Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 22+
• GitHub CLI (gh) — used for authentication with the Copilot SDK
• A GitHub account with Copilot access

Installation

npm install -g heyio

Initial Setup

Run the interactive setup wizard:

io setup

This will guide you through:

1. GitHub authentication (Copilot SDK handles this automatically via gh CLI)
2. Telegram bot token (optional)
3. Telegram authorized user ID (optional)

Configuration is saved to ~/.io/config.json.

Quick Start

Start the TUI (interactive chat):

io

Start as a background daemon:

io --daemon

Configuration File

IO stores config at ~/.io/config.json:

{
  "telegramBotToken": "123456:ABC-DEF...",
  "authorizedUserId": 123456789,
  "telegramEnabled": true,
  "defaultModel": "claude-sonnet-4.6",
  "port": 3170
}

The web frontend is available at http://your-server:PORT/ (default: http://localhost:3170/).

Running as a systemd Service (Linux)

Create /etc/systemd/system/io.service:

[Unit]
Description=IO AI Assistant Daemon
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=your-user
ExecStart=/usr/bin/env io --daemon
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
Environment=NODE_ENV=production

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then enable:

sudo systemctl enable --now io

Next Steps

• Configuration — Full config reference
• Web Frontend — Web dashboard guide
• Telegram Setup — Detailed Telegram integration guide
• Skills — Extend IO with custom skills