> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ainomos.ch/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Quickstart

> Go from a new organisation to its first answer with sources: sign up, run the setup assistant, invite people, add documents and ask.

This page takes a new organisation on Ainomos cloud from sign-up to its first answer with sources. The last section explains what is different when your company runs Ainomos on its own infrastructure.

Who can do this: the person who creates the organisation. That person becomes its first administrator, with the **Platform admin** role and ownership of the top room.

## What a new organisation gets

| | What you get |
| - | - |
| **Address** | `your-company.ainomos.ch`, made from the organisation name. It cannot change later. |
| **Models** | The chat models Ainomos provides, paid from a one-time starter credit. |
| **Rooms** | One per department, named during setup. |
| **Sign-in** | Ainomos accounts for the people you invite. You can connect Entra ID, Okta or any OpenID Connect provider later. |

The starter credit is one amount for the whole organisation and all the platform's chat models. On Ainomos cloud it is currently 10 USD, and the sign-up page shows the current figure. It is set for the whole installation, so an organisation cannot change it. It is not monthly, is not topped up, and searching your documents does not use it. When it is spent, chat on the platform's models stops until you connect a chat model with your own API key, which you can do at any time. See [Connect a model](https://docs.ainomos.ch/models/connect-a-model.md).

## Create the organisation

**1. Fill in the sign-up form**

Open the Ainomos cloud address, choose **Create an organisation**, fill in the form and choose **Create organisation**.

| Field | What it does |
| - | - |
| **Organisation name** | Names your organisation and becomes its address, which is fixed once created. |
| **Your email address** | Becomes the first administrator's sign-in. Each address can create one organisation. |
| **Organisation language** | **English** or **Deutsch**. Ainomos writes rules, proposals and drafts in this language. You can change it later under **Settings**, then **Content language**. |

Ainomos emails you a confirmation link. It works once and is valid for 24 hours.

**2. Open the link**

Opening the link creates the organisation. The page names its address and offers **Go to sign-in**. A second email brings your sign-in address and a temporary password.

**3. Sign in**

Sign in at your organisation's address and choose your own password. The temporary one stops working. Ainomos then opens the setup assistant.

> [!NOTE]
>
> When new organisations join by invitation, the start page says **Joining is by invitation**. Open the link in your invitation email instead. **Set up your organisation** shows the address, your sign-in and what is **Included**. Check the **Organisation name** and choose **Create organisation**. From there it goes on as in step 2, with an email that brings your temporary password.

## The setup assistant

The assistant has three steps, and each one is saved as you leave it. It runs once per organisation. If you stop partway, it resumes where you left off.

**1. Your organisation**

**Company name** comes from your sign-up. It names your top room and appears across the app. You can change it here, and the address stays as it is.

**2. Your workspace**

Both parts are optional and can change later.

* **Quick start**: pick a colour template for buttons and highlights, or **Leave as it is**. A line below says whether all text stays easy to read.
* **Departments**: the tree starts with Engineering and Operations. Rename or remove them, or add your own, up to eight. **+ room** adds a room under another one, up to three levels deep, as a **Department**, **Team**, **Project** or **Special** room.

Rules set in a room apply in every room below it, so the shape of the tree matters. Membership does not pass down: a member of a department is not automatically a member of its teams. The rooms start in data class C1, internal. See [data classes](https://docs.ainomos.ch/privacy/data-classes.md).

**3. Your models and sign-in**

Nothing to set up. Under **Included** you see the platform's chat models: the first is the default in every room, the others are in the model picker. **Starter credit** shows how much is used. **Team sign-in** says your people sign in with the Ainomos accounts you invite, and **Open identity settings** leads to [Identity & SSO](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/identity-and-sso.md) if you want company sign-in. Choose **Finish**.

The last screen lists the rooms created, the starter credit, and under **Still open** what to do next. Choose **Go to the app**.

## From setup to the first answer

**1. Add the rooms you still need**

Optional. Open the room switcher at the top of the sidebar, choose **New Room**, and give the room a name and a one-line purpose. Who can do this: platform admins and owners of the parent room. Other members send a room request. See [Rooms](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/rooms.md).

**2. Invite people**

Open **Settings**, then **Users**, and choose **Invite user**. Enter the email address and name, the **Language of the invitation** and, under **Rooms**, the rooms the person joins. Choose **Send invitation**. The person gets an email with a setup link. Who can do this: platform admins. See [Users](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/users.md).

**3. Add the first documents**

Pick a room in the room switcher, open **Knowledge**, then **Import**, and drop PDF, Word or Markdown files. Ainomos reads them and sorts what it finds. Passages for answers are ready at once; rules, decision drafts and exceptions wait for a person to approve them. Who can do this: owners and curators of the room. See [Import documents](https://docs.ainomos.ch/import/documents.md).

**4. Ask the first question**

Choose **New conversation**, type a question about your documents into **Ask this room …** and choose **Send**. The answer names its sources and the rules it followed. Who can do this: members of the room. See [Asking questions](https://docs.ainomos.ch/chat/asking-questions.md).

## When Ainomos runs on your own infrastructure

Here sign-up is switched off: the start page says **Sign-up is not available**. The team that installs Ainomos signs in with the installation's emergency administrator account and runs the same setup assistant, which then asks more:

* **Your organisation** also asks for the **Administrator e-mail**. That person becomes the first administrator: **Platform admin** and owner of the top room.

* **How will your people sign in?** decides where accounts live:

  | Option | What it does |
  | - | - |
  | **We already have an identity provider** | Nothing is created. You connect your provider in the last step, and the administrator signs in through it. |
  | **Set up a sign-in directory for us** | Ainomos creates accounts for the organisation, starting with the administrator, whose temporary password the assistant shows once. Where the installation has one fixed directory, this option reads **Use the sign-in directory this installation was given**. |

* **Your workspace** adds **Where people connect from**: **Only inside the company network** offers only apps on a person's own computer, **Also from the internet** also offers apps that call from their own cloud.

* **Models and sign-in** asks for your own models: at least one chat model and exactly one embedding model, each tested before it is accepted. Changing the embedding model later means reading every document again. You can set a **Monthly cap for the root room (USD)** and try a question under **Ask it something**, or choose **Finish without models**. The sign-in part is the [Identity & SSO](https://docs.ainomos.ch/admin/identity-and-sso.md) panel, and you can skip it.

Everyone else joins by invitation under **Settings**, then **Users**, or signs in with their company account once your identity provider is active.

## Related

* [Key concepts](https://docs.ainomos.ch/get-started/concepts.md)
* [Finding your way](https://docs.ainomos.ch/get-started/finding-your-way.md)
* [Signing in](https://docs.ainomos.ch/get-started/signing-in.md)
* [Usage and budgets](https://docs.ainomos.ch/models/usage-and-budgets.md)


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.