# Quickstart

From a new account to your first real send, in about 15 minutes if you can sign in to your DNS host. The console's
**Set up** page is this checklist: it opens when you first sign in, ticks each step when it is really done (not when
you click), and says what is still blocking email to your customers. Every step has two versions: **in the console**
if you'd rather click, and **with your agent** if you'd rather ask. Mix them as you like: they use the same API, and
`plainsend setup` or the MCP tool `setup_status` shows the same checklist.

Three things only a person can do: pay, sign in to your DNS host (or send a link to whoever can), and approve the
first real send.

## 1. Sign up and send a test to yourself

### In the console

[Create an account](https://app.plainsend.app/auth/login?signup=1) and name your workspace. It starts in a sandbox:
email goes only to you and your team, nobody else. On **Set up**, press **Send me a test**: a ready-made hello lands
in your inbox in under a minute.

### With your agent

Sign in from a terminal, then send the test:

```sh
plainsend login
plainsend send --test
```

Or connect the MCP server (see [agents](https://plainsend.app/agents.md)) and ask:

```text
Call setup_status and tell me the next step.
```

**Coming:**
The CLI is not on npm yet: until it is, use the console or the MCP server.

## 2. Your business details

### In the console

**Set up → Your business details**: your postal address, sender name and where replies go. The law requires a postal
address in marketing email, so Plainsend sends nothing to customers until you add it.

### With your agent

```sh
plainsend setup details --postal-address "1 Harbour St, Sydney NSW 2000" --reply-to you@yourcompany.com
```

```text
Set our brand's postal address to <address> and its reply-to to <email> with brand_put.
```

## 3. Pick a plan

### In the console

**Settings → Billing**: Solo is $12 a year, Starter $29 a month. Paying is an owner's job: agents can read your plan
and usage, never buy.

**Coming:**
Checkout is opening soon. Until then, a new workspace stays in the sandbox: you can set everything up and send to
your team.

### With your agent

```sh
plainsend billing
plainsend billing checkout solo
```

```text
Check our plan with billing_status and tell me what I need to buy.
```

## 4. Verify your sending domain

### In the console

**Set up → Sending domain**. Use a subdomain such as `mail.yourcompany.com`. With many DNS hosts Plainsend adds the
records after you sign in there (Domain Connect); on Cloudflare it can add them with a token. Elsewhere, copy them,
or send the setup link to whoever runs your DNS. The page checks each record live and says what's wrong in plain
words. Once you have paid and the domain is verified, your workspace leaves the sandbox: then change your From
address to the new domain.

### With your agent

An owner adds the domain (agent keys can't), then the agent tracks it:

```sh
plainsend domain add mail.yourcompany.com
plainsend domain share mail.yourcompany.com
```

```text
Check domain_status for mail.yourcompany.com and tell me which records are still missing.
```

## 5. Bring your contacts

### In the console

**Sources → Add a source**: upload a CSV or Excel file, add a form on your website (or send contacts from your app
through the API), connect HubSpot or Salesforce (Growth plan and up), or fill in a Databricks connection
(Enterprise). A file import shows each column, a suggested use and a dry run before anything is written. Plainsend
never guesses consent: you confirm a consent column, or say how people agreed.

### With your agent

```sh
plainsend sources add csv contacts.csv
```

```text
Upload contacts.csv with source_upload, show me the dry run with source_upload_plan,
ask me how people agreed to hear from us, then import it with source_upload_import.
```

## 6. Pick a starter journey

### In the console

**Content → Gallery** has five packs: clinic starter, win-back, monthly newsletter, tax time, and software trial to paid.
Each one checks your account first (which properties and events it needs) and previews every email in your brand.
It installs as drafts: nothing sends until you approve it.

### With your agent

```text
Search the gallery, check the best fit against my account with gallery_show,
and install it as drafts. Then simulate the journey for a test contact.
```

## 7. Approve your first real send

### In the console

Open **Needs you** (or the last step of Set up). The request shows who will get it, who won't and why, and each
email. Approve each part, or all of it. A new domain warms up: a daily cap that rises over about three weeks, most
engaged contacts first. Your first email to a customer from your own domain finishes Set up.

### With your agent

```text
Request activation for the journey and give me the approval link.
Then watch approval_status and report_health and tell me how the first sends went.
```

## Reference

- [Working with Plainsend (for agents)](https://plainsend.app/docs/agents.md): keys, marketing as code, the loop, the rules
- [Journey documents](https://plainsend.app/docs/journeys.md): triggers, steps, goals and versions
- [Templates](https://plainsend.app/docs/templates.md): MJML or HTML with Liquid, checks and brand kits
- [MCP server](https://plainsend.app/docs/mcp.md): connecting and the tool list
- [For agents](https://plainsend.app/agents.md): the prompt to paste, the CLI and `llms.txt`