Quick Start Guide

Install with pixi

~2 min read

Prefer to delegate? Copy this into any coding agent and it runs the steps below for you.

Agent prompt

Set up for The Embodied Metal Hackathon on an SO-101 arm. Run these in order:

git clone https://github.com/mission-robotics-ai/so100-hackathon
`cd so100-hackathon`
`pixi install`
`pixi run learn`
`pixi run newt login`  # one team, one account — only the first teammate runs this

Finish line: `pixi install` succeeds, `pixi run newt models` returns, `localhost:3000` serves.

Do not browse documentation before the finish line passes; if a step fails, fetch https://missionrobotics.ai/hackers/troubleshooting.md and match the exact error.

1 · Install the kit with pixi

Install pixi, clone the kit, and install its environment.

curl -fsSL https://pixi.sh/install.sh | sh
git clone https://github.com/mission-robotics-ai/so100-hackathon
cd so100-hackathon
pixi install

That one pixi install sets up everything the recording half needs: the SO-101 arm driver and calibration, teleoperation, the Rerun viewer and recording tools, the kit's own local course site, and the newt CLI — New Theory's command-line client. It is the only install on the critical path. Open the local site to confirm it's live.

pixi run learn

You should see

pixi install finish without an error (a WARN Skipped running the post-link scripts line along the way is normal), and pixi run learn fetch its viewer assets, open a browser tab, and serve the kit's course site at http://localhost:3000 — the local instrument you'll record on in Drive and Record.

This guide has two halves. The kit, above, installs in one pass with pixi. The platform side is newt, New Theory's command-line tool — next.

Prefer to delegate the setup? Copy the agent prompt from the home page and paste it into any coding agent; it runs these steps for you. To set up by hand, continue below.

2 · Set up newt

New Theory is the platform half of this course: it fine-tunes the recordings you make with the kit into a working model, then serves that model back to you. newt is New Theory's command-line client — newt login gets your API key, newt models lists what's available, newt finetune launches and watches a training run. It's a separate install from the Python SDK (uv add), which the CLI doesn't bundle.

newt arrives with the kit's pixi install — run it as pixi run newt <command> from the kit repo, or pixi shell once and use newt bare.

The key authorizes every call the CLI makes on your behalf, from listing models to launching a fine-tune. Authenticate with the interactive pairing flow. On a team, share ONE account — only the first teammate should run this.

pixi run newt login

The command prints a URL and a pairing code. Open the URL, confirm the code matches the one in your terminal, and approve. Your credentials save to ~/.nt/credentials. If the machine has no browser, generate a key at the New Theory Console and export it instead.

export NT_API_KEY=your_key_here

You should see

, once you've logged in, pixi run newt models (or newt models after pixi shell) list the available models. This is the same registry the library reads when it picks the SO-101 base for you, so a healthy response here means the platform half is ready. If it errors instead, your key isn't set — retry pixi run newt login, or the console export above.

molmoact2  ft_base_molmoact2
    bimanual-yam         ft_molmoact2_yam
    so101                ft_6341c5_d13da9
    so101-pickplace-10k  ft_da1cc2_bd0960

pi05_aloha  ft_base_pi05_aloha

Fine-tunes you create appear above the families under your own account — a fresh account shows the families only.

your station is set up. Start driving the arm.