Quick Start Guide

You need two things to publish: a PostingPilot account and a connected social channel. Everything else - topics, drafts, images, video - is generated inside PostingPilot.

• A PostingPilot account (free trial includes a limited number of AI generations per day and per month).
• At least one social channel you can connect: LinkedIn, Facebook Page, Instagram Business, YouTube, X (Twitter), Threads or TikTok.
• The credentials for that platform (Meta access token and Page/Instagram account ID, YouTube OAuth, X OAuth token, Threads token, or TikTok OAuth) - the Channel credentials guide at /docs/credentials has step-by-step setup for each.
• Three to five samples of your own writing, for the voice profile.

Tip: The fastest path is the guided setup wizard: open Setup wizard in the app and it takes you from a new channel to a scheduled post in four steps.

Tip: Not ready to connect anything yet? Create the demo workspace from the workspace switcher to explore a fully populated example with sample posts, topics and analytics.

1. 1Sign up with email and password or Google, then confirm your email address.
2. 2You land on the dashboard with a default workspace already created.
3. 3If you manage more than one brand or client, use the workspace switcher in the top bar to add a workspace per client. Topics, voice, brand kit, channels, credentials and analytics are isolated per workspace.
4. 4Open Setup wizard from the nav or the onboarding banner to run the guided flow.

Tip: Take the guided tour the first time it appears - it points out the workspace switcher, planner and setup checklist in under a minute.

1. 1In step 1 of the setup wizard (or on the Channels page), add a channel: give it a name, pick the platform and optionally a handle.
2. 2Store that platform's credentials for the workspace in Settings, and add the account ID where the platform needs one (Facebook Page ID, Instagram Business account ID).
3. 3Check the connection health panel in the wizard. Each channel shows Ready, or exactly what is missing - no token, missing account ID, expired token or key rotation needed.
4. 4Press Recheck after fixing anything, and use Test connection on Meta, YouTube and X channels to confirm the account details PostingPilot can see.
5. 5Mark the channel active so it becomes available when scheduling posts.

A channel only publishes when it shows Ready. Channels on platforms without direct publishing show Manual export instead - you copy the formatted text and post it yourself.

1. 1Go to Voice and start the setup wizard.
2. 2Paste 3-5 posts you have written. Longer, more typical samples work better than your single best post.
3. 3Choose traits: formality, humour, emoji use, sentence length, preferred hooks and CTAs.
4. 4Add banned words or phrases you never want the AI to use.
5. 5Use the Test drive step: type a topic and compare the generic draft against your voice-matched draft. Adjust traits until it sounds like you, then save.

Tip: Every save creates a version. If a new batch of samples makes drafts worse, revert from version history.

1. 1Open Topics and describe your niche, audience and goals.
2. 2Generate a batch of ideas, then keep the ones worth writing and discard the rest.
3. 3Optionally add ideas from the Idea Inbox by importing a blog URL or RSS feed - near-duplicates are merged automatically.

1. 1From a saved topic, click Write. The draft is generated in your voice. (The setup wizard does this for you in step 3.)
2. 2Try alternate hooks, AI caption variants and per-platform variants to see which opening lands best.
3. 3Attach media: generate an AI image, build a branded carousel or render a short video clip. Instagram posts need an image and YouTube posts need a video file.
4. 4Check the pre-publish score for hook strength, clarity and call to action, and the destination badge for which channel receives this post type.

1. 1Open the Planner. Empty slots in your cadence are highlighted as gaps.
2. 2Drag your draft into a slot, or let the planner fill remaining gaps with suggested drafts.
3. 3Select the exact channels for each card, adjust the time inline, and use undo/redo if you misdrop a card.
4. 4Open the preview to check the caption per channel and satisfy platform requirements (Instagram image, X character limit, YouTube privacy, category, tags and thumbnail).
5. 5Click Schedule. Each card shows scheduled, sent or failed with a timestamp.
6. 6Open View delivery details on any sent card to see the raw delivery payload and error history.

Tip: Failed publishes move to the Retries queue and re-attempt automatically with backoff - you do not need to re-create the post. You can also retry one channel from its notification.

• Dashboard: drafts, scheduled this week, published in the last 30 days and failures at a glance.
• Notifications: live batch outcomes and platform API errors, filterable by channel and date.
• Insights: reach, engagement, best-time-to-post heatmaps, hashtag performance and per-channel publishing status.
• Delivery history: every delivery attempt with a link to the affected post, plus success-rate trends.
• Engagement: likes, shares, saves and comments per post and platform, with a freshness panel showing when each platform last synced.
• Usage: AI generations by feature and estimated spend against your plan.

Once the first post is live, the setup checklist on the dashboard should be fully complete. From there, work weekly: refill topics, let the planner close gaps, approve, schedule.

1. 1Open Members and invite people by email with a role: owner, editor or viewer. They do not need an existing account.
2. 2For review-only clients, create a client portal link instead - they can approve or reject posts without signing up, and are reminded automatically if a post sits waiting.
3. 3Set up a scheduled client report so performance summaries go out on a cadence, branded with your own name and logo on the Agency plan.
4. 4Agencies on-billing clients can use the client billing rollup to export posts, drafts, videos and cost per workspace with a markup applied.

Tip: Seats are limited by plan (Solo 1, Studio 3, Agency 10). If you need more, add seat add-ons from the billing page rather than changing plan.