---
name: hotel-setup
description: Install Hotel, connect its MCP server, and follow its quote rule
---

# Hotel setup

You are setting up Hotel for the user: a terminal notebook (the lobby) with an append-only record (the Reg). Follow these steps in order.

## Step 1: Check requirements

Hotel needs Python 3.12 or later and `git`.

```bash
python3 --version
git --version
```

## Step 2: Install

Ask the user where the lobby should live (default `~/lobby`), then:

```bash
git clone https://github.com/Desto2000/hotel.git && cd hotel
scripts/install.sh ~/lobby
```

On Windows PowerShell use `./scripts/install.ps1 -LobbyDir ~\lobby`. The installed tool is a pinned copy; re-run the script after pulling new code.

## Step 3: API keys (the user does this, not you)

Hotel needs `EXA_API_KEY` (web search) and `INCEPTION_API_KEY` (the Mercury model). `PARALLEL_API_KEY` and `GROQ_API_KEY` are optional. Do not ask for keys or handle them yourself. Tell the user to run this in their own terminal:

```bash
hotel setup
```

It reads each key hidden, checks it against the provider, and stores it outside the lobby. Then check the result:

```bash
hotel doctor
```

`doctor` should report `[ok  ]` for git, the hotel home and the lobby. Missing keys show as `warn`.

## Step 4: Connect the MCP server

```bash
claude mcp add hotel -- hotel mcp                                    # Claude Code
```

```json
"amp.mcpServers": {"hotel": {"command": "hotel", "args": ["mcp"]}}
```

```json
{"mcpServers": {"hotel": {"command": "hotel", "args": ["mcp"]}}}
```

The second is Amp's `settings.json`; the third is Claude Desktop or Cursor. The user may need to restart their client.

## Step 5: The quote rule

Hotel's tools are `lobby_directory`, `lobby_search`, `read_entries`, `web_search`, `deep_research`, `fetch`, `annotate`, `propose` and `review_queue`.

- After `web_search`, `deep_research` or `fetch`, every other tool is refused until you call `annotate` for that result.
- An annotation is one or more claims, each with a quote copied from the stored text. Do not paraphrase the quote; Hotel searches for it and rejects quotes it cannot find.
- If the result was useless, annotate it with no claims.
- You never write to the lobby. `propose` places changes in a review queue; the user approves them with `/approve R:n`.

## Step 6: Suggest a first run

Suggest the user open the TUI with `hotel` and follow the tutorial: https://github.com/Desto2000/hotel/blob/master/TUTORIAL.md