Guys, it is official: I am too stupid, I need your help, please!

[jlacour-git]

To start: @danielmiessler, this is not to complain! I very much admire and appreciate the work you do and would love to learn and use it. I just can't get it up and running, and I am hoping for some help.

Just as background: I work in IT since 30+ years, including development. So I thought I should be able to get PAI up and running. I overestimated myself, it seems. And we are talking about MacOS.

Last year, I got PAI 1.x up and running. One update showed an amazing number of changes..ups...checked, and sure enough, that was the new architecture. Since I did not change too much, I started a fresh install. Did work somewhat, but not really. And at some point, after updates, PAI was not PAI anymore, but plain Claude.

So I checked here again, saw the bundle info and decided to install really fresh again. I removed PAI, .claude etc., started in ~, did git clone, changed dir to .../Bundles/Official and ran bun run install.ts.

Seemed to work, asked the questions and installed. But it did not guide me through pack installation. Hmm. Started claude...and claude is just claude, not my DA. I tried bun run install.ts --update. Did not do much, did not find any packs. Hmm.

So I thought "it is a bundle with packs, so I would assume they are installed...but maybe not". I ran the installation using claude for all packs in order as listed. Took me more than one hour and used up quite a few API tokens. Puh.

Full of hope, I do /exit, claude and...nothing. Claude tells me " SessionStart:startup hook error" and no DA in sight.

This is now my fourth attempt to get it PAI up and running, but it seems I am just not good enough to understand the procedure for a fresh install. Can anyone of you guys maybe point me to what I am doing wrong? There were no errors, every pack verification was ok. Claude is up to date, as is MacOS. I really have no idea anymore what I can do.

I am fine for now with the complete bundle, thinking that should be the easiest way. But I am also fine with other approaches if these are more manageable for a rookie.

[danielmiessler]

I'm like 60 hours into the next version, 2.3, which will address tons of these issues. And we just brought on someone to help on the release professionalization side. Things will be improving VERY soon! Thank you for the feedback. Daniel

…

On Thu, Jan 15, 2026 at 10:11 AM, jlacour-git < ***@***.*** > wrote: To start: @ danielmiessler ( https://github.com/danielmiessler ) , this is not to complain! I very much admire and appreciate the work you do and would love to learn and use it. I just can't get it up and running, and I am hoping for some help. Just as background: I work in IT since 30+ years, including development. So I thought I should be able to get PAI up and running. I overestimated myself, it seems. And we are talking about MacOS. Last year, I got PAI 1.x up and running. One update showed an amazing number of changes..ups...checked, and sure enough, that was the new architecture. Since I did not change too much, I started a fresh install. Did work somewhat, but not really. And at some point, after updates, PAI was not PAI anymore, but plain Claude. So I checked here again, saw the bundle info and decided to install really fresh again. I removed PAI, .claude etc., started in ~, did git clone, changed dir to .../Bundles/Official and ran bun run install.ts. Seemed to work, asked the questions and installed. But it did not guide me through pack installation. Hmm. Started claude...and claude is just claude, not my DA. I tried bun run install.ts --update. Did not do much, did not find any packs. Hmm. So I thought "it is a bundle with packs, so I would assume they are installed...but maybe not". I ran the installation using claude for all packs in order as listed. Took me more than one hour and used up quite a few API tokens. Puh. Full of hope, I do /exit, claude and...nothing. Claude tells me " SessionStart:startup hook error" and no DA in sight. This is now my fourth attempt to get it PAI up and running, but it seems I am just not good enough to understand the procedure for a fresh install. Can anyone of you guys maybe point me to what I am doing wrong? There were no errors, every pack verification was ok. Claude is up to date, as is MacOS. I really have no idea anymore what I can do. I am fine for now with the complete bundle, thinking that should be the easiest way. But I am also fine with other approaches if these are more manageable for a rookie. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub ( #409 ) , or unsubscribe ( https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAAMLXQYGLMWEVFKWOUSCXT4G7J63AVCNFSM6AAAAACR2LRCF2VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43ERDJONRXK43TNFXW4OZZGM2DSMJWHA ). You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Message ID: <danielmiessler/Personal_AI_Infrastructure/repo-discussions/409 @ github. com>

[saisat]

I had the exact experience to that of @jlacour-git last night (India time) except for 1 difference. I did not even see the "startup hook error". So I don't even know if CC is trying to load the PAI system.
@danielmiessler really appreciate what you are doing here. While I am super excited to experiment with PAI for my own DA, I am patient too ;)

[danielmiessler]

The new version and do the base regular install. Make a copy of your directory and put it in the new Claude directory, then migrate yourself over. I think you will love it.

[danielmiessler]

Thanks for hanging in there — the v3.0 installer (at install.sh in the repo root) is a huge step up from the manual process you experienced. It handles all the setup, key configuration, and validation automatically. Give it a try and open a fresh discussion if you hit any snags.