Agents > Xedant Agent > WSL Setup

WSL Setup

Don’t want to read all this?

Just drop a link to https://xedant.com/agents/agent/wsl.md or to https://xedant.com/llms.txt into any AI chat (Claude, ChatGPT, etc.) and ask it to generate the config files and commands. It will read the docs, ask you a few questions about your setup, and hand you a ready-to-use configuration. Save time — let the model do the reading for you.

You can also reach me on Telegram — I’m always glad to help. And that’s not just politeness — I genuinely enjoy talking to like-minded people, especially if you love coding as much as I do.

WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) is a Windows feature that runs Linux without a virtual machine or a reinstall. In plain words: you get a real Linux inside Windows, with the same commands and programs. For Xedant Agent it is a convenient way to run it in a Docker container on a Windows computer: the container fully isolates the program from the rest of the system, and everything runs at native Linux speed.

Windows 11

Windows 11 has WSL 2 built in — one command is enough, and the system does the rest. Open a terminal (PowerShell or Command Prompt) and run:

wsl --install

This command installs WSL 2 together with Ubuntu — a popular Linux distribution that plays the role of the environment. Restart the computer when the system asks you to. After the restart, Ubuntu opens on its own — all that remains is to pick a Linux username and password, like the first boot of a new computer.

Installing Docker

Now install Docker — the container technology Xedant Agent runs in. In the WSL terminal, run:

# Preparation (required helper programs)
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl

# Adding the Docker key and repository
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

# Installing Docker Engine
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose-plugin

# Starting Docker
sudo service docker start

# Add yourself to the docker group so you don't type sudo for every command
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

After joining the docker group, close and reopen the WSL terminal — that applies the change. Check that Docker works:

docker --version
docker compose version

Starting Xedant Agent

Create a folder for your project and follow the Docker Setup guide — it shows, step by step, how to configure and start Xedant Agent. You can open the project files from Windows too (the \\wsl$\Ubuntu\ path in Explorer) or from the WSL terminal — it is the same folder, just seen from two sides.

Windows 10

On Windows 10, WSL 2 needs one extra step — enabling the Virtual Machine Platform. Open PowerShell as administrator and run:

# Enable WSL
dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart

# Enable the Virtual Machine Platform (required for WSL 2)
dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart

Restart the computer, open PowerShell again and set WSL 2 as the default version:

wsl --set-default-version 2

Install Ubuntu from the Microsoft Store (search for “Ubuntu”) or run:

wsl --install -d Ubuntu

When it finishes installing, open Ubuntu and set a username and password. From there, follow the same Docker installation steps as for Windows 11 above.

Accessing the app

When Xedant Agent is running, open a browser in Windows and go to http://localhost:5001 (or whichever port you chose during setup). WSL 2 forwards ports into Windows automatically, so there is nothing extra to configure.

If the address won’t open for some reason, find the WSL IP address:

# In the WSL terminal
hostname -I

Then open http://<that-ip>:5001 in your Windows browser.

Useful tips

  • Where to keep project files — Windows drives are reachable from WSL at /mnt/c/, /mnt/d/ and so on. But for Docker speed, keep project files inside the WSL filesystem (for example in ~/projects/) rather than on Windows drives.
  • Start Docker automatically — to have Docker start whenever WSL opens, add sudo service docker start to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc.
  • Prefer a graphical interface? — if you’d rather manage Docker with the mouse, use Docker Desktop: see the Docker Desktop on Windows guide. Docker Desktop integrates with WSL 2 on its own, and the manual Docker installation from this section is not needed.

For the details of Docker configuration (compose files, environment variables, credentials) see the Docker Setup guide. To install through the native Windows installer, see the Windows Setup guide.