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

# Quickstart

> From nothing to a scheduled post, on one page

Three steps and your first post is on the calendar with a time on it. She sends it whether your
laptop is open or not.

<Frame>
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/forceplay/EEHeangkYBPAigbH/images/brand/calendar.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=EEHeangkYBPAigbH&q=85&s=b3286664ddd2f98525864d31c3aa9aa5" alt="A week of scheduled posts across several connected channels on the PostQueen calendar" width="660" height="430" data-path="images/brand/calendar.svg" />
</Frame>

<Tip>
  **About 5 minutes** on PostQueen Cloud. Self-hosting adds the install itself, which is 10 to 15
  minutes on a fresh server, plus an OAuth app for each network you want.
</Tip>

## 1. Get PostQueen running

The cloud and your own server run the same code. The choice is about who keeps the machine running,
not about what she can do.

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="PostQueen Cloud">
    Sign up at [app.postqueen.ai](https://app.postqueen.ai). Nothing to install, nothing to keep
    patched, and every network's OAuth app is already registered, so **Add Channel** offers all of
    them from the first minute.

    **Best for:** getting a post out today, and anyone who does not want to run a server.

    **Pros:**

    * Free for 7 days, no card to start
    * Every network she supports is available immediately
    * Upgrades and security patches happen without you
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Your own server">
    Follow [Production install](/installation/production) for a real deployment, or
    [Try it locally](/installation/quickstart-local) if you just want a look first.

    **Best for:** keeping your data and your tokens on hardware you control.

    **Pros:**

    * No per-channel or per-post caps beyond what you set
    * Your OAuth tokens never leave your database
    * AGPL-3.0, so the whole thing is yours to read and change

    <Warning>
      On your own install, most networks stay hidden in **Add Channel** until you register an OAuth
      app with that platform and put its keys in your environment. That is one setup per network, and
      [Providers](/providers/overview) walks through each. Plan for it before you promise a client a
      channel.
    </Warning>
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

The first account created on a fresh install owns it. On the cloud, that is whoever signs up.

<Check>
  You can sign in and the app loads with an empty calendar. Nothing is connected yet, which is
  exactly right.
</Check>

## 2. Connect your first channel

A channel is one social account she can post to. Until one exists, a post has nowhere to go.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open Add Channel">
    Your channels live in the **left sidebar**, and **Add Channel** sits with them. It is the same
    button for every network: X, a WordPress blog, a Discord server, all of it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Pick the network">
    Start with the one your audience actually reads. What happens next depends on the network, and
    there are only two kinds:

    * **Most send you to their own login.** You approve PostQueen there, the browser comes back, and
      the channel appears. Nothing to type.
    * **A smaller group asks for a credential in the form.** Bluesky takes an app password,
      WordPress takes a site URL and an application password, Mastodon needs its instance address.

    [Providers](/providers/overview) says which kind each network is, and what it wants.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check it arrived">
    The channel appears in the sidebar with its avatar and name. That is the whole confirmation. If
    it is in the list, she can post to it.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Check>
  Your channel is in the left sidebar with its avatar. The full walkthrough, including what the red
  exclamation mark means later, is on [Connect a channel](/using/connect-a-channel).
</Check>

## 3. Write it and put it on the calendar

Press **Create Post**. She has already found your next open slot, and that date is sitting on the
button at the bottom. The editor is on the left, a live preview on the right.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Turn on the channels this post is for">
    Your connected channels sit across the top as round avatars. Grey means this one is sitting the
    post out, a purple ring means it is coming along. Click to toggle.

    Nothing leaves the composer until at least one is on. While the row is empty the main button
    reads **Check the circles above** and stays disabled.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Write once, or once per channel">
    A second row appears underneath: a globe first, then one small chip per selected channel.

    The **globe** is the shared text, and it is where you land. Everything you type there goes out
    to every channel you picked. That is the whole job for most posts.

    Want one channel to say something different? Click its chip, press **Edit content**, and that
    channel takes its own copy. From then on the two are separate, and a pink dot on the chip
    reminds you.

    <Tip>
      The badge at the end of the attachments row counts as you type, and it shows the smallest limit
      you have not already passed. Hover it for a line per channel. It turns red the moment any
      channel is over its own limit, so you find out while you are writing rather than on save.
    </Tip>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add media, if you want it">
    Drag files straight onto the editor, or paste them from your clipboard. **Insert Media** opens
    everything you have uploaded before, and on plans that include AI, **AI Image** and **AI Video**
    generate from a prompt you type.

    Images and MP4 video are accepted, up to 1 GB per upload session. While an upload is running the
    buttons at the bottom stay disabled, so nothing schedules halfway through a file.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose how it leaves">
    Three ways out, and the difference matters:

    | Control             | Where the post lands                                                                   |
    | ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
    | **Add to calendar** | Scheduled. It goes out at the date on the button                                       |
    | **Save as Draft**   | Written down at that date, published by nobody                                         |
    | **Post Now**        | Out the door immediately. Hides behind the arrow on the main button until you hover it |

    Press **Add to calendar**.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  Closing the composer asks *Are you sure you want to close this modal? (all data will be lost)*, and
  it means it. Nothing is written down until you press one of those three.
</Warning>

<Check>
  **Your post is on the calendar.** Open the calendar to see it in place. You can drag it to a new
  time, open it to edit, or delete it, right up until it goes out.
</Check>

<Note>
  There is no approver in PostQueen, no approve step and no reject button. A draft is simply a post
  that has not been handed to the scheduler yet, and it sits on the calendar with *Draft:* in front of
  it until you press **Schedule**.
</Note>

## If something is not right

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="The network I want is not in Add Channel" icon="plug-circle-xmark">
    On a self-hosted install, a network only appears once its OAuth app keys are in your environment
    and she has been restarted. [Providers](/providers/overview) has the setup for each one. On the
    cloud, everything she supports is already there.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The post went to Drafts instead of being scheduled" icon="file-pen">
    A draft is a post state rather than a queue position: it sits on the calendar at the date you
    gave it and is never handed to the scheduler. Open it and press **Schedule**, or switch it from
    a terminal with `postqueen posts:status <id> --status schedule`.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The save was refused and named a channel" icon="triangle-exclamation">
    Validation runs on her server, not in your browser. Every post needs at least one character or
    one image, drafts included. A schedule gets a harder look: each channel's settings, length limit
    and own rules. The first failure stops the save and drops you on that channel with its settings
    bar already open.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Reveal shows nothing under Developers" icon="key">
    The Developers tab needs you to be an organization admin, and on the cloud a plan that includes
    the public API. Self-hosted installs with billing off have it on by default.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="My agent connected but cannot see any channels" icon="robot">
    Almost always the key. Check it was pasted in full, and if you are self-hosting, that
    `POSTQUEEN_API_URL` points at your backend including the `/api` suffix most single-domain
    installs use. [CLI authentication](/cli/authentication) has the exact shape.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="The composer in full" icon="pen" href="/using/writing-a-post">
    Threads, per-channel versions, repeat schedules and what she checks before saving.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Let her pick the times" icon="clock" href="/using/posting-times">
    Set the slots once and she fills them.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Connect more channels" icon="plug" href="/providers/overview">
    Every network she posts to, and the OAuth app each one wants.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Run her from anywhere" icon="terminal" href="/which-interface">
    CLI, MCP, the API or an automation platform, and how to tell which is yours.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>