Jane

Get started

Pick the path that fits you. All three set up the same app.

1. The easy way: the Jane bot template

If you use Grok Bot, this is the fastest start. The template comes with the teaching rules, the nightly lesson routine and a first-run setup chat.

  1. Open the template and make your Jane bot: make a Jane bot.
  2. Answer its questions one at a time: your kid's first name or nickname, age and grade, where Jane should run (on the bot's own computer or somewhere you choose, like Cloudflare), how your kid will reach it, and your time zone.
  3. It installs Jane and sends you two links: one for your kid and one for the parent report.
  4. Have your kid play a first session (10 to 15 minutes). That night the bot writes the first quest.

Make a Jane bot

2. Point your own AI agent at the repo

Any agent that can run small Node.js programs on a schedule can do this. The repo has a guide written just for the agent, BOT-SETUP.md. Tell your agent something like:

Read BOT-SETUP.md in github.com/kentlangley/Jane and set up Jane for my kid. Ask me your questions one at a time, and only message me at night if something needs my attention.

3. Do it yourself

For folks comfortable with a terminal. You'll need Node.js 22 or newer (or Docker). Full details are in INSTALL.md.

Docker

Set your kid's nickname, age and grade in docker-compose.yml, then:

git clone https://github.com/kentlangley/Jane.git jane
cd jane
docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:8787.

Node on your computer

git clone https://github.com/kentlangley/Jane.git jane
cd jane
npm install
LEARNER_NAME=Sam npm start

Open http://localhost:8787. Add LEARNER_AGE and LEARNER_GRADE too.

Cloudflare (free plan)

Create a storage space called JANE_KV, copy wrangler.toml.example to wrangler.toml, fill in your own IDs (that file stays off GitHub), then run ./deploy.sh. Step by step: INSTALL.md, option C.

Then each night, you (or a helper) run the nightly cycle: export the day, write a quest, check it, publish it. It's explained in How the nightly cycle works. If you skip a night, Jane keeps working with its built-in questions and reviews.

Docs for technical folks