Getting Started

This guide is the fastest safe path from signup to a stable publishing workflow.

Before You Begin

Prepare:

• One primary owner account.
• Team member emails.
• Publication name and branding assets.
• One test topic for first publish.
• A basic internal approval process.

Step 1: Create Your Workspace

1. Sign up and verify your email.
2. Create or select your workspace.
3. Confirm the workspace URL slug and dashboard access.

Tip:

Use one workspace per team or publication unit. Avoid mixing unrelated teams in one workspace.

Step 2: Invite Team and Assign Roles

1. Invite core team members.
2. Assign roles intentionally (owner/admin/member).
3. Confirm each invitee can access the correct workspace.

Tip:

Keep owner count low and use admins for daily operations.

Step 3: Configure Baseline Quality Controls

Before producing volume:

• Create initial personas.
• Enable at least one guard rail.
• Confirm categories and publishing defaults.
• Add a small starter Knowledge Graph set.

Step 4: Run Your First Content Cycle

Choose one path:

Fast Path

1. Generate in PromptPress.
2. Edit and save draft.
3. Finalize in ContentVault.
4. Publish.

Structured Path

1. Create workflow in Studio.
2. Run the workflow for a real topic.
3. Review outputs in ReleaseDeck.
4. Finalize in ContentVault.
5. Publish.

Step-by-Step: First Article in Production

Use this exact sequence for a safe first publish:

1. Open PromptPress and create a draft from your real topic.
2. Edit headline, opening paragraph, and key claims manually.
3. Save draft and open it in ContentVault.
4. Confirm category, tags, and visibility settings.
5. Publish.
6. Open your public site and verify the article renders correctly.

Expected result:

• One published article visible on the live site.
• One draft-to-publish path validated for your team.

Step-by-Step: First Article After Checking a Workflow

Use this path when you have already run a workflow in Studio and want to move the output through review into a published article.

1. Open Studio and start a run on an existing workflow, or create a workflow and start a run.
2. Wait for the run to complete. A notification or status indicator updates when it finishes.
3. Open ReleaseDeck and find the run output.
4. Review each article candidate: check the headline, body accuracy, category tag, and featured image.
5. Approve items that are ready to publish. Reject or queue revisions for items that need work.
6. Open an approved item in ContentVault (the approved item link opens directly into ContentVault).
7. Make any final edits — headline refinements, source attribution, tags.
8. Confirm category, visibility, and scheduling options.
9. Click Publish.
10. Open your public site and verify the article route renders correctly at the expected URL.

Expected result:

• Workflow → ReleaseDeck → ContentVault → publish loop worked end-to-end.
• Published article visible publicly on the live site.

Step-by-Step: First Campaign-Driven Publish

Use this when your team plans to publish repeatedly:

1. Create a campaign and link it to a workflow.
2. Start a run in Studio.
3. Review run outputs in ReleaseDeck.
4. Move approved output to ContentVault for final edit.
5. Publish.
6. Document what worked and what needs tuning.

Expected result:

• Campaign, workflow, review, and publish loop proven end-to-end.

Step 5: Configure Site Delivery

1. Open Site settings and confirm branding/language.
2. Validate templates in Site Builder.
3. Check navigation and key page routes.
4. Publish site changes.

Optional:

Configure custom domain once baseline pages are stable.

Step-by-Step: Request Domain Verification

Custom domains are verified through Cloudflare. You submit the domain in Site Settings; the platform generates DNS records; you add those records to your registrar; the platform confirms the connection.

1. Open Site → Site Settings.
2. Enter your custom domain (e.g. news.yourcompany.com) in the Domain field.
3. Click Save Settings. The platform registers the domain and generates verification records.
4. In the Custom Domain Status panel, click Retrieve details if CNAME/TXT records are not yet shown.
5. Copy the CNAME Name and CNAME Target values. If only TXT records are shown, copy TXT Name and TXT Value instead.
6. Log in to your domain registrar (e.g. Namecheap, GoDaddy, Cloudflare) and add exactly those DNS records.
7. Return to Site Settings and click Check connection. Status changes to active once propagation is complete — this can take up to 48 hours depending on your registrar.
8. If the status remains pending after 24 hours, contact the platform admin with your domain name and workspace slug. They can apply a manual CNAME bypass through the admin panel.

Note: If the CNAME panel shows "Manual DNS Setup Required," the admin has pre-configured records for you — follow the instructions shown in the alert, do not re-enter a different CNAME.

Step 6: Verify Billing and Credits

1. Confirm plan state.
2. Confirm available credits.
3. Confirm billing owner access.
4. Run one paid flow end-to-end to validate.

Step-by-Step: If You Hit Plan or Credit Blocks

1. Check billing page in the same workspace where you are working.
2. Confirm active plan tier.
3. Confirm available credits.
4. Retry the blocked action in that same workspace.
5. If still blocked, verify user role and module access.

First Week Checklist

• Team invites accepted and roles verified.
• One workflow executed successfully.
• One persona and one guard rail active.
• One article published and visible publicly.
• Site template flow validated.
• Billing and credit checks documented.

Common Setup Mistakes

• Over-assigning owner access.
• Skipping quality controls before first publish.
• Running workflows without role/approval clarity.
• Publishing major layout and content changes together.

Next Steps

• Workspaces and Roles
• Content Creation
• Workflows and Agents
• Troubleshooting