***

title: Welcome to Astro AI
subtitle: Deploy and run AI agents with agent-native infrastructure
slug: welcome
-------------

Astro AI is a platform for deploying and running AI agents. It provides agent-native infrastructure including models, knowledge bases, tool integrations, and observability. Agents are defined with a declarative spec, built and pushed with the CLI, and deployed through the API or dashboard.

## What you can do

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Install the CLI" icon="duotone download" href="/install-cli">
    Download and install the `ast` CLI for your platform
  </Card>

  <Card title="Your first project" icon="duotone rocket" href="/get-started">
    Install the CLI, log in, create an agent, run locally, and push in five steps
  </Card>

  <Card title="Authentication" icon="duotone key" href="/authentication">
    Log in with `ast login` and manage credentials
  </Card>

  <Card title="API reference" icon="duotone code" href="/api-reference">
    List agents, register and push builds, and manage deployments via the API
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Concepts

* **Agent** — A deployable unit defined by an `astro.yml` spec: container image, models, knowledge stores, tools, and integrations.
* **Registry** — OCI registry where agent images and spec artifacts are published (e.g. ghcr.io).
* **Account** — Your team or org on Astro AI; agents are scoped to an account (`account/agent-name`).
* **Push** — Pushing an agent (and optionally assigning a semver version) makes it available in your account and the public catalog.

## Next steps

<Steps>
  <Step title="Install the CLI">
    Run <code>curl -fsSL [https://astropod.ai/install](https://astropod.ai/install) | sh</code> or see [Install the CLI](/install-cli).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Log in">
    Run <code>ast login</code> and complete the browser flow to authenticate.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create and run an agent">
    Follow [Your first project](/get-started): <code>ast create hello-astro</code>, then <code>cd hello-astro && ast dev</code>.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Push">
    Run <code>ast push</code> to push your agent to the Astro AI registry.
  </Step>
</Steps>