# Quick start

> From a new account to the first visit on your dashboard: create the account, add a site, paste one tag and watch it arrive.

This page takes you from nothing to a dashboard that shows your first visit. It takes a few minutes, and the only thing you change on your site is one tag.

## Create your account

Open the [sign-up page](/signup) and enter your name, your email address and a password of at least 8 characters. That is all. You are signed in at once and land in the app.

You can also start on the homepage: type the address of your site in the box there and choose "Add my website". The sign-up page then shows that site, and it is added to your workspace as soon as your account exists, so the setup opens on its second step.

Two things differ from what you may expect:

- **No confirmation email arrives.** Your address is not checked with a link, so there is nothing to wait for and nothing to click. Clear Saga sends no email at all today. See [what works today](/docs/status).
- **Sign-up can be closed.** Whoever runs a deployment of Clear Saga can stop new accounts. The sign-up page then says "Sign-ups are closed". If someone invited you to their workspace, open the link of your invitation: it still lets you create your account. The invitation is not emailed either, so the person who invited you has to pass the link on to you.

A workspace is made for you together with the account. A workspace holds your sites and, later, the people you invite. You do not have to set anything up for it.

## Add your site

A new workspace opens with a setup of three steps: add your site, add the snippet, wait for the first visit. If you came from the box on the homepage, this step is already done: the site is named after its domain and uses the time zone of your browser, and you can change both in its settings. Otherwise the first step asks for three things.

| Field | What to enter |
| --- | --- |
| Domain | The address of your site, such as `example.com`. You can paste a full address: only the hostname is kept, without `www.` in front. |
| Name | Optional. It is what lists and menus show. Left empty, the domain is used. |
| Time zone | It starts at the time zone of your browser. The days and hours in the charts of this site follow it. |

The domain is a label for your statistics, not a lock. Visits are accepted from any address that sends the key of this site, so a staging copy or your own machine counts too.

## Copy the tag

The second step shows the tag with the key of your site already in it. Pick the platform your site is built with, and the code is written the way that platform wants it. Then copy it.

This is the tag in its plain form. Here it carries the placeholder `YOUR_SITE_KEY` where your own key will be:

**index.html**

```html
<script
  defer
  data-site-key="YOUR_SITE_KEY"
  src="https://clearsaga.com/js/script.js"
></script>
```

## Paste and publish

Paste the tag inside the `<head>` of every page, which on most sites means one shared template or one settings field. Then publish your site. The [install guides](/docs/install) have the exact place for each platform.

## See the first visit arrive

The third step waits with the line "Listening for the first visit". Open your site in another browser tab. You do not have to press anything in the app: the visit shows up by itself, usually within a few seconds. The step then reads "The first visit arrived", with a button that opens your dashboard.

If you leave the setup before that, nothing is lost. The Overview of a site that has no visit yet shows a card titled "Waiting for the first visit" with the same tag and the same status line. A Viewer sees the card without the tag and the status, because both show the site key. It means exactly that: the site exists, and no page with its tag has been opened yet. Your charts replace the card as soon as one is.

When nothing has arrived after a minute, a list of things to check opens under the status. [Troubleshooting](/docs/troubleshooting) goes through each of them.

> [!TIP]
> Test in a normal browser window. A browser that has Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track switched on sends nothing, and that includes your own.

## When the trial starts

Your trial lasts 15 days, and its clock starts with the first recorded visit, not on the day you signed up. An account without a working tag does not use up its trial. While the trial runs, a workspace can hold up to 5 sites.

[Plans, usage and limits](/docs/plans-and-usage) explains what happens when the trial ends.

## Where to go next

- Count clicks and signups with [custom events](/docs/custom-events).
- Learn what each number means in [the dashboard](/docs/dashboard).
- Invite a colleague in [team and roles](/docs/team-and-roles).

**Next:** [Add the tracker](/docs/tracker), [Install guides](/docs/install), [The dashboard](/docs/dashboard)