---
title: Quickstart
description: Create a workspace, add your first rules from documents you already have, ask a question, and connect an AI tool — in about fifteen minutes.
---

<span class="vy-eyebrow">Get started</span>

# Quickstart

By the end of this page you'll have a workspace holding two or three real
rules, an answer that quotes them, and an AI tool that receives them while you
write.

Have ready: a **rate card**, and one more document your team works from — brand
guidelines, your terms, or how you run a project. They can be in Google Drive,
in Notion, or on your computer.

## 1. Create your workspace

Sign up with your name, work email, a name for the workspace and a password of
at least eight characters. Whoever creates the workspace is its **owner**, and
the owner is the person who adds and retires rules.

::: tip One workspace per agency
Your whole team — and every client you work for — lives in one workspace.
Clients are not separate accounts; they're a scope inside your Playbook. See
[Clients and scope](/concepts/clients).
:::

## 2. Say what you do

The first screen asks for your organisation name, what you do, a one-paragraph
description and the kinds of client you work with.

This isn't a rule — nothing is held to it. It's your workspace's description
of itself, and it travels with every question your team's AI tools ask, so they
know whose work they're doing. Everyone in the workspace gets it; only the owner
changes it, in **Settings**. You can skip it and fill it in later.

## 3. Add your first rule

The second screen asks for a document. Upload your rate card — PDF, Word,
Markdown, a spreadsheet, or any [format Vythos reads](/reference/file-formats).

Vythos reads it and shows you the same card you'll see whenever you add a rule:

- **What it governs** — pick a category. For a rate card that's *Pricing &
  rates*. ([Categories](/concepts/categories))
- **Which client is it for?** — leave it on *Every client* for a house rate
  card. ([Clients and scope](/concepts/clients))
- **The values Vythos read** — any figures it recognised, such as payment terms
  or a day rate. Tick *These values are right* only if they are. A confirmed
  value is one your AI tools are held to; an unconfirmed one is advisory.
  ([Values](/concepts/values))
- **Read the document** — shows the exact text Vythos took from the file. Worth
  a look the first time, so you can see what a tool will be working from.

Choose *Add to Playbook*. That document is now a rule, at version 1.

## 4. Connect where your documents live

Go to **Sources** and connect Google Drive, Notion, or both. Two things happen:

- You can add rules by **pointing at files where they already live** — no
  uploading, and no copy to keep in step.
- Everything in the folders you sync goes into your memory, so Ask can answer
  from briefs and notes as well as from rules.

Uploading works perfectly well on its own. But a rule added from Drive or
Notion updates itself when you edit the document, which is the part people
come back for.

See [Google Drive](/sources/google-drive) and [Notion](/sources/notion).

## 5. Add a second rule from the document where it lives

Open **Playbook** and choose **Add rule**. Two ways in:

- **Paste a link** — the URL of a Google Doc, Sheet, Slide, Drive file or
  Notion page. Any normal link from the address bar or a Share button works.
- **Choose from your sources** — browse Drive folders (My Drive and Shared
  with me, with search), Notion pages, or the files you've uploaded.

Then the same card as before: what it governs, which client, values, and — if
this document replaces one already in force — a tick to say so.

Add your brand guidelines this way, under *Brand & voice*.

## 6. Ask something

Open **Ask** and try the question you'd actually ask a colleague:

- "What are our payment terms?"
- "What's our minimum project fee?"
- "Summarise our brand voice"

Answers cite the rules they used. Where a rule and an older document disagree,
the rule wins and Vythos says so, which is usually the moment you find a stale
note worth fixing. Follow up as you would with a colleague — *"and for a half
day?"* — and the conversation is kept, so a reload loses nothing. See
[Ask](/using-vythos/ask).

## 7. Connect an AI tool

This is the part that changes how work feels. Open **AI tools**, create a key,
and follow the snippet for your tool — Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor,
Windsurf or anything else that speaks MCP.

From then on, your tool can:

- ask for the rules that apply to a task, with client rules ranked above house
  defaults;
- check a draft against the rules it was given, before it goes out;
- record what it followed, so you can see which rules are actually being used.

Step-by-step instructions per tool: [Connect a tool](/ai-tools/connect).

## 8. Change a document and watch the rule follow

The last step is the one that proves the model. Open the document behind one of
your rules — in Drive or Notion — and change a figure. Within about ten
minutes, the rule shows **v2**, with version 1 kept in its history.

Nothing is swapped silently: the rule records what changed and when it was last
read. See [Update a rule](/using-vythos/update-a-rule).

## Where to go next

| You want to… | Page |
|---|---|
| Decide what else deserves to be a rule | [Which documents to add first](/getting-started/which-documents-first) |
| Add a client whose terms differ from yours | [Clients](/using-vythos/clients) |
| Give a colleague or freelancer access | [Your team and their access](/using-vythos/team-and-access) |
| Understand what a tool actually receives | [What your agent receives](/ai-tools/what-agents-receive) |