> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cognee.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Quick Start

> Upload data, build a knowledge graph, and search — in under five minutes

After [creating your account](/cognee-cloud/sign-up), brand-new users land on a **Welcome to Cognee Cloud** splash — *Your AI memory layer.* Click **Let's go →** to begin onboarding. You can also reach onboarding at any time from the sidebar under **Onboarding**.

<Note>
  On your first sign-in a **Personal Workspace** is created for you automatically — there is no naming step. The welcome screen appears right away while the workspace finishes provisioning in the background. You can create additional workspaces later and give them a name. Uploaded data lands in your **`default_dataset`**.
</Note>

## Choose how to start

Onboarding opens with **How do you want to start?** and offers three paths:

<CardGroup cols={1}>
  <Card title="Claude Code" icon="terminal">
    Connect your Claude Code agent to Cognee Cloud as a memory layer.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Codex" icon="terminal">
    Connect your Codex agent to Cognee Cloud as a memory layer.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Company Brain" icon="building">
    Upload your own data and build a searchable knowledge graph.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Company Brain flow

If you choose **Company Brain**, onboarding guides you through three steps.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Connect your data">
    Drag files into the drop zone, click to browse, or paste text content directly. Supported formats: PDF, CSV, TXT, Markdown, and JSON.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Building your memory">
    Cognee processes your data automatically: **Setting up workspace** → **Uploading files** → **Building knowledge graph**. This runs the same pipeline as the [`cognify`](/core-concepts/main-operations/legacy-operations/cognify) operation. Processing time depends on the volume of data.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Ask cognee anything">
    Once your knowledge graph is ready, enter a natural language query and Cognee searches the graph and returns contextual results — the same mechanism as [`recall`](/core-concepts/main-operations/recall) and [`search`](/core-concepts/main-operations/legacy-operations/search). When you're ready, click **Connect my agent now →**.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Agent flow (Claude Code / Codex)

If you choose **Claude Code** or **Codex**, onboarding helps you wire your agent into Cognee Cloud.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open your terminal">
    The panel opens with **Connect Claude Code** (or **Codex**) and the reminder "Run this setup in your Terminal — not inside Claude Code." Everything here is run from your own shell, not from inside the agent.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Copy and run">
    Onboarding gives you a single block to paste: it writes your `COGNEE_BASE_URL` and `COGNEE_API_KEY` to `~/.cognee/.env` — the file both the Claude Code and the Codex plugin read at session start — and registers and installs the plugin in the same paste. Because the credentials live in a file rather than the shell's environment, they survive closing the terminal, and re-running the block replaces the old values instead of stacking duplicates.

    Use the **Mac / Windows** toggle at the top right of the panel to pick your shell — on **Windows** the block comes out as PowerShell (`New-Item` + `Set-Content`, with `icacls` locking the file to your user) and the step above it tells you to open PowerShell rather than Terminal. The same toggle sits inside the dashboard's connect modals and the Integrations page's setup modals; see [Mac / Windows](/cognee-cloud/ui/integrations#mac--windows) for everything it rewrites. For cmd.exe, or to set the credentials by hand, see the [Claude Code](/cognee-cloud/agent-integrations/claude-code#2-point-it-at-cognee-cloud) or [Codex](/cognee-cloud/agent-integrations/codex#2-point-it-at-cognee-cloud) integration pages.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Start your agent">
    Run `claude` (or `codex`). In Claude Code you should now see Cognee in the status bar; with Codex, memory connects automatically from here.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Continue to the dashboard">
    Click **Continue**. It is always enabled — onboarding does not wait to detect agent activity before letting you through. **Back** returns to the agent picker, and **Set up later** skips the whole flow.

    <Note>
      Agent not recalling anything? Confirm `~/.cognee/.env` exists and contains both `COGNEE_BASE_URL` and `COGNEE_API_KEY`, and that you started the agent after writing it. Then see "Debugging & Resuming Sessions" in the full guide: [Claude Code](/integrations/claude-code-integration) · [Codex](/integrations/codex-integration).
    </Note>
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  You can skip the onboarding at any point and return to it later. All progress is preserved.
</Note>

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Overview" href="/cognee-cloud/ui/dashboard" icon="layout-dashboard">
    Overview of your workspace, stats, and quick actions.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Open Brains" href="/cognee-cloud/ui/datasets" icon="brain">
    Manage your data and knowledge graphs.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Connect an agent" href="/cognee-cloud/ui/integrations" icon="plug">
    Use Cognee as memory for your agent.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Cloud functionality" href="/cognee-cloud/functionality/data-ingestion" icon="cloud">
    Explore the full API surface available in Cognee Cloud.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>