Quickstart

#Pick a path

:::tabs --- Managed Cloud (recommended)

The fastest way to start. No infrastructure, no env files.

1. Sign up for the cloud — create an account at /sign-up on your AnswerixAI host. All paid plans include a 14-day free trial.
2. Add your first brand — the onboarding wizard asks for your brand name, primary domain, and a short description. AnswerixAI auto-suggests starter topics and prompts — you can edit them or accept all.
3. Wait for the first tracking run — the first round of AI engine queries runs automatically and completes in 5–15 minutes.
4. Open Answer Engine Insights — once tracking finishes, head to Insights in the sidebar. You'll see your initial visibility score, platform breakdown, and the prompts where you're cited (or not).

--- Self-host

For teams who want full control and zero per-seat pricing. AnswerixAI is a single Laravel 12 application — one codebase serves the dashboard, the API, and the background workers.

1. Clone the repo and install dependencies

   bashCopy

   git clone <your-repo-url> answerix
   cd answerix/laravel
   composer install
   npm install && npm run build
   cp .env.example .env
   php artisan key:generate
   

2. Configure the environment — set your PostgreSQL connection (DB_*), at least one AI provider key (OPENAI_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, or GEMINI_API_KEY), and a Cloro API key for web-engine scraping. Leave IS_CLOUD=false — all features unlock automatically. See Env variables for the full reference.

3. Run database migrations

   bashCopy

   php artisan migrate
   

4. Start the app and workers

   bashCopy

   php artisan serve          # HTTP (use a real web server in production)
   php artisan queue:work     # background tracking / content jobs
   php artisan schedule:work  # daily tracking scheduler
   php artisan reverb:start   # optional: realtime dashboard updates
   

5. Sign up and onboard — open the app, create the first user account, then follow the onboarding flow to add your first brand.

:::

#What happens next

After your first tracking run completes, the dashboard fills with data. The most useful first walkthrough:

• Read your visibility score — understand what the score means and how it's calculated.
• Review citations — see which third-party URLs AI engines trust to talk about you.
• Find content gaps — generate AI content briefs to close visibility gaps.
• Add competitors — benchmark your AI presence against named rivals.