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Getting Started

This guide takes you from sign-in to your first saved artifact in a few minutes.

1. Sign in to your workspace

Each organization has its own workspace at a dedicated address:

https://<your-org>.archforge.app

Open that address and sign in. If you sign in from the main ArchForge site instead, ArchForge sends you to your workspace automatically.

If you see You’re not in a workspace yet, your account isn't a member of any workspace. Ask an administrator to invite you, then accept the invitation from your email.

2. Find your way around

After signing in you land on the Dashboard. It shows a summary of your RFCs (Draft, Open, Closed, and Overdue) and your ten most recently updated artifacts.

The sidebar on the left lists the artifact types your workspace uses, grouped into three sections:

  • Decisions & Governance: RFCs, Decisions, Principles, Standards.
  • Architecture & Design: Reference Architectures, Composite RefArchs, Solution Designs, Diagrams.
  • Components & Ops: Application Catalog, Technology Components, Playbooks.

You only see the types that your plan includes and that your administrator has switched on. Architecture Graph at the bottom of the list opens the knowledge graph.

Along the top bar you'll find:

  • Docs: opens this documentation in a new tab.
  • The theme toggle, to switch between light and dark.
  • The notifications bell. See Notifications.
  • Your account menu.

Use the collapse button next to the workspace name to shrink the sidebar to icons. ArchForge remembers your choice in this browser.

3. Create your first artifact

Creating artifacts needs the Member role or higher. Viewers can read everything but can't create or edit.

  1. Pick a type in the sidebar, for example Decisions.
  2. Click the + New button at the top of the list (for example + New Decision).
  3. Enter a Title.
  4. Optionally add co-authors under Authors with + Add. Co-authors can edit the artifact and take it through review, just like you.
  5. Write the Body (Markdown). It starts pre-filled with your workspace's template for that type. Fenced code blocks are syntax highlighted, and ```mermaid blocks render as diagrams.
  6. Click Create draft.

Your artifact is saved as a Draft and gets a reference ID such as ADR-0001. You can keep editing it until you're ready to send it for review.

4. Browse lists

Each type has a list of its artifacts with their reference ID, title, status, and last update. Use Rows per page at the bottom to change how many rows you see. Types that carry a diagram (reference architectures, composites, and solution designs) also offer a Diagrams view that shows each artifact as a diagram panel. Switch back with List.

Next steps