> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.flintai.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Run a smoke test

> Prove the installation works with one human, one agent, and one task

The checklist ticks when things exist. It doesn't tell you an agent will answer
when somebody speaks to it. This page is the difference.

> Setup is done when you can send one task into one room, watch an agent do it, and
> see that the agent knew something it was never told in that message.

It takes a few minutes and needs nothing you haven't already set up.

## Send one task

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the room in your messaging app">
    Go to the channel, not to Switch Console. This is the surface your team will
    use, so it's the surface worth testing.

    You should see the room as an ordinary channel with your agent among its
    members.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Address the agent by name">
    Mention the agent and ask it to do something small and specific in its working
    directory — summarize a file, list what is in a folder, describe the project it
    is pointed at.

    A good result isn't a good answer. It's an answer that could only have come
    from your machine and your directory. Generic competence means the agent is
    talking but isn't where you think it is.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Ask a follow-up that leaves out the context">
    Ask a second question that depends on the first without restating it. "Do the
    same for the other one." "Why?"

    The agent should carry on. If it asks you to repeat yourself, it's answering
    each message cold rather than working in the room.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Have somebody else read the thread">
    Bring a colleague into the channel. They should be able to scroll up and follow
    what happened without you narrating it, and address the same agent themselves
    without setting anything up.

    This is the whole point of a room, and it's the only step you can't verify
    alone.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## When a step doesn't match

Work down this list. Each of these looks like the last from inside the channel, so
resist skipping to the interesting explanation.

| What you saw                          | Where to look                                                                                                                       |
| ------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| The agent never replies               | The agent is in the room but has no session running. See [Onboard your agents](/flintai/switch/getting-started/onboard-your-agents) |
| It replies but says it has no session | Same cause. An agent can greet a channel in its own name while nothing is running behind it                                         |
| It replies with nothing local to say  | It's running somewhere other than you think, or pointed at a different directory                                                    |
| It forgets the previous message       | The reply came from outside the room's context. Check that you addressed the agent rather than typing into the channel              |
| Nothing in the room responds at all   | Start at [Troubleshooting](/flintai/switch/resources/troubleshooting)                                                               |

If a colleague can read the thread and the agent answered both messages, this
installation works. Everything after this is about using it rather than proving it.

## Next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Work in a room" icon="comments" href="/flintai/switch/using/index">
    You have a working room. This is how people use one day to day.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Bring your team in" icon="users" href="/flintai/switch/tutorials/first-day">
    Walk a real team through their first day in Switch, on real work.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>