> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.findtempo.co/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Quickstart

> Author and publish your first Canvas template in five minutes.

This walkthrough takes you from an empty Canvas to a published template that your agents can call. We'll build a short opportunity brief that takes a deal name, current stage, and the last meeting summary, and produces a three-paragraph readout.

## Before you start

* You're signed in to Deal Brain and have at least one connected source integration (HubSpot, Salesforce, Gmail, Gong, Fathom, or Granola) and at least one visible opportunity.
* You're on a plan that includes template authoring (every plan does).

## Open Canvas

Navigate to **Dashboard → Canvas**. You'll see the Canvas home: a grid of templates organized by scope (System presets at the top, then your Organization's templates, then your personal drafts). The page also exposes two entry points for authoring: **Generate from natural language** and **Start from scratch**.

<Frame>
  *Canvas home — template grid + authoring entry points*
</Frame>

## Author a new template

<Steps>
  <Step title="Generate a draft from natural language">
    Click **Generate template**. Describe what you want the template to produce — for this walkthrough:

    > A three-paragraph opportunity brief. The first paragraph names the deal, account, and current stage. The second summarizes the most recent meeting. The third lists next-step action items.

    Submit. Canvas drafts a template body for you. You'll land in the editor with the draft loaded as a **Draft** scoped to **User** (only you can see it).

    <Tip>
      Prefer to build from scratch? Click **Start from scratch** instead. You'll get a blank document, a heading block, and a paragraph block.
    </Tip>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set the title and description">
    At the top of the editor, give the template a clear name and a one-line description. Name → `Opportunity readout (3-paragraph)`. Description → `Three-paragraph brief covering deal context, last meeting, and next steps.`

    The name appears in `list_templates` and the description gives your agents the context they need to pick this template over another.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add data variables">
    Place your cursor where you want a value injected. Press `#` to open the variable picker, then choose the variable you want — for example `opportunity name`, `account name`, `current stage`, `last meeting summary`.

    Variables render in the editor as blue chips. At render time they're replaced with real values from the bound opportunity.

    See [Variables](/canvas/variables) for the full catalog and the difference between **data** and **instruction** variables.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add an instruction">
    Inside your second paragraph block, press `#` and pick **Instruction**. Type the directive to the model — for example: *"Summarize the meeting transcript in two sentences. Do not invent participants or topics not in the transcript."*

    Instructions are model directives, not data. They steer the LLM during render without appearing literally in the output.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Preview against a real opportunity" id="preview-and-publish">
    Click **Preview**. A modal opens with an opportunity picker — choose any visible deal. Canvas binds the deal's data into your `data` variables and renders the template. You see the actual output your agent would produce, against real data.

    Iterate: tweak instructions, reorder paragraphs, add or remove variables, preview again.

    <Warning>
      Preview is read-only and doesn't persist anything. Edits in preview are not saved back to your template.
    </Warning>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Publish">
    When the preview looks right, change **Status** from `Draft` to `Active`. Click **Save**.

    Your template is now visible to agents. Any AI agent connected to your Deal Brain MCP server can call `list_templates` to see it, and `generate_template` to render it.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What just happened

You authored a reusable AI primitive. Two things changed under the hood:

1. A row in your organization's template store, with your template's content, status, and scope.
2. A new entry in your agent's `list_templates` result. Calling `generate_template` with your template's key returns the system prompt and the rendered content, ready to be sent to a model.

You can call your template from anywhere Deal Brain's MCP server is connected — Claude Desktop, Cursor, ChatGPT, or any internal agent your team built that speaks MCP. See [Building on Canvas](/canvas/developers) for the developer-side surface.

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Understand the model" icon="diagram-project" href="/canvas/concepts">
    Templates, blocks, variables, scope, status — the full mental model.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Dig into variables" icon="brackets-curly" href="/canvas/variables">
    Data variables, instruction variables, and the variable catalog.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Manage publication" icon="globe" href="/canvas/publishing">
    Draft → Active workflow, scope precedence, and deletion rules.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Call it from an agent" icon="robot" href="/canvas/developers/mcp">
    `generate_template` and `list_templates` over MCP.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>