Create your first organization

Before you begin#

• Ask your platform operator for the application URL and first-run setup token. The token must be supplied by the operator; there is no public self-registration or universal production password.
• First-run setup creates only the first organization of a deployment. The operator creates further organizations with the bootstrap command in the backend image; see Users and access.
• Confirm PostgreSQL migrations and the API, workers, and Web application are running. See Deployment.
• Choose an organization name and slug, an IANA timezone such as Europe/London, and an initial administrator.
• Identify at least one responder and a notification channel that works in your network. Internal SMTP is an option for isolated installations.

Create the administrator#

1. Open the Web application. An empty installation shows first-run setup only when the operator has enabled it with a setup token.
2. Enter the setup token, organization details, administrator email/display name, timezone, and a strong password. Passwords must be 12–72 bytes.
3. Create the organization, then sign in using its slug, email, and password. The organization administrator sees configuration navigation.
4. Have the operator retire the setup token after initialization. It is not an ongoing user invitation or tenant registration mechanism.

Build the response chain#

1. In Users, create active responders and set their roles, timezone, contact details, and notification preferences.
2. In Teams, create the owning team and assign its members.
3. In On Call, create a primary schedule with a rotation that covers the current time. Check the selected responder.
4. In Escalation Policies, create a policy with at least one valid target, delay, and available channel.
5. In Services, create an active service, assign its team and policy, and add a runbook URL if available.
6. Configure a Notification Provider or ask the operator to supply a deployment-level provider. Send a provider test to the intended responder.
7. Create an Integration for the service. Copy its webhook secret immediately and store it securely; it cannot be read back as plaintext.

Prove the whole workflow#

1. Use the integration's test action with a representative payload, or send a real authenticated webhook from your monitoring source.
2. Follow the test's processing state. Inspect the created incident, matched routing information, on-call responder, escalation history, and notification result.
3. Have the actual responder acknowledge the incident. Provider acceptance is not the same as a human acknowledgement.
4. Complete the guided onboarding flow after its prerequisites are satisfied, then resolve the test incident with a clear reason.
5. Repeat using your real monitoring source and selected notification channels before enabling production alert traffic.

If setup or admin navigation is missing#

Setup is not available after an organization exists. Admin navigation requires organization_admin; a team_admin is not an organization administrator. After a role change, sign out and back in. If the UI is old, rebuild and recreate the relevant Web/API images: restarting a container does not rebuild it. See Troubleshooting.