---
audience: everyone
summary: From zero to your first AI chat in under five minutes.
title: Quickstart
path: quickstart
status: published
---

# Quickstart

Five steps from a fresh login to a working AI conversation.

## 1. Sign in

Open ScaiWave at your tenant's URL — for the ScaiLabs-hosted instance,
that's `https://scaiwave.scailabs.ai`. Click **Sign in**; you'll be
redirected to ScaiKey (the identity provider), enter your credentials,
and bounce back into the app.

If you're hosting your own ScaiWave, the URL is whatever your operator
gave you. If you don't have an account yet, ask your tenant's admin to
invite you.

> **No password?** Tenants can run in *mock* auth mode for development.
> If your screen never asks for credentials and you land straight in
> the app, that's why.

## 2. Find your way around

Three columns:

- **Left**: your workspaces, rooms, AI assistants, and people. Click a
  room to open it; click a person to start a DM.
- **Middle**: the active room — message history, composer, members.
- **Right (when open)**: details, notes, calls, the prompt studio, or
  the plan card when an AI is working.

The bottom-left button is **you**: profile, presence (Online / Idle /
Busy / Appear offline), settings, sign out.

## 3. Send your first message

Press **N** anywhere in the app (or click the **+** next to your
workspace name) to start a new room. Pick **Group** for a multi-person
room or **Direct message** for one-to-one with another participant.

Type into the composer at the bottom and press Enter to send.
Shift+Enter inserts a newline. The composer supports Markdown, emoji
shortcodes (`:smile:` → 😄), `@mentions` against any member of the
room, and `/slash commands`.

## 4. Bring an AI in

Pick an AI from the **AI Assistants** section in the left sidebar —
clicking starts a DM with that AI. Or in any group room, type
`/engage <ai-name>` to bring an AI into the existing conversation.

Type a message and press Enter. The AI's reply will stream into the
chat in chunks. If the response is long, you'll see a "peek" popup
above the composer summarising what's being written so you don't have
to scroll.

To stop the AI mid-response: click the **Stop** button that appears
during generation, or send a new message (interrupts immediately).

## 5. Try one power move

Pick whichever fits what you do:

- **Multi-step task?** Ask the AI: *"Research three vector databases for
  our use case and compare them."* The AI will commit to a written
  plan, work through it step-by-step, and let you pause or cancel at
  any time. See [Use the planner](/docs/scaiwave/tutorials/power-user/use-the-planner).

- **Want notes alongside chat?** Click **Save as note** on any
  message, or open the **Notes** panel (right sidebar). Notes support
  `[[wiki links]]`, math, todos, and live multi-cursor co-editing.
  See [Create and organize notes](/docs/scaiwave/tutorials/first-steps/create-and-organize-notes).

- **Long room, lots to read?** Click **Catch up** in the chat header.
  An AI summarises everything you missed and shows the priority items
  in a separate panel. See
  [Catch up on busy rooms](/docs/scaiwave/tutorials/power-user/catch-up-on-busy-rooms).

- **Building an integration?** Skip ahead to
  [Your first REST API call](/docs/scaiwave/tutorials/developer/first-rest-api-call).

## Where next

| If you want to… | Go to |
|---|---|
| Understand the mental model | [Concepts](/docs/scaiwave/concepts) |
| Learn the daily workflow | [First-steps tutorials](/docs/scaiwave/tutorials/first-steps) |
| Master slash commands and the planner | [Power-user tutorials](/docs/scaiwave/tutorials/power-user) |
| Build an integration | [Developer tutorials](/docs/scaiwave/tutorials/developer) |
| Look up an API endpoint | [API reference](/docs/scaiwave/reference/api) |
| Diagnose something that's wrong | [Troubleshooting](/docs/scaiwave/troubleshooting) |