Quick Start

Delta’s built-in Welcome to Delta thread teaches the basic controls. This guide begins where that introduction ends and puts those controls to work on a real project.

By the end, you will have a small, reviewed change in a separate workspace. The change stays separate from your original project files until you decide to bring it in.

Prerequisites

Before you begin:

• Install Delta, sign in, and connect a model.
• Follow the Welcome to Delta introduction through its final prompt to open a terminal.
• Choose an existing Git repository with a configured remote. Use its top-level folder, not a folder inside it. If it has several remotes, one must be named origin. See Git remote setup.

Open your project

1. Click Add Project in the sidebar.
2. Choose the top-level folder of the Git repository.
3. If Projects Sync to the Cloud appears, review the notice and click Continue.

Delta opens the project in a thread automatically.

You can also choose Open Git Project… from the command palette to select the Git repository’s folder.

Before sending, check the project menu for the checkout and branch. A new thread can inherit your choice to work in an existing local checkout; the empty composer tells you when it does. See Delta Worktrees.

For this Quick Start, open the project menu and, under Work In, select Isolated Delta Worktree. This gives the thread a separate copy of the project’s files.

You should now see the project attached to the thread with Isolated Delta Worktree selected.

Make a change

The agent may send relevant messages and file contents to your model provider. On a desktop, it can also use tools and resources available to your operating-system account. Isolated Delta Worktree separates this thread’s project changes; it does not sandbox the agent. Read AI Privacy & Telemetry and Agentic Safety.

Send this message:

Fetch https://delta.dev/docs/start.md and guide me through my first Delta
project task.

The agent helps you choose a small, useful change and agree on how to check that it works. If you’re unsure where to begin, it can inspect your project and suggest a few options. It then explains its plan, edits the relevant files, and checks the result.

View the instructions the agent follows.

Review and refine

When the first pass is ready:

1. Click the diff icon in the upper-right corner to open the Changes panel.
2. Select the file the agent named to open a before-and-after view.
3. Select a line or passage you want changed or explained, then start typing to add a comment.
4. Submit the comment. You should see it attached to the selected text.
5. Let the agent respond. If you asked for a change, it will revise the file and check the result again.

If you cannot add an inline comment, send the same feedback as a normal message. If the change already looks right, use the comment to ask the agent to explain part of it. This gives you a chance to try commenting without requesting a revision.

You are finished when the result meets the success check you agreed on and the agent has addressed your comment. The request, project files, feedback, and any revisions remain together in the thread, while the change stays in its isolated Delta worktree.

What you just used

When you are ready, bring the change into your project or invite someone into the thread.