on a version of main where the work is done. Either way, you know where you stand.