# Quickstart

When you finish these steps, vague wishes are requirement cards, this round's scope is recorded, and the first piece of work is visible.

| Before you start | After you finish |
| --- | --- |
| Meeting notes and open questions live in your head | What to ask and what to build this time stay on screen |

Add documents, organise requests, decide what to build this time and find your first piece of work.

To start in the browser or install the Mac app for daily use, see [Mac desktop app](https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/desktop.md) as well.

**If your team invited you**, follow the email link to sign up or log in and join. Signing up through an invitation also verifies your email and joins the workspace, so you can skip steps 1 and 2 below. Select the existing project and read the [guidance for invited members](https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/members.md). The AI assistant opens after you log in, so if tasks have already been assigned to you, ask "which of my tasks are still open?" or open "My work" on the Home dashboard.

![Quickstart video. It opens documents, requirement cards, the scope screen, user stories and the board in turn. Before: notes and open questions lived in someone's head. After: what to ask and what this round will build stay on screen.](https://pmonrails.com/docs-video/quickstart.mp4)

## 1. Create an account through public sign-up

Follow this step when public sign-up is available. If you see the waitlist instead, wait for the launch announcement or join through an invitation from your team.

| Item | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Screen | Sign up |
| What to press | Create account |
| What to enter | Email address, password, display name |
| Done when | The confirmation email arrives |

Verify your email address from the link in the confirmation email.

> **Public sign-up requires email verification.** Verify your email through the confirmation link before you start using the product. If the email does not arrive, you can resend it from the login screen.

## 2. Create a workspace and a project

The onboarding ("Getting started") wizard opens the first time you log in.

![PM on Rails onboarding. A wizard for workspace name, project name, estimate unit and role. Before: it was unclear where to start. After: the first three steps match the role you picked.](https://pmonrails.com/docs-img/onboarding.png)

| Item | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Screen | Onboarding |
| What to press | Later or Agree and continue → Create workspace and continue → Choose new development or an existing system and create → Start organizing with AI |
| What to enter | Team name, the name of the first engagement you want to organise |
| Done when | The AI assistant opens so you can attach documents and ask for help |

The estimation unit (story points / hours) can be changed later, as long as you haven't entered any estimate values yet. If you are unsure at the start, match whatever unit your team normally uses.

When joining a project, choose PM / managing the whole project, engineer, or reviewer. The first three steps are tailored to the role you picked (for an engineer: review the existing specification and documents → check your work and assignments → connect the AI you develop with). Read-only members (viewers) are not asked and get the reviewer guidance. You can skip the guide and reopen it from "Choose your role and get started" at the bottom of the sidebar. Choose "Building something new" or "Managing what already exists" to switch the starting guidance.

After you log in, the AI assistant is the entry point. When the conversation is still empty it shows guidance matched to your role and starting mode plus one "next step". Attach a document, or press "Start without documents", to begin. "Prepare for development" on the Home dashboard gathers the readiness of your documents, requests, scope and stories, an input for asking the AI, the requirement review list and links to the next screen.

## 3. Collect documents into knowledge

One item is enough to begin with. Add meeting notes, a meeting memo or an existing document.

| Item | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Screen | Knowledge |
| What to press | New document, Import a file, or Import video/audio |
| What to enter | The body of your meeting notes, or a Word (.docx) / Excel (.xlsx) / audio / video file |
| Done when | The title appears in the knowledge list. For heavy processing you can check progress under "Processing status and history" |

Use "New document" to write and save Markdown. Word / Excel import and automatic transcription of audio and video are also supported. When creating a document or importing a file, you can leave the destination folder empty; the document appears at the top level of Knowledge. Folders, version history and review approval can wait until later.

![PM on Rails knowledge. Meeting notes and documents listed by title. At this point in Quickstart, one item is enough to become material for requirement cards.](https://pmonrails.com/docs-img/knowledge.png)

**If you are managing an existing system**, put specifications and screen references in [Design docs](https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/basic-design.md), and meeting notes and operational memos in Knowledge. In Knowledge, describe current behaviour separately from the changes you want. In the next step, check that the generated requirement cards match those intended changes.

## 4. Generate requirement cards automatically

From what you collected in knowledge, AI extracts requirement cards in the form "as a [who], I want to [what]".

| Item | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Screen | Knowledge or Requirement cards |
| What to press | Generate requirement cards at the top of Knowledge, or Generate requirement cards (diff check) on a document detail page |
| What to enter | The folders or documents to target, plus any extra conditions |
| Done when | The result panel lists candidates as "new / update existing / skip" |

![PM on Rails requirement card list. Who wants what, background, acceptance conditions and priority on each card. Before: wishes and decisions were mixed. After: you ask only about what is still open, then set scope.](https://pmonrails.com/docs-img/demands.png)

Results are not saved as they are. Review the candidates and pick only the ones you want to import. MoSCoW, the 5 Whys, latent needs and value axes are attached automatically, but at first you only need to check that each card's title matches its content.

## 5. Decide the scope and move on to development

Once the requirement cards are imported, decide what you are doing this time.

| Item | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Screen | Confirm scope |
| What to press | Adjust priorities, choose "Confirm scope and create user stories", then confirm the action |
| What to enter | The must / should / could / won't call |
| Done when | The scope confirmation is recorded and user story generation starts |

Dragging a card or choosing a priority in the detail panel saves that change. **You still need to press the confirmation button to settle the scope for this round.** Being explicit about "won't" automatically puts the requirements created from that request out of scope too. Review the generated [user stories and scenarios](https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/stories.md), then move on to [task management](https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/tasks.md).

![PM on Rails scope board. Cards in Must / Should / Could / Won't. After Quickstart, what this round will build stays on the screen.](https://pmonrails.com/docs-img/moscow.png)

## 6. Hand over to the development team

| Item | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Screen | Stories and scenarios, Design docs, Kanban |
| What to press | Generate from requirement cards, Review with AI, Write with AI, Add task |
| What to enter | Extra notes, assignee, due date and estimate as needed |
| Done when | You have first drafts of stories, scenarios, tasks and API / DB design documents |

Track progress with the roadmap, sprints, the board and tests. During development, the default is to work on the same tasks and background from Claude Web, Claude Code or Codex over MCP. If you need to, you can export to Markdown or link with GitHub issues and pull requests.

For daily work, ask the AI assistant "which of my tasks are still open?" or open "My work" on the Home dashboard to check your assigned tasks and schedule. You can keep the chat open on the right of any screen and point at "this screen" or "this story". In "Progress and management", workspace owners and administrators see overall project progress, while other members with editing permission see their own work. See [Progress you can see](https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/progress.md) for details.

## If you get stuck

- Entry points by role → [Guide by audience](https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/audiences.md)
- Using AI and MCP → [AI assistant](https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/ai-assistant.md) / [Claude Web, Claude Code and MCP](https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/mcp.md)
- Progress of generation and transcription → [Processing status and history](https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/jobs.md)
- When a spec changes or a bug turns up → [Tracking changes](https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/change-tracking.md) / [Bugs and change management](https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/bugs-changes.md)

> When in doubt, just ask the AI assistant on screen "how do I use this?" or "what's the progress?" and it will guide you right there.

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https://pmonrails.com/en/docs/quickstart