Setup instructions - do I miss something

[graebema]

I started installing in a clean env without an existing "~/.claude" directory
Following strictly the instructions, I cloned the repo into ~/.claude
This results in having a "~/.claude/.claude/" directory structure. After running the setup and pointing all env vars to their default, eg. "PAI_DIR=~/.claude" some things are copied to $PAI_DIR.
Claude runs only successfully when executed from ~/.claude/.claude/ location. But all further instructions reference ~/.claude/ eg. .env files and so on. Is this a glitch or I am supposed to manually copy all things I want to use in the ~/.claude directory myself?

• how did you successfully install this?
• from which location do you run claude?

[jlpedersen]

After spending the last several hours with this problem, I think have it working now.

Here is what I did (assuming you're using default ~/.claude as install directory:

1. Remove incomplete installs "rm -rf ~/.claude"
2. I created a new install directory instead of the weird nested ~/.claude/.claude. "mkdir ~/install"
3. Clone his repo: "cd ~/install" and then "git clone https://github.com/danielmiessler/PAI.git" which puts it in ~/install/PAI
4. Then I cp that .claude into my target install folder: "cd PAI" and then "cp -r .claude ~/.claude/"
5. Copy and update your .env files as instructions mention.
6. Check your environment variables: "cat ~/.bashrc" You should see the settings that the installer was trying to set for you like export PAI_DIR and Export DA.
7. Restart your session or do a source on your .bashrc.
8. Here is the part that took me forever. Go edit the settings.json file. "nano ~/.claude/settings.json" In the env: area, you need to have PAI_DIR and DA filled out. They should match your environmental variables in your .bashrc. Once I did that, everything worked.

Hope that helps!!!

[graebema]

Thanks a lot, that helped. looks like updating the settings.json and copying all the stuff manually is the magic and that is missing in the install guide. @danielmiessler FYI

[graebema]

Also looks like this open feature request regarding env vars in settings.json for Claude Code would solve things: anthropics/claude-code#4276

[0fflineDocs]

https://github.com/jlpedersen thank you. I did an installation before when the symlink was included and when PAI_DIR was not dynamic. Worked easily, but now... very frustrating but thanks a lot for this instruction. Step 8. surely was causing it to fail!

[linardsb]

Hey, wouldn't rm -rf ~/.claude clear up the settings?

⏺ I should warn you that ~/.claude contains all of your Claude Code configuration, history, session data, and other important files. Deleting it will remove:
  - Your conversation history
  - Session environments
  - Project configurations
  - Stats and debug data
  - All Claude Code settings

  If you want to clone the PAI repository, I'd recommend using a different location instead, like:
  - ~/PAI
  - ~/.pai
  - Or any other directory name

  Would you still like to proceed with removing ~/.claude, or would you prefer to clone PAI to a different location?

[evenromo]

"~/.claude/.claude/"

Youre not supposed to have nested .claude directories. All folders and files you have inside ~/.claude/.claude should live in ~/.claude.

[graebema]

As I have it up and running now, I let Claude check the mcp configuration. Do you replaces these ones in your setup?

PAI output:
STORY EXPLANATION:

1. You asked about MCP servers connecting to danielmiessler.com
2. I reviewed the MCP configuration to identify all danielmiessler-related servers
3. Found 2 servers connecting directly to danielmiessler.com subdomains
4. These are daemon (at mcp.daemon.danielmiessler.com) and Foundry (at api.danielmiessler.com)
5. Also found 3 additional servers on danielmiessler.workers.dev (Cloudflare Workers)
6. Workers.dev is technically a different domain but related to Daniel's infrastructure
7. So depending on interpretation: 2 servers for strict danielmiessler.com domain match
8. Or 5 servers total if including the Cloudflare Workers deployments under danielmiessler namespace

COMPLETED: 2 MCP servers connect to danielmiessler.com domain; 5 if including workers.dev

[danielmiessler]

Please refer to this major change coming to the repo that should address your issues. If it doesn't please resubmit. Thank you for the work!

#222