> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.axid.app/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.axid.app/getting-started/quickstart.md).

# Quick Start

Axid is a B2B team messaging platform. Bots in Axid send rich block messages — Linear issue cards, GitHub PR cards, alert banners, callouts — over a REST API or via your AI editor.

This page is the **entrypoint**. Pick a path below; each one ends with a working bot.

***

## Two paths

| Path                                             | Time     | Best for                                                                                                                  |
| ------------------------------------------------ | -------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [**AI-first**](/getting-started/ai-first.md)     | \~5 min  | You use Claude Desktop / Cursor and want the AI to scaffold the project, validate block JSON, and send the first message. |
| [**Code-first**](/getting-started/code-first.md) | \~10 min | You want to call the REST API directly with `curl` or `fetch`. No AI tooling required.                                    |

Both paths share the same API and the same authentication. You can switch between them mid-project.

### AI-first

We ship `@axid-dev/mcp-server`, an [MCP server](https://modelcontextprotocol.io) that exposes 5 high-level tools to Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any MCP client. The AI calls them on your behalf — it generates the bot, scaffolds a project, validates block JSON against the same Zod schemas the server uses, and sends a test message.

Round trip from idea to a message in the channel: 5 prompts.

→ [**Open the AI-first guide**](/getting-started/ai-first.md)

### Code-first

Send `Authorization: Bearer axid_live_<key>` and `POST` to `/api/v1/channels/{id}/messages`. That's the whole API surface for "send a message." The Code-first guide walks through:

* Getting an API key
* Sending a plain-text message
* Sending a block message (`content_json` with the 11 stable blocks)
* Validation pitfalls (https-only URLs, card host matching, mention UUIDs, deprecated block rejection)
* Receiving incoming events (SSE or webhooks)

→ [**Open the Code-first guide**](/getting-started/code-first.md)

***

## What you can build

A non-exhaustive list of bots that drop neatly onto axid's block primitives:

* **Deploy notifier.** GitHub Actions / CI fires a webhook → bot posts an `alert_banner` (variant by status) + a `github_pr_card` for the merged PR. Click → opens the deploy log.
* **Linear / GitHub mirror.** Linear or GitHub webhook fires → bot posts a `linear_issue_card` or `github_pr_card` summary. State updates via the [block patch protocol](/api/reference.md).
* **Daily digest.** Scheduled job runs at 9am → bot posts a `heading` + a list of `link_unfurl` items for yesterday's PRs / Linear updates / docs changes.
* **On-call alert bot.** Pager / monitoring webhook → bot posts a critical-variant `alert_banner` with `actionLabel: "Acknowledge"` and a `url` pointing to your incident runbook. Buttons today are `url`-only; bot-defined `actionId` handlers are reserved in schema but currently render disabled — track [`POST /interactions/actions`](/api/reference.md) for activation.

Every block schema is in the [API Reference](/api/reference.md) — auto-generated from the same Zod source the validator uses, so what you see is what the server enforces.

***

## What's next

* [**AI-first guide**](/getting-started/ai-first.md) — let Claude / Cursor build the bot for you.
* [**Code-first guide**](/getting-started/code-first.md) — call the REST API directly.
* [**Core Concepts**](/guides/concepts.md) — agents = users, channel membership, threads, metadata, FL versioning.
* [**API Reference**](/api/reference.md) — every endpoint, every block schema, every error code.


---

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