Quickstart

Get started with Better Hub in minutes

Welcome to Better Hub! This guide will help you get up and running quickly.

Choose your path

Use Better Hub

Start using Better Hub immediately — no installation required

Self-host

Deploy your own instance with full control

Getting started with Better Hub

1. Sign in with GitHub

   Visit better-hub.com and click Sign in with GitHub. You’ll be prompted to authorize Better Hub to access your GitHub account.

   Better Hub requires GitHub OAuth to access your repositories, issues, and pull requests. You can customize which repositories Better Hub can access during the OAuth flow.

2. Connect your repositories

   After signing in, you’ll see your GitHub dashboard with:

   • Recently viewed repositories
   • Your pinned repositories
   • Activity feed from your repositories
   • Contribution chart

   Click on any repository to explore it with Better Hub’s enhanced interface.

3. Explore a repository

   When viewing a repository, you’ll see:

   • README rendered with GitHub Flavored Markdown
   • File tree for easy navigation
   • Activity feed showing recent commits, PRs, and issues
   • Quick actions to view code, issues, PRs, and CI/CD

   Try pinning repositories you work with frequently using the pin icon.

4. Use Ghost AI assistant

   Press ⌘I (Mac) or Ctrl+I (Windows/Linux) to open Ghost, your AI assistant. Ghost is context-aware and can help you:

   • Review pull requests
   • Explain code
   • Generate commit messages
   • Triage issues
   • Navigate your codebase

   Ghost understands the page you’re on. Open it on a PR to get PR-specific assistance, or on a code file to get code explanations.

5. Try the command center

   Press ⌘K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) to open the command center. Use it to:

   • Search repositories, issues, and pull requests
   • Navigate anywhere quickly
   • Switch themes and appearance
   • Access settings
   • Pin/unpin pages

   The command center is your hub for all actions in Better Hub.

Key features to explore

Pull Requests

Review PRs with inline diffs, AI summaries, and threaded comments

Issues

Triage and manage issues with advanced filtering and sorting

CI/CD Status

View workflow runs, compare branches, and track build status

Keyboard Shortcuts

Master keyboard shortcuts for maximum productivity

Configure AI models (self-hosted)

If you’re self-hosting Better Hub, Ghost requires AI API keys to be configured.

For hosted Better Hub at better-hub.com, AI features are available out of the box. You can optionally bring your own API keys in settings.

For self-hosted setups:

1. Get an OpenRouter API key for Ghost’s primary model
2. Get an Anthropic API key for specific AI tasks
3. Add them to your .env file:

OPEN_ROUTER_API_KEY=your_open_router_api_key
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_anthropic_api_key

See the AI Models configuration guide for detailed setup and model selection.

Install browser extension

Enhance your GitHub experience by installing the Better Hub browser extension. It adds an “Open in Better Hub” button to GitHub pages.

Chrome Extension

Install for Chrome and Chromium-based browsers

Firefox Extension

Install for Firefox

Next steps

Core Features

Learn about all the features Better Hub offers

Configuration

Customize your Better Hub instance

API Reference

Integrate with Better Hub’s API

Contributing

Contribute to Better Hub development