---
title: "Get Started"
description: "Take your first steps in Guardian, with a path for organization owners, project owners, other roles, and developers running agents."
source: "Guardian Platform"
---
The first steps you take in Guardian vary depending on your role.

- To see the role or roles you hold within your organization, open [Settings](./settings.mdx) and select **Roles & Permissions**.

This guide outlines how to best get started based on your role:

- [Organization Owner](#getting-started-organization-owner)
- [Project Owner](#getting-started-project-owner)
- [All Other Roles](#getting-started-all-other-roles)
- [Developers Running Agents](#getting-started-developers-running-agents)

Once you've taken your first steps, you're nearly ready to start building compliance. Your final step will be to familiarize yourself with Guardian's [Key Concepts](./key-concepts.mdx) to ensure you're taking full advantage of its capabilities.

## Getting Started: Organization Owner

As an Organization Owner, you hold the most permissioned role in Guardian, with full administrative control over the organization and its projects. The best way to get started is to lay the groundwork for your team: create your first project, invite members, and assign them roles.

### 1. Sign In and Confirm Access

Sign in with your organization's identity provider.

### 2. Create a Project

Projects represent a distinct scope of work — a product, initiative, system, or agent — that your team wants to bring into compliance.

- Learn how to [create a project](./projects.mdx#creating-a-project).

### 3. Create a Policy

A policy is a structured set of compliance requirements. Policies may represent regulations, RMFs, or internal SOPs.

- Learn how to [create a policy](./policies.mdx#creating-a-policy).

Note: your Guardian Platform instance may come with policies already available to apply in the **Policy Library** in the sidebar (**Library** when agent certification is on).

### 4. Invite Users and Assign Roles

Invite team members that will contribute to a project's compliance, and assign them roles to ensure their work is properly scoped.

- Learn [what roles have what permissions](./roles-and-permissions.mdx#role-and-permissions-matrix).
- Learn how to [invite your team and assign roles](./member-management.mdx#managing-organization-members).

### 5. Activate a Project Owner

You are ready for your team's Project Owner to take their first steps. Share this page so they can get started. In the meantime, familiarize yourself with Guardian's [Key Concepts](./key-concepts.mdx).

## Getting Started: Project Owner

As a Project Owner, you apply a policy to your project, confirm who has access, and bring in your team.

### 1. Sign In and Confirm Access

Sign in with your organization's identity provider. If sign-in succeeds but a page is unavailable, your account may not have the role required for that action. In that case, select **Projects** in the sidebar.

### 2. Apply a Policy

Applying a policy to a project activates the policy's controls, enabling your team to start tracking compliance.

- Learn how to [apply a policy](./policies.mdx#applying-a-policy).

### 3. Confirm Users and Assigned Roles

Your Organization Owner may have already invited and assigned roles to the team members contributing to your project's compliance. Confirm your colleagues have been invited and have the correct roles.

- To view a project's members and their roles, open the project and select **Project Settings** in the project sidebar.
- Learn [what roles have what permissions](./roles-and-permissions.mdx#role-and-permissions-matrix).

If you need to update a team member's role:

- Learn how to [update roles](./member-management.mdx#updating-project-member-roles).

### 4. Activate your Team

You are ready for the rest of your team to take their first steps. Share this page so they can get started. In the meantime, familiarize yourself with Guardian's [Key Concepts](./key-concepts.mdx).

## Getting Started: All Other Roles

Whatever your role, start by signing in, learning what your role allows, and reading up on controls and key concepts.

### 1. Sign In and Confirm Access

Sign in with your organization's identity provider. If sign-in succeeds but a page is unavailable, your account may not have the role required for that action. In that case, select **Projects** in the sidebar.

### 2. Understand Your Role

Your role determines what actions you can take in Guardian.

- To see the role or roles you hold within your organization, open [Settings](./settings.mdx) and select **Roles & Permissions**.
- Learn [what roles have what permissions](./roles-and-permissions.mdx#role-and-permissions-matrix).

### 3. Understand Controls

Your day-to-day work happens inside an applied policy, where a policy's controls are tracked. Implementation roles create declarations against controls, and audit roles create reviews. To understand where you'll contribute, open your project, then select an applied policy under **Applied Policies** in the project sidebar to view its controls.

- Learn more about [controls](./controls.mdx#about-controls).

### 4. Understand Key Concepts

Familiarize yourself with Guardian's [Key Concepts](./key-concepts.mdx).

## Getting Started: Developers Running Agents

If your organization uses the [Agent Gateway](./agent-gateway.mdx) and you build or run AI agents, most of your first steps happen on the machine where the agent runs.

### 1. Gather What You Need

- A Cloudsmith entitlement token to download Viper, from your EQTY Lab contact.
- Your gateway address, from your administrator.
- A way to register the agent: an API key with the **Register Agents** scope, or the **Register Agents** permission to mint a registration token in the **Agent Catalog**. Learn more in [Register Agents](./register-agents.mdx).

### 2. Onboard Your Agent

Follow [Agent Onboarding](./agent-onboarding.mdx) to install Viper, enroll the agent, and run it through the gateway. For a step-by-step walkthrough, use the guide for your agent:

- [Run Agents](./run-agents.mdx) for Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and OpenClaw.
- [LangGraph Quickstart](./langgraph-quickstart.mdx) for a LangGraph application.
- [Deep Agents Quickstart](./deepagents-quickstart.mdx) for a Deep Agent and its sub-agents.
- [OpenShell Quickstart](./openshell-quickstart.mdx) for an agent in an NVIDIA OpenShell sandbox.

### 3. Confirm Your Agent and Associate It

Find the agent in the [Agent Catalog](./agent-inventory.mdx). For project policy to apply to it, a Project Owner or Organization Owner [associates it with the project](./associated-agents.mdx).

### 4. Know What Is Recorded

Learn which of your agent's traffic is signed and audited, and what is not, in [Agent Coverage](./agent-coverage.mdx).

## Related

- [Key Concepts](./key-concepts.mdx) — the building blocks to learn once you've taken your first steps
- [Roles and Permissions](./roles-and-permissions.mdx) — what each organization and project role can do
- [Agent Onboarding](./agent-onboarding.mdx) — install Viper, enroll an agent, and run it through the gateway
- [Settings](./settings.mdx) — your profile, organizations, preferences, and sign-in
- [API Keys](./api-keys.mdx) — generate a key for scripts, integrations, and headless agent enrollment
- [Glossary](./glossary.mdx) — short definitions of the terms used across Guardian