Getting started

Get your team up and running on Intent in minutes. This guide walks you through account setup, creating your first project, and making your first move toward a shared understanding of your software.

What you need

• An email address and password
• At least one Git repository (GitHub, GitLab, or Azure DevOps)
• Your team members' email addresses (optional—you can invite them anytime)

Create your account

1. Visit onintent.build and select Join beta or Request demo
2. Provide your name and organization name, then complete payment through Stripe
3. After payment confirmation, you'll receive a welcome email with a login link
4. Set your password and confirm your email
5. You're now the organization admin—you can invite teammates and manage settings anytime

Note: Your organization is created automatically after payment. You don't need to set it up manually.

Log in

1. Go to the login page and enter your email and password
2. If you forgot your password, select Forgot password on the login page, and we'll send you a reset link

Create your first project

Projects are where you track all the work for one part of your software. Most teams create one project per product or major component.

1. After logging in, you'll see your workspace dashboard
2. Select Create project or + New project
3. Name your project (e.g., "Platform", "Mobile App", "Core API")
4. Confirm—your project is ready to use

Your project starts empty. Once you link repositories and begin conversations, your Design Feed will populate with drafts and conversations.

Link your first repository

Linking repositories lets Intent index your codebase and tie specs to real code.

1. In your project, go to Settings > Repositories
2. Select Link repository
3. Choose your Git provider (GitHub, GitLab, or Azure DevOps)
4. Authenticate with your provider account
5. Select the repository you want to link
6. Confirm the link—Intent will start indexing your codebase

Once linked, you can ask questions about your code, generate specs grounded in real implementation, and start work directly from changesets.

Invite your team

Team members can see projects, collaborate on specs, and track progress together.

1. Go to Settings > Team
2. Select Invite team member
3. Enter their email address
4. Choose their role:
   • Organization Admin — Full access to settings and team management
   • Member — Can create projects, collaborate on specs, and track work
5. Send the invitation

Invitees will receive an email with a sign-up link. They'll join your organization automatically when they complete signup.

Start a conversation

Conversations are where you explore ideas, ask questions about your code, and draft specs together.

1. From your project, select New conversation or select the chat icon
2. Describe what you want to build or explore (e.g., "Add user authentication to our API")
3. Intent will search your codebase and suggest relevant context
4. Refine the draft spec together—ask follow-up questions, adjust scope, add details
5. When you're ready to move to planning, turn the spec into a changeset

See Conversations & Chat Modes for more on structuring your thinking.

From spec to changeset

Once you have a draft spec you want to track and build, convert it into a changeset so you can assign it, add todos, and move it through your workflow.

1. From your draft conversation, select Create changeset or Move to backlog
2. Give it a clear name (this will appear in your boards and PRs)
3. Choose a type: Feature, Bug, or Refactor
4. Confirm—the changeset is now in your backlog

Your changeset is ready to move through Design (planning phase) → Planning (refinement and queuing) → Implementation (actual development and review).

What happens next

• Add todos — Break down the changeset with a checklist so your team knows exactly what to do
• Link work — Associate the changeset with the code repositories where work will happen
• Start building — When you're ready, use Starting Work to create a branch and draft PR automatically
• Track progress — Monitor PR merges and changeset status in real time as your team ships

Related topics

• Inviting Your Team
• The Design Feed
• Conversations & Chat Modes
• AI-Generated Specs
• Managing the Backlog

The Design Feed

The Design Feed is the left panel of the Design stage in Intent's workspace. It is your personal working surface for active design work: it shows every unlinked conversation you have started and every draft changeset in the project, mixed together in a single scrollable list sorted by recent activity.

The feed exists because design work in Intent rarely happens in one sitting. You might start a conversation to explore an idea, leave it open, and come back later once you have more context. Or a draft might sit in progress while you wait for teammate feedback. The feed keeps all of that visible without requiring you to search or navigate — whatever you worked on most recently is always at the top, and clicking any item resumes exactly where you left off.

Reaching the Design stage

The workspace is divided into three stages: Design features, Plan work, and Build & review. Design is the default. If you've navigated away, click the pencil icon in the left navigation rail to return to it.

What appears in the feed

The feed contains two kinds of items, mixed together and sorted newest-first:

Both kinds are limited to items updated within the last 12 months. Once a conversation gets linked to a non-draft changeset, it moves off the feed and can be found through the changeset itself.

Items are grouped by recency (Today, This week, Earlier this month, etc.) so the most recent activity is always at the top.

Opening an item

• Click a conversation row to load that chat in the center panel. The conversation title and message history reopen where you left off.
• Click a draft row to open the changeset detail in the right panel. If the chat associated with that draft is still unresolved, it appears in the center panel at the same time.

Starting a new conversation

Click New at the top of the panel to open a fresh chat. See Starting a Conversation for what to type and how the AI responds.

Searching

A search bar sits below the toolbar. Typing filters both conversations (by title) and drafts (by name) in real time. Prefix your query with # and paste a partial ID to jump directly to a known item.

Filtering the feed

Use the filter menu in the stage navigation to narrow what appears:

Filters do not affect which conversations appear — all your unlinked conversations are always shown.

Deleting a conversation

Hover over a conversation row to reveal a trash icon. Clicking it asks for confirmation before permanently deleting the chat. Drafts cannot be deleted from the feed — manage them through the changeset detail panel.

Real-time updates

The feed listens for live project updates. When you or a teammate creates a new draft, updates a changeset, or starts a conversation, the feed refreshes automatically without a page reload.