Set up your first project

The setup wizard turns one brand into a running project. You name the brand and its website, the autopilot reads the site and proposes service areas, competitors and the buyer questions to track, you keep what fits, tracking switches on, and you connect the mailbox outreach sends from. One decision per screen, six screens.

You meet it right after you create your workspace, and again whenever you press "New project". The wizard remembers where you left off, so you can leave part way through and come back later.

Before you start

A workspace is your organization on sourcesignal. It holds one plan, your projects (one for each brand you track) and your team. If you are signed in with no workspace yet, the first screen is "Name your workspace." Type a name, press "Create workspace", and step 1 opens. See Create your account.

The rail on the left lists the six steps in order: "Your brand", "Research", "Competitors", "Prompts", "Tracking", "Mailbox". Each finished step keeps a check mark and one fact, such as the brand name, "N areas" or "Live". Under the steps, the plan card reads "You're on <plan>", shows the trial clock while a trial runs, and shows the one limit the current step spends. "Compare plans" opens every plan side by side. On a phone the rail becomes a step bar with an "All steps" disclosure.

Step 1: Your brand

On your first project the screen is titled "Let's track your first brand."; on a later one, "Add a brand to track". You fill in:

• "Brand name" and "Website", both required. The website is read on the next step.
• "Target markets", in priority order, from United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Worldwide. The first country is where every prompt is checked; the rest shape the plan. With the United States on the list you can add the states you serve. At least one market is required. See Markets and locations.
• "Project name and industry", a disclosure. The project name defaults to the brand name. "Industry or niche" starts on "Auto-detect"; it is context for AI summaries and briefings and does not change what is checked.

Press "Create project". The wizard moves to Research by itself.

Step 2: Research

The site read starts on arrival, no click needed. The title reads "Reading <domain>" over a log of real events: your home page being read, "Mapping service areas…", "Found N service areas", "Industry detected: <industry>". At rest the title becomes "Your site maps to N service areas". Each area becomes one group of buyer questions.

• Hover an area chip to read why the AI proposed it. Remove the ones you do not offer.
• Type your own in "Add an area you serve…". A plan holds up to 12 areas.
• Change the detected industry with "Change" and "Save".
• "Re-read the site" reads again and keeps the areas you typed.

Press "Draft the plan from N areas". The plan keeps drafting while you move on to Competitors. Once a plan exists, the button reads "Continue", with "Draft again (replaces the competitors and prompts)" beside it.

A quiet "Deep dive" card sits under the read. It is an optional deeper read of your site, page by page and sitemap first, up to your plan's page budget. It drafts prompts for each service area your pages cover and proposes competitors. You approve its proposal before anything is added. On a trial the card reads "Choose a plan to unlock"; on a plan without it, "Upgrade to <plan>"; on a plan that carries it, "Run the deep dive". See Plans and limits.

Step 3: Competitors

"Who buyers compare you with" lists your own brand pinned at the top, then each proposed competitor with a checkbox, its website and an info hint, "Why <name>".

• Uncheck a competitor to drop it. Your unchecks are saved with the draft.
• "Add a competitor" by name and website. It is written to the project at once, tagged "Added by you", with a "Remove" button.
• If the proposal failed, add the ones you know or continue. More are added as they show up in AI answers.

Press "Continue with N competitors" or "Continue without competitors". See Competitors.

Step 4: Prompts

"What buyers ask AI" shows one accordion per group. The first group is open, the rest are folded. Each group has a checkbox for all its questions; each question has its own checkbox and a buying-stage chip (Awareness, Problem-aware, Research, Comparison, Consideration, Purchase).

• Check or uncheck questions and whole groups. A group with nothing checked is left out.
• Type your own question in "Add a question…" inside a group. It carries no stage chip until the question has been tracked.
• Add a group of your own research in "A group of your own…" and press "Group". A plan holds up to 12 groups.
• Read the count line, "N prompts · M competitors". The plan card counts your checks live against your plan's prompt allowance, which is one pool across all your projects.

Press "Add and start tracking". It writes the checked prompts and kept competitors and switches tracking on in the same press. One press adds up to 100 prompts and 15 competitors; add the rest afterward on the Prompts and Competitors pages. The button waits while the plan is still drafting, when nothing is checked, or when your selection is over the pool. See Prompts.

Step 5: Tracking

Tracking asks the AI engines your questions on a schedule and reads back what they answer and cite. Switching it on takes a minute or two. The screen logs the real stages, from "Preparing your tracking feed…" to "Tracking feed live", then reads "Tracking is live" with "N prompts are being checked." The next step opens by itself.

The engines are chosen per project. A new project starts on ChatGPT, AI Overviews and Perplexity; change the set any time in the project's settings, under AI engines. See AI engines.

If tracking does not switch on, the title reads "Tracking didn't switch on yet" with the reason. Your plan is saved either way. Press "Try again", or "Continue to the mailbox" and switch tracking on from the end screen later. If your workspace has no tracking feed yet, "Contact support" opens the support drawer prefilled with "Switch tracking on for <brand>".

Step 6: Mailbox

"Connect the mailbox that sends your outreach" offers "Connect Gmail" (Gmail or Google Workspace), "Connect Outlook" (Outlook or Microsoft 365) and "Connect other email" (any other provider, with IMAP and SMTP: you type the mailbox's details on the connection screen). You go to the connection screen and come straight back to this step, where "Confirming your mailbox" waits for the provider, usually a few seconds. After two minutes it offers "Check again".

When the address has no sender name or signature yet, owners and admins then see "Sign your pitches": the sender name and signature every pitch from this address ends with. Fill them in and press "Save and finish", or "Skip for now". Once connected, the step reads "Your mailbox is connected" with "Connect a different mailbox" beside it, and "Finish" moves you on.

You can skip the whole step with "Skip for now". Outreach waits for a mailbox, and the console's mailbox card and the setup companion keep the ask. The skip is remembered for this project in this browser. On a later project in a workspace that already has mailboxes, owners and admins pick the address instead: "Which address sends for <brand>?", then "Send from <email>" or "Connect another mailbox". A member reads which address an admin picked and presses "Finish". See Mailboxes.

The end screen

"You set up <brand>." says what you set up and what happens next:

• "Now": your prompts are queued with the project's engines.
• "Within hours": the first answers usually land within minutes to a few hours. The platform checks hourly for the first two days, then every morning at 06:00 UTC.
• "After that": pages the answers cite get a 0 to 100 priority. Every new project starts with a default rule on: Autopilot finds a contact and drafts a pitch for each page the rule picks up, the highest priority first, up to 30 a day. You review each one, and nothing sends until you launch it, or Spot or your agent does where you set "Emails and posts to publishers" to Apply at once. Without a mailbox, the line says Autopilot drafts pitches once outreach has one.

Anything still left has one line and one action: "Switch tracking on", "Check on tracking", "Connect a mailbox", "Pick the address" or "Sign your pitches". A tally reads "What you set up: N areas · N competitors · N prompts · N mailbox". Press "Open the console". What to do once answers land is in Your first week.

Finish later and coming back

"Finish later" sits in the top bar from Research on and takes you to the console. It steps aside while tracking is switching on. Three ways lead back: the setup companion's "Back to the setup wizard", "Continue setup" on the project's card in the project list, and "Continue setting up <name>" above the form on step 1 of a new setup. The wizard reopens at the step your project is actually at: a running read is picked up, a saved draft restores your unchecks, a project with prompts but no feed opens on Tracking.

Earlier steps are one click away in the rail, or Back, as long as nothing is running. They wait, with the reason on hover, while the site is being read, the plan is drafting or tracking is switching on.

The setup companion

On every page of a project that is not fully set up, a panel floats bottom right (not on phones). It is titled "Set up <project>" and lists the live steps as links: "Your brand", "Add prompts to track", "Add competitors", "Activate AI answer tracking", "First answers land" and "Connect a mailbox · optional". Done steps are checked, including steps finished elsewhere or by a teammate, which the panel picks up when you come back to the window.

Its button reads "Back to the setup wizard" until the project is running, then "Open the full setup". "Minimize" folds it to a pill, "Setup 1/3", counting the three core steps: prompts added, tracking active, first answers landed. Competitors and a mailbox never block it. Once the core is done you can remove the panel with "Remove (setup is complete)".

The full setup checklist

"Get set up" is the same setup on one page, for whoever prefers to add prompts by hand or wants to see where tracking got to. Open it from the companion's "Open the full setup".

• "Your brand": the brand card with "Edit" and "Brand domain".
• "Add the prompts you want to track": "Add prompt" one at a time, or "Bulk import" to paste a list, one per line. Each row has "Remove".
• "Review your competitor set": the roster with an add form and "Remove".
• "Activate AI answer tracking": "Set up my tracking", then the same stages as the wizard until "Tracking feed live".
• "Wait for the first answers": "Check now" asks the tracking feed right now. The result reads "Nothing has arrived yet" or "N answers landed. The console is waking up."
• "Connect a mailbox", marked "Optional".

The footer says it plainly: AI insights, briefings and the autopilot all need answers, and they wake up as soon as the first ones land.

Good to know

• Everything stays editable afterward. Prompts and competitors have their own pages, markets and engines live in the project's settings, and mailboxes in Settings, Mailboxes.
• Your plan's prompt allowance is one pool across all projects; a prompt counts once however many engines answer it.
• A buying stage is a first read. Once the prompt is tracked it is judged again, so the chip can change.
• Removing a competitor keeps its history for reporting. It may be proposed again if it keeps appearing in your AI answers.
• A member assigned to specific projects cannot create a project. An owner or admin adds it and gives access.
• The tracking feed is an Ahrefs Brand Radar report the platform creates for you. It is named in project settings, not in the wizard. See The answer feed and data updates.