# Getting started with Sparkth

Sparkth is an AI-first learning platform: you can chat with an assistant that
reads your own documents, generate course content with AI, and push that
content to a learning system such as Canvas, Moodle, or Open edX. This guide
takes you from no account to a working dashboard.

> Using Edly's hosted instance? It lives at
> [sparkth.edly.space](https://sparkth.edly.space). If your organization runs
> its own Sparkth, use that address instead — everything below works the same.

## 1. Create your account

1. Open your Sparkth instance and choose **Register**.
2. Enter your details and submit the form.
3. Check your inbox for a verification email and follow its link. Until you
   verify, you can't sign in.

[SCREENSHOT: registration form]

**Didn't get the email?** Check spam first. If your organization uses an
access whitelist, your address may need to be added by an administrator
before registration succeeds — ask whoever runs your instance.

## 2. Sign in and meet the dashboard

After verifying, choose **Login** and sign in. You land on the dashboard.
The sidebar is the map of everything you can do:

| Sidebar item | What it's for |
|---|---|
| **Resources** | Upload and manage the files you want the AI to work with |
| **Settings** | Your account and workspace preferences |
| **AI Keys** | Connect your own AI model key (see step 3) |
| *Plugin pages* | One entry per enabled integration — e.g. Chat, Canvas, Moodle, Open edX, Google Drive, Slack |

[SCREENSHOT: dashboard with sidebar]

What you see depends on your role and on which plugins your administrator
has enabled — if a page from this guide is missing, it's simply not enabled
for you.

## 3. Add an AI key

Sparkth's AI features run on a language model, and you (or your workspace)
choose which one. Open **AI Keys** in the sidebar, pick your provider, and
paste an API key from that provider's console.

[SCREENSHOT: AI key configuration page]

Your key is used to serve **your** requests — chat answers and course
generation. Without a configured model, AI features will tell you they're
not available.

## 4. Upload something to Resources

Open **Resources** and upload a document you'd like to work with — lecture
notes, a syllabus, a textbook chapter. Uploaded documents are *ingested*
(indexed for search) before the AI can read them; a document shows as ready
once ingestion finishes.

[SCREENSHOT: resources page with an uploaded document]

## 5. Try it: chat with your document

Open the **Chat** page, attach the document you uploaded, and ask a question
about its content. When your question relates to the document, Sparkth
searches it and answers from what it finds; when it doesn't (say, "make that
shorter"), it answers directly. If a document is still ingesting or failed
to ingest, chat can't read it yet — the Resources page shows its status.

## 6. Where to go next

- **Generate course content with AI** — see *Generating course content*.
- **Connect Claude or another AI assistant** to Sparkth's tools — see
  *Connecting an AI assistant*. (Short version: point an MCP-capable
  assistant at `https://<your-instance>/ai/mcp`.)
- **Push content to Canvas, Moodle, or Open edX** — see *LMS integrations*.

## Troubleshooting

| Problem | Try this |
|---|---|
| Can't register | Your email may not be on the instance whitelist — contact your admin |
| Verification link expired | Register again to get a fresh email |
| AI features unavailable | Add a key under **AI Keys** (step 3) |
| Chat ignores my document | Check the document shows as ready in **Resources**; re-upload if ingestion failed |
| A page in this guide is missing | The plugin isn't enabled on your instance — ask your admin |