Quickstart

A 15-minute walkthrough for a brand-new admin who has just been handed the keys to a fresh Stoa deployment.

Before you begin

You should have:

• A working Stoa deployment delivered by your engineering partner.
• Admin credentials for your account.
• A handful of test documents (PDFs are fine) to upload.
• A few minutes to click through the UI.

Step 1: Sign in

Open your Stoa URL in a browser and sign in with the admin account you were issued (email or username, plus password). If your environment is integrated with Active Directory or LDAP, you can use your existing credentials directly. Auto-provisioning means the first sign-in creates your account automatically.

Step 2: Create your first knowledge base

Click your name in the bottom-left corner to open the menu, then choose Knowledge Bases under Workspace. Click + New Knowledge Base.

Give it a name (for example, "Pilot KB") and a description, set Type to File, and attach one test document (a PDF is fine). Click Create knowledge base.

Each knowledge base wraps a single source: one file, or one or more web addresses. If you want to try this with several documents at once, use Bulk on the Knowledge Bases page instead: drop in a handful of files and Stoa turns each into its own knowledge base, named and described automatically from its contents.

Stoa indexes what you add in the background. The status badge moves to Available when it's ready to query, usually within a few seconds.

Step 3: Open a chat

Click New Chat in the sidebar. Ask a question that you know is answered in the document you just added. For example:

What does our policy say about remote work?

Stoa retrieves the relevant passages and answers with small citation tags, naming the source document and page, right next to the claims they support. Below the answer, a button showing the source count (for example, "3 Sources") opens a list of every passage it drew from, with the source, page, and a short excerpt, so you can check the answer without leaving the chat.

Step 4: Create your first agent

Open the menu in the bottom-left corner and choose Agents under Workspace. Click + New Agent.

Give it:

• A Name, like "Policy Assistant".
• A one-line Description so people know when to reach for it, for example "Answers questions about company policy."
• Instructions: "You answer questions about company policy. Always cite the source document."
• The Pilot KB you created in Step 2, under Knowledge bases.

Leave Type as Standalone and click Create agent. Back in a chat, open the agent dropdown next to the message box, pick your new agent, and ask the same policy question. Notice how it answers in its own voice.

Step 5: Invite a colleague

Open the menu in the bottom-left corner and choose Users under Team. Click + New User.

If you're integrated with Active Directory or LDAP, switch to the AD User tab and search your directory for them. Otherwise stay on Normal and give them an email, a display name, and a starting password (8 to 72 characters).

Leave the role as the default User and click Create User. They'll receive a welcome email if your SMTP integration is configured.

Step 6: Check the audit log

Open the menu in the bottom-left corner and choose System, then open the Audit tab. You'll see every action you just took: knowledge base creation, agent creation, user invitation, and every sign-in.

This is the trail your compliance team will rely on. Each row captures who did it, what they did, which resource, when, and from which address. Search or filter by resource to narrow it down.

What to do next

• Add your real documents. Create the KBs your team actually needs, or bulk-upload a folder at once.
• Build the agents your departments will use. One per department is a common pattern.
• Automate the routine stuff. Workflows walk a multi-step request forward and can pause for approval; Schedules run a prompt or a workflow on a cadence so routine questions answer themselves.
• Configure permissions. See Roles & permissions for how to scope access.
• Set up notifications. See Email and Webhooks to wire up alerts.
• Customize branding. See Branding to set your organization's name and logo.

Getting help

• The User Guide covers what end users need to know.
• The Admin Guide covers configuration in depth.
• The Operations playbook covers running Stoa in production.

If you're stuck, talk to your delivery engineer. Stoa is delivered as a partnership, not as a download.