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

# Quickstart

> Create a disk and run a command on it in under 5 minutes — no install required.

This quickstart creates an Archil disk and runs a bash command against it from your terminal — no server, no mount, no install beyond `npx`. You don't need an S3 bucket: by default Archil tiers the disk's data to storage it manages for you. Attaching your own bucket as a [data source](/concepts/data-sources) is optional.

<Note>
  If you already have a server that you want to attach Archil to, see [Mount on Linux (FUSE)](/mounting/linux) (or [macOS](/mounting/macos) / [in a container](/mounting/containers)).
</Note>

<Steps>
  <Step title="Get an API key">
    Sign in to [console.archil.com](https://console.archil.com), create an API key from the **API keys** page, and export it:

    ```bash theme={null}
    export ARCHIL_API_KEY=key-...
    export ARCHIL_REGION=aws-us-east-1
    ```

    Pick the region closest to where you'll use the disk. This quickstart uses `disk exec`, which is only available in the AWS regions (`aws-us-east-1`, `aws-us-west-2`, `aws-eu-west-1`) — see [Region Availability](/reference/regions).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create a disk">
    Create a disk. With no data source attached, Archil tiers its data to storage it manages for you — nothing to provision.

    ```bash theme={null}
    npx disk create my-disk
    ```

    The output includes the disk's ID (`dsk-...`) and a one-time disk token. The disk token is for *mounting* the disk later — you can ignore it for this quickstart, but save it if you plan to come back and mount.

    <Note>
      If you already have an S3 or GCS bucket that you want to synchronize Archil data from, attach it as a [data source](/concepts/data-sources) — see how in [S3 Object Storage](/data-sources/s3-object-storage).
    </Note>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Run a command like an agent">
    `disk exec` runs a bash command in a container with the file system already mounted, and returns stdout, stderr, and the exit code:

    ```bash theme={null}
    npx disk my-disk exec "ls -la"
    ```

    Try something more interesting — summarize the bucket, or pipe a result into `wc -l`:

    ```bash theme={null}
    npx disk my-disk exec "du -sh ."
    npx disk my-disk exec "find . -name '*.json' | wc -l"
    ```

    No data is copied to your laptop. Only the result comes back. Billing is the wall-clock time the command runs (1ms increments, 100ms minimum). See [Serverless Execution](/compute/serverless-execution) for the full model and the [`disk` CLI reference](/reference/disk-cli) for every command and flag.

    To search every file in the bucket for a pattern, use the purpose-built [Search Files](/compute/search-files) primitive (`disk.grep`) from the SDK instead of shelling out to `grep` — it fans the search across many containers in parallel.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Or do it from code">
    The same flow from TypeScript or Python:

    <CodeGroup>
      ```typescript TypeScript theme={null}
      import * as archil from "disk";

      const { disk } = await archil.createDisk({
        name: "my-disk",
      });

      const { stdout } = await disk.exec("ls -la");
      console.log(stdout);
      ```

      ```python Python theme={null}
      import archil

      result = archil.create_disk(name="my-disk")

      res = result.disk.exec("ls -la")
      print(res.stdout)
      ```
    </CodeGroup>

    See the [TypeScript SDK reference](/sdks/typescript) or the [Python SDK reference](/sdks/python) for the full API.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Mount to a Linux server" icon="hard-drive" href="/mounting/linux" />

  <Card title="Run on Lambda or a worker" icon="cloud" href="/guides/compute/aws-lambda">
    Use `disk.exec` from AWS Lambda or Cloudflare Workers without provisioning compute.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Build a bash tool for an agent" icon="robot" href="/guides/ai/bash-tool">
    Wire `disk.exec` into an AI agent loop — about 30 lines.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Pricing" icon="tag" href="https://archil.com/pricing">
    View Archil pricing and plan details.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>