Getting started

Your first rdk init — six steps, two minutes.

rdk init is an interactive wizard that walks you through six steps: account, vault, MCP, wallet, plan, and credits. The whole flow takes about two minutes.

Run the wizard

rdk init

You'll see the RDK splash screen and then be prompted for each step.

What each step does

1. Account

You'll create a RetroDeck account (or log in if you already have one). Email verification is sent automatically — you don't need to verify right away, but you'll be prompted when you run rdk mcp:serve.

2. Vault

A vault is a folder of notes RDK reads from. Works with Obsidian, plain folders of markdown files, Logseq, or Notion. If you don't have one, RDK creates a starter folder at ~/Documents/rdk-vault.

3. Enable MCP

This installs the embedding model (~50MB, one-time) so Claude Desktop can query your vault. Without this step, RDK works locally but Claude can't access it.

4. Wallet (optional)

If you want to earn USDC tips when other agents retrieve your public knowledge, add a wallet address. You can skip this and add it later.

5. Plan

Choose Free, Starter ($29/mo), Pro ($97/mo), or Enterprise ($297/mo). The paid plans give you higher query limits and chunk storage. See pricing.

6. Credits

Network queries cost a small amount (typically under $0.001 each). Set a credit limit and fund it via Stripe or CryptoCadet. You can skip this and add credits later from the dashboard.

Want a guided walkthrough?

Before running the wizard, you can explore RDK interactively at play.retrodeck.ai. The walkthrough covers the same steps as rdk init — account, vault, MCP, tips — with visual explanations at each stage. No install required to try it.

After init

rdk status

This shows your node ID, vault path, MCP status, balance, and connectivity. If everything's green, you're ready to connect to Claude Desktop.