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

# Quickstart

> Choose the right Atlas path for public discovery, team workflows, or technical integration.

Atlas is easiest to understand by starting with what you need to do. You may be
trying to learn who is doing good work in a place, turn that research into a
team artifact, or build an integration on top of the same source-linked data.

Every path below starts from the same premise: Atlas should help you find real
people and organizations, inspect why the record is credible, and act without
losing the sources behind the claim.

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Public users" icon="magnifying-glass" href="/docs/quickstart-browse">
    Search the public directory, open profiles, inspect source evidence, and
    understand who is working on an issue in a place.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Civic teams" icon="users" href="/docs/workspace/customer-workflow">
    Save actors, create briefs, track coverage, watch for changes, and export
    proof for a nonprofit, newsroom, funder, or research team.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Developers and agents" icon="code" href="/docs/api">
    Use the API, MCP server, Scout CLI, OpenAPI contract, or self-hosted
    deployment to build on Atlas.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## If you want to understand a place

Start with the public directory. Search for a place and issue, open a result,
and read the sources before you decide whether the record is useful.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Search a place and issue">
    Use [Browse Atlas](/docs/quickstart-browse) to search for a place such as Detroit
    and an issue such as housing affordability.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open a profile">
    Look for the profile header, issue tags, location, source count, and source
    panel. A useful profile should make it clear what Atlas knows and where that
    knowledge came from.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Inspect the evidence">
    Read the source title, publication, date, URL, and excerpt before you act on
    the record. The [trust guide](/docs/resources/trust) explains how to interpret
    partial, stale, and single-source evidence.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## If you are working as a team

Teams usually need a path from discovery to a decision artifact. Atlas
workspaces are for that handoff: source-backed profiles become lists, briefs,
coverage targets, watches, and exports.

<Card title="Build a source-linked briefing" icon="file-text" href="/docs/workspace/customer-workflow">
  Follow the Phoenix nonprofit walkthrough from public discovery to a reusable
  brief, coverage review, and evidence export.
</Card>

## If you are building with Atlas

Developers and agents should use the human guides to understand the model, then
use the generated reference for exact request and response shapes.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Use the API" icon="code" href="/docs/api/guides/entities">
    Find organizations working on transit in Nevada and inspect their sources.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Run Scout and sync results" icon="terminal" href="/docs/scout/overview">
    Run discovery locally, sync the run to Atlas, and open the resulting workspace
    run.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Connect an AI assistant" icon="robot" href="/docs/mcp/overview">
    Use Atlas through Claude, Copilot, Gemini, Codex, or another MCP client.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Self-host Atlas" icon="server" href="/docs/self-hosting/guide">
    Deploy the app, API, docs proxy, OpenAPI route, and persistent storage.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## What to read next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Trust and provenance" icon="shield-check" href="/docs/resources/trust">
    The most important page if you need to understand what Atlas claims, what it
    does not claim, and how corrections work.
  </Card>

  <Card title="How Atlas works" icon="gears" href="/docs/how-it-works">
    The discovery pipeline explained without requiring backend knowledge.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>