Set Up Your First Agent

1. Create Your Agent

From your dashboard, click Create Agent. BrainRoad spins up an isolated cloud environment for your agent — its own filesystem, browser, and runtime, completely separate from every other user.

Provisioning takes 15 to 30 seconds. You will see a progress animation while the container starts. During this time:

• The gateway container is being created
• Your agent’s trial API key is being provisioned
• OpenClaw (the agent runtime) is starting up

You can watch real-time progress on the onboarding screen. Once the progress completes, your agent is ready to use.

2. Your Trial Key (Automatic)

When your agent provisions, BrainRoad automatically creates a trial API key through OpenRouter. This key is configured inside your agent for you, so your first workflow can start immediately.

The trial key has a small credit balance so you can explore the platform and send your first messages without entering a credit card or creating an account with any AI provider. You do not need to activate anything. It is already configured inside your agent when it boots.

For full details on what happens during your trial, see What Happens During Your Trial.

3. Start Your First Governed Workflow

Once your agent is running, click Open Chat on your agent’s detail page. Type a message and press Enter. Your agent responds using the trial key.

Start with one real job, not a generic “what can you do?” test:

• “I’m brand new to BrainRoad. Recommend the best first job for you to own this week, the minimum setup you need, and what should stay behind approval.”
• “Research this company and give me a short brief with recent changes, open questions, and what I should verify before I reach out.”
• “Draft a customer follow-up for me, but keep it governed: show me the draft, what facts you still need, and what would go to approval before anything is sent.”

That is it — your agent is working. The entire flow from clicking Create Agent to getting a response takes under two minutes, and the safest path is to start with one concrete job plus a review step before anything is sent or changed.

4. Pick One First-Week Win

The fastest way to understand BrainRoad is to give your agent one job it can start owning this week. Keep the first job bounded, visible, and easy to verify.

1. Research Brief

• Best for: founders, consultants, sales, recruiting, partnerships
• Minimum setup: none beyond the included trial key or your own API key
• Safest mode: read-only
• Copy this prompt:

Research [company / market / topic] and give me:
1. what changed recently
2. why it matters
3. what I should verify next
4. the best follow-up questions before I act

2. Draft-First Email Assistant

• Best for: customer success, sales, founder inbox, follow-up work
• Minimum setup: paste the thread or connect email later
• Safest mode: draft only, then approve through triage before send
• Copy this prompt:

Draft a reply to this message. Keep it in governed mode:
- do not send anything
- tell me what facts are missing
- show me the version you would put into triage for approval

3. Repo or Document Triage

• Best for: developers, operators, technical founders
• Minimum setup: open the repo, docs, or files you want reviewed
• Safest mode: analysis first, then approve any code or file changes
• Copy this prompt:

Inspect this repo or document set and tell me the highest-leverage cleanup,
bug fix, or risk to address first. Explain why it matters and what you would
want approved before making changes.

4. Daily Briefing

• Best for: busy operators who want one trusted catch-up lane
• Minimum setup: none to start; connected channels make it better later
• Safest mode: read-only
• Copy this prompt:

Give me a daily brief for my role. Pull together the important changes,
open questions, and what deserves attention first today.

5. Workflow Discovery

• Best for: anyone still asking “what should my AI helper draft first?”
• Minimum setup: a few minutes of conversation about your work
• Safest mode: planning first
• Copy this prompt:

Interview me briefly about my work, then recommend the best workflow for you
to own this week. Tell me:
- the outcome
- the minimum setup
- what should stay behind approval
- the first step we should take today

5. Add Your Own API Key (When You Are Ready)

The trial key is meant for exploration. When your trial credit runs out — or when you want to use your own provider — the Key Concierge guides you through setup from the agent detail page.

The concierge appears automatically when your agent needs a key and presents three paths:

• Try Free — uses the included BrainRoad trial credit. No provider account required.
• Bring Your Own Key — opens a guided setup for the provider you choose. The concierge shows numbered steps, a link to the provider’s API key page, and a key prefix hint so you know what to paste.
• I don’t know what any of this means — opens a short decision tree. Answer a few questions (free first? cheapest? best quality? existing key?) and the concierge recommends a provider and walks you through it.

After you paste a key, the concierge waits for your gateway to restart, verifies the key with the provider, and then drops you directly into your first conversation — no detour back to the dashboard.

Your key is stored inside your agent’s isolated container. BrainRoad never sees your full key or your provider billing.

For help choosing a provider, see Choosing Your API Key Provider.

6. Run the Setup Wizard (Optional)

The setup wizard walks you through additional configuration:

• Agent name and personality — give your agent a name and define how it should communicate.
• Model selection — choose which AI model your agent defaults to.
• Channel connections — optionally connect WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage, or email so your agent can send and receive messages on your behalf.

Go to your agent’s detail page and click Run Setup Wizard. The wizard runs inside your agent’s container with a terminal panel showing real-time output. Some steps — like scanning a WhatsApp QR code — require you to watch the terminal and follow on-screen instructions.

For a detailed walkthrough of every wizard step, see the Setup Wizard guide.

What Happens Next

Your agent is running. Interact with it through Chat, monitor output on the Activity page, or open a terminal via the Console. Head to the Dashboard Overview to learn your way around.