---
title: Quickstart
description: Publish your first documentation site with Thally Cloud and confirm the live site is ready to share.
url: https://pr-6-a9c4e9fe1b6c.thally.app/quickstart
---

# Quickstart

Publish your first documentation site with Thally Cloud and confirm the live site is ready to share.

After this guide, you will have a live documentation site at a secure
`thally.app` address and a GitHub repository your team owns.

## Prefer to use a coding agent?

Copy this prompt into Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, or another agent that can use
a browser and terminal. The prompt makes Thally Cloud the source of site
creation, tells the agent when it needs you, and keeps it working until the
published URL loads.

Get my documentation live on a published Thally Cloud site. You are successfully done when you give me the live URL, confirm it loads, and summarize what was published. Tell me clearly whenever a step needs my input; do everything else yourself. If this prompt was pasted before or the session restarted, inspect the current state and continue from where the work stopped instead of starting over.

Use Thally Cloud at https://app.thally.io/ to create and publish the site. Do not substitute the local scaffold or another hosting provider for site creation. The CLI is only a developer tool for preparing, migrating, validating, and previewing repository content after the Cloud site exists.

1. Ask what documentation content I want to publish. Accept a local directory, a GitHub repository, a public documentation URL, or a clear instruction to start with Thally's starter content. Echo the exact source and list its top-level contents so I can confirm it is correct. If you cannot access the named source, stop and ask; never substitute a different source.
2. Open https://app.thally.io/. If you cannot control a browser, tell me to open that URL and guide me only through the browser steps that require my account while you handle all repository and terminal work yourself.
3. Needs me: ask me to sign in or create an account if the browser is not already authenticated. Never request my password, verification code, session cookie, or recovery code in chat.
4. Select Create a site. Ask me for any missing site name, short description, and preferred thally.app address. Never invent brand or company details.
5. At Docs source, recommend Create a new docs repository. Use an existing repository only when it is already a current Thally project that I explicitly selected. Needs me: have me install or approve the Thally GitHub App for the intended GitHub organization and repository access. Do not select or modify an unrelated repository.
6. At Product sources, ask whether I want Thally Track configured now. If yes, show me the available product repositories and confirm the exact selections before continuing. Never select the documentation repository itself. If I do not want Track yet, choose I'll do this later.
7. If the Knowledge surfaces step is available for my workspace, ask whether Track should also prepare scoped draft pull requests in another Markdown or MDX repository. Treat these as destinations, not Product sources. Confirm the repository, branch, root, and allowed paths before adding one, or skip this optional step.
8. Review the site name, thally.app address, documentation repository, production branch, Product sources, and Knowledge surfaces with me. Select Publish site only after those values match what I approved.
9. Wait for Thally Cloud to create or connect the GitHub repository and finish the first production deployment. Do not retry blindly. If publishing fails, report the exact message and preserve the created repository and site state for a safe retry.
10. Confirm the workspace Home page shows the site as Live. Record the documentation repository and live https://SITE_SLUG.thally.app URL from the site summary.
11. If I provided existing documentation and the Cloud-created repository still contains starter content, clone the exact documentation repository. For a GitHub repository or public docs URL, import into the existing Thally project with npx create-thally-docs@latest migrate SOURCE --into REPOSITORY_DIRECTORY --yes. For local files, preserve the authored content and adapt it under src/content without deleting unrelated project files. If I connected an existing Thally repository, do not overwrite it.
12. Before editing, read AGENTS.md if present, docs.json, package.json, and src/data/site.ts. Keep framework internals unchanged. Organize pages around reader tasks, preserve useful redirects and assets, and update navigation only for pages that exist.
13. Run npx thally check and npm run build. Fix errors caused by the content changes. Start npm run dev when the environment can keep a local server running, inspect the homepage, navigation, representative pages, code blocks, images, and API reference, then stop the server.
14. Commit only the intended documentation changes with a plain, attribution-free message and push them to the production branch connected in Thally Cloud. The push should trigger a new managed deployment. Do not force-push, rewrite history, delete repositories, or merge unrelated work.
15. Wait for the managed deployment to finish. Fetch the live URL and confirm it returns a successful response and displays the expected site. If the live content is stale, inspect the deployment status and commit SHA before changing anything else.
16. Set up future agent work. Read LIVE_URL/AGENTS.md and LIVE_URL/skill.md. If the current client supports MCP, connect the local authoring server with npx -y @thallylabs/mcp and connect the site's read-only remote server at LIVE_URL/api/mcp using the correct client-specific configuration. Tell me if the client must restart before those tools appear.
17. If I ask for a custom domain, open the site's domain settings, show me the exact DNS records Thally provides, and make it clear that I must add them at my DNS provider. Confirm the custom domain loads before calling that optional work complete.

If a command or platform action fails in a way not covered above, stop and give me the exact error, the step that failed, and the safest next action. Do not guess, silently switch products, or claim the site is live before you have verified the URL.

For prompts that update pages, migrate content, or audit a site with MCP, see
[Use Thally with AI coding agents](/guides/ai-coding-agents).

## Before you begin

You need a [Thally Cloud](https://app.thally.io/) account and a GitHub account
with permission to install or approve the Thally GitHub App for the organization
that will own the documentation repository. You do not need Node.js or a local
checkout to publish the starter site.

## Create your site in Thally Cloud

#### Open Thally Cloud

Go to [app.thally.io](https://app.thally.io/), sign in, and select
**Create a site** from the workspace Home page.

#### Choose the site details

Enter a site name, an optional description, and the `thally.app` address you
want. Thally checks the address before you continue. You can change the brand
and connect a custom domain later.

#### Connect the documentation repository

Choose **Create a new docs repository** for the recommended path. Thally creates
a GitHub repository from the current verified starter release, gives you
editable source files, and manages the first deployment. The starter is pinned
to one exact public Thally runtime revision.

Choose **Use an existing repository** only when the repository is already a
Thally project. Install or approve the Thally GitHub App when prompted, then
confirm the GitHub account and repository details.

#### Choose product sources

Connect the product repositories that Thally Track should watch for merged
changes, or choose **I'll do this later**. The documentation repository is
excluded to prevent update loops.

#### Choose Knowledge surfaces

If this step is available for your workspace, you can add another Markdown or
MDX repository where Track may prepare path-scoped draft pull requests. This
repository is a review destination, not a Product source or another managed
site. You can also add it later from **Site settings → Knowledge surfaces**.

#### Review and publish

Confirm the site address, repository, production branch, optional Product
sources, and optional Knowledge surfaces. Select **Publish site**. Thally saves
the setup before background work starts, so you can return to Home to follow
progress without creating another site.

## View your live site

When publishing finishes, the workspace Home page shows the site as **Live**.
Open **View live site** from the site summary. Every managed site receives a
secure address in this format:

```text
https://your-site.thally.app
```

![Thally Cloud workspace showing a live documentation site](/images/thally-cloud-live-site.webp)

The site is ready to share immediately. Its HTML, Markdown, JSON, JSON-LD,
search index, `llms.txt`, agent manifests, and read-only MCP endpoint are
published from the same documentation source.

## Update the published content

Open the GitHub repository shown in the site summary and clone it locally. The
three files you will edit most often are:

| File | What you control |
| --- | --- |
| `src/content/*.mdx` | Page content and frontmatter |
| `docs.json` | Tabs, sidebar groups, page order, and optional features |
| `src/data/site.ts` | Product name, description, links, and versioned brand defaults |

Before pushing a change, run:

```bash
npx thally check
npm run build
```

Push the reviewed change to the production branch. Thally Cloud builds and
publishes the new version, and the deployment history records the commit.

## Developer option: start with the CLI

Use the CLI when you need an isolated local evaluation, CI automation, or a
self-hosted site. It is the secondary setup path, not the recommended managed
onboarding flow.

```bash
npx create-thally-docs@latest my-docs --yes --install
cd my-docs
npm run dev
```

Continue to the [CLI overview](/guides/cli-overview) for setup commands,
migrations, validation, and self-hosted workflows.

## Choose your next task

#### [Manage your Cloud site](/guides/thally-cloud)

    Learn where to find deployments, Track, Knowledge, readiness, analytics, and site settings.

#### [Understand managed releases](/guides/managed-hosting)

    Review production publishes, pull-request previews, rollbacks, domains, and runtime upgrades.

#### [Write and format pages](/guides/writing-content)

    Add frontmatter, code examples, callouts, steps, tabs, and reusable content.

#### [Organize the navigation](/guides/configuring-navigation)

    Turn your page list into task-based tabs and sidebar groups.

#### [Customize the site](/guides/branding-and-theming)

    Set your product identity, colors, logos, fonts, navbar, and footer.

#### [Generate an API reference](/guides/api-reference-setup)

    Connect an OpenAPI specification and publish interactive endpoint docs.

#### [Use an AI coding agent](/guides/ai-coding-agents)

    Copy task-ready prompts or connect Thally's structured MCP tools.