---
title: "What happens during setup"
description: "What Modeinspect does between Continue and your first canvas, and when it stops to ask you something."
url: https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/17-what-happens-during-setup
collection: "Set up your codebase"
updated: 2026-10-29
language: en
---

# What happens during setup

What Modeinspect does between Continue and your first canvas, and when it stops to ask you something.

After you click **Continue**, Modeinspect installs your codebase in a dev environment it hosts, starts it, and ends on **Create Canvas**. The card says **Setup usually takes 2-5 minutes.** You can leave the page: the codebase stays listed under **CODEBASES** in the sidebar until setup is done.

![The Codebase setup card with the line Setup usually takes 2-5 minutes and a progress bar](https://staticfiles.gleap.io/p6a1872808f187689a3937fa3/rRcPIQqGGSh2cF0zxeYmhslxGQCgEhgf1cCYCEAQp5s6pHWc7X32ZoGs5JcFemVhqBH6rDGX1kF.png)

## How it fits

Setup first checks that the project is React or Next.js with Tailwind. Then it installs dependencies and runs the project's own dev command. When that is enough, the page changes to **You're all set!**.

When the plain install and start are not enough, Auto-setup takes over and the page becomes a log. The panel **Auto-setup is running in sandbox** shows what the agent reads, which commands it runs, and each step it records. Auto-setup changes configuration files it needs, such as `.env` files. It never edits your application code.

Auto-setup stops when it needs something only you know: an API key, a connection string, a configuration file, or a choice between options. The panel then reads **Auto-setup needs your input**, and setup waits until you answer. See [Answer Auto-setup's questions](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/10-answer-auto-setup-questions.md).

Once the agent is done, **Verifying codebase** replays the recorded steps on a clean copy of your code. If the replay fails, you get the setup config to fix, as in [Review and verify the setup config](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/14-review-and-verify-the-setup-config.md). If it passes, the card reads **You're all set!** and **Create Canvas** opens your first canvas on the running app.

If you do not know the answers setup asks for, click **Send to coworker** at the top of the page. It gives you a link and a message to pass to an engineer, who signs up and continues from where you left off.

## What it does not do

-   It does not start databases or other services. When the app needs one, Auto-setup asks you for a hosted connection string.
    
-   It does not change your application code, and it does not commit anything to your repository.
    
-   It does not set up codebases outside React and Next.js with Tailwind.
    

## Next

-   [Answer Auto-setup's questions](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/10-answer-auto-setup-questions.md)
    
-   [Review and verify the setup config](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/14-review-and-verify-the-setup-config.md)
    
-   [Edit a codebase's secrets](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/12-edit-secrets.md)
    
-   [Connect a GitHub repository](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/11-connect-a-github-repository.md)

## Related

- [Connect a GitHub repository](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/11-connect-a-github-repository.md)
- [Upload a codebase as a zip](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/16-upload-a-codebase-as-a-zip.md)
- [Start from a blank codebase](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/15-start-from-a-blank-codebase.md)
- [Answer Auto-setup's questions](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/10-answer-auto-setup-s-questions.md)
- [Review and verify the setup config](https://help.modeinspect.com/en/articles/14-review-and-verify-the-setup-config.md)