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

# Quickstart

> Go from a one-line idea to a researched, specced, designed, and deployed product. Free tier, no credit card required to start.

This guide takes you from signup to a live product using the Build surface, the flagship full pipeline. It should feel less like operating a tool and more like briefing a team.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Create your account">
    Sign up at [beta.productos.dev](https://beta.productos.dev/sign-up). The free tier includes monthly credits and no credit card is required. One account works across Build, Code, and Design, with a single shared credit pool.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Describe your idea">
    Start a project and tell the Orchestrator what you want to build, in plain language. The Orchestrator is the only agent that talks to you; it routes your request to the right specialist and proposes each stage transition for your approval.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Sharpen it in Ideation">
    The Ideation Agent works like a Socratic questioner: it probes the idea, logs your assumptions, and keeps a list of open questions. You leave this stage with a clearer idea than you arrived with.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Let the Research Agent do the digging">
    Delegate research from the chat. The Research Agent runs multi-source, cited research: web search via Exa, Reddit threads, G2 and Trustpilot reviews, app stores, and GitHub. It can also run surveys. Findings land in the shared project context, where every later stage can use them.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Approve the PRD outline, then the sections">
    The PRD Agent first proposes an outline for your approval, then writes section by section. Choose from four templates: ProductOS Standard (10 sections), Amazon PRFAQ (8), Lean (6), or Enterprise/Regulated (12). Optionally, the Architect Agent adds 8 architecture sections, ADRs, and infra cost estimates.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Design the product">
    The Design Agent produces user flows and screen specs. The Design System Agent generates design tokens, a DESIGN.md, and dark plus light HTML previews, so the build stage has a concrete visual target.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Watch it get built">
    In the Develop stage, the Fullstack Builder codes your app headlessly inside an isolated cloud sandbox with a live preview URL. Generated code syncs to your own GitHub repository as it is written.
  </Step>

  <Step title="QA and deploy, on demand">
    QA and Deploy are actions, not stages: run them whenever you like. The QA Agent drives a real headless Chromium browser through your flows, captures per-route screenshots, checks APIs, and runs an axe accessibility audit, returning a pass, partial, or fail verdict. A fail can chain into an auto-fix run. The Deploy Agent then runs a preflight build, pushes to GitHub, and deploys to Vercel with up to 3 self-fix iterations, shipping to `{slug}.product-os.app` or your own custom domain.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Tip>
  In a hurry, or building something smaller? Start on the [Code surface](/code/overview) instead: describe the app or clone a curated template, and build directly in a live sandbox.
</Tip>

## Next steps

* [Core concepts](/getting-started/core-concepts): how shared context, the pipeline, and agents fit together
* [Projects and stages](/getting-started/projects-and-stages): what each stage produces
* [Plans and credits](/getting-started/plans-and-credits): how usage is billed