Tessera

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Get Started with Tessera ​

Tessera is an AI project generator that runs as a CLI tool on your machine. Install it globally with Composer and start generating complete web projects from a conversation. New to Tessera? Read What is Tessera? first.

Installation ​

bash
composer global require tessera/installer

Make sure the Composer global bin directory is in your PATH:

  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Composer\vendor\bin
  • macOS/Linux: ~/.composer/vendor/bin

Verify it works:

bash
tessera --version

System Check ​

Before creating your first project, run the built-in diagnostics to check that your system has everything Tessera needs:

bash
tessera doctor
  TESSERA DOCTOR — System Check

System:
  OS: windows
  Package manager: scoop

Required:
✓ PHP — PHP 8.5.2
✓ Composer — 2.9.2

AI tools (need at least one):
✓ claude — 2.1.76
✓ gemini — 0.32.1
✓ codex — 0.114.0

Optional (depends on stack):
✓ Node.js — v25.8.0
✓ Go — go1.25.0
  Flutter — not installed
✓ Docker — 28.4.0
✓ Git — 2.45.1

✓ Disk space: 87.7 GB free

  All good! Run: tessera new my-project

Prerequisites ​

Required:

PHP 8.4+ ​

PHP is the programming language Tessera is built with. Check if you have it:

bash
php -v

If not installed:

  • Windows: scoop install php or download from php.net
  • macOS: brew install php
  • Linux (Ubuntu/Debian): sudo apt install php php-cli php-mbstring php-xml php-curl php-zip

Composer ​

Composer is PHP's package manager — it installs Tessera and its dependencies. Check if you have it:

bash
composer --version

If not installed: follow the official Composer install guide. On macOS you can also run brew install composer.

At least one AI CLI tool ​

Tessera uses AI tools installed on your machine. You need at least one:

ToolInstallationFree plan?
Claudenpm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-codeLimited
Codexnpm install -g @openai/codexLimited
Gemininpm install -g @google/gemini-cliYes

Don't have npm?

These AI tools are installed via npm (Node.js package manager). If you don't have it, install Node.js first from nodejs.org — npm comes bundled with it.

Optional (auto-installed if missing):

Create Your First Project ​

bash
tessera new my-project

AI will lead a natural conversation — asking about the business, languages, payments, design style — and then build everything automatically. The entire process takes a few minutes.

TIP

The installer asks about your AI subscription plans during setup. If you have Claude Max (unlimited), it will prefer Claude for all tasks since there's no cost concern. Learn more about AI routing.

Skipping the conversation (dev mode) ​

If you already know which stack you want and you don't need AI to interview you, two flags speed things up:

bash
# Pick the stack yourself — no AI stack-selection call.
tessera new my-shop --stack=laravel

# Skip the interactive Q&A by loading requirements from JSON.
tessera new my-shop \
  --stack=laravel \
  --requirements-fixture=./req.json

A minimal req.json:

json
{
  "description": "Online wine shop in Croatia, three categories, Croatian + English",
  "languages": ["hr", "en"],
  "design_style": "elegant, refined",
  "design_colors": "burgundy, cream",
  "needs_shop": true,
  "country": "HR",
  "payment_providers": ["corvuspay", "bank_transfer"]
}

This is mostly useful for repeated dev iterations and CI smoke runs.

Inspect the build before tokens are spent ​

Tessera lets you compile and inspect the AI plan without invoking any AI:

bash
tessera plan compile stacks/laravel.yaml
tessera plan show

The plan tells you exactly which steps run, in which order, with which prompt, against which AI. See tessera plan for the full reference.

Next Steps ​