Setting up your workspace

When you create a new workspace, Monad's setup wizard helps you build it. Tell it about your team in your own words and it recommends a starter workspace: channels for the things you actually work on, a document or two, a database, and an agent that does something useful on a schedule.

Monad opens with a short welcome written just for you — it greets you by name and, when it can tell which company you're with from your email, says so up front. If it hasn't quite placed you yet, it opens with a friendly hello instead; either way, you can jump straight into describing your team.

Setting up with Monad#

1. Tell Monad what your team does, then answer a couple of quick questions about your size and what you'd like set up first.

2. Monad replies in the conversation with a recommended setup — an editable card right in the chat. Each item shows a name and a one-line description; freshly added items are marked NEW. Channels come with a color and, where one fits, an emoji icon, so your sidebar is easy to scan from day one. Click a channel's name to rename it, or its description to edit it in place; click a channel's tile to pick an emoji, or its color swatch to choose an accent — or just ask Monad to recolor a channel or swap its emoji. Under Agents, the built-in Monad assistant always appears as a locked row — it comes with every workspace, so you can't rename or remove it, but it's there from day one alongside any agents you add. Each proposed agent arrives as a real teammate: its row shows its instructions (a short preview of how it's been briefed to do its job) and the channels it works in (so a digest agent for #release-prep is actually a member of #release-prep from day one). An agent can also arrive already on a schedule — its row shows its scheduled wake-ups (for example "Weekdays at 09:00" or "Fridays at 17:00", shown in your timezone), so it starts doing useful work on a regular cadence the moment your workspace is created instead of waiting to be asked. Ask Monad to adjust any of it — "tell the digest agent to keep it to five bullets", "add it to #leadership too", "have it post every Monday morning" — and it updates the plan. For larger teams, Monad may also propose groups — bundles of people that keep a shared audience together. Documents and databases show a small pill for each channel or group they'll live in — any of them can be shared across more than one — so you can see where everything lands before it's created. A database in the plan can also arrive with its own emoji, starter columns — each showing the kind of value it holds, like text, a date, or a pick-list — and a few example rows, so it opens as a ready-to-use table instead of a blank one. Ask Monad to adjust the columns, swap the emoji, or clear the examples if you'd rather start empty. A document can likewise arrive with its own emoji and a starter draft — a light outline you extend — instead of a blank page; ask Monad to expand it or start it empty.

3. Shape the plan until it's right:

   • Remove anything you don't want — the trash button on each row asks you to confirm first, and removing a channel or group also removes the documents and databases that live inside it.
   • Rename a channel or edit its description right on its row — click the name or the description to type a new one (leave the description blank to clear it).
   • Set a channel's color and emoji right on its row, and add or remove the spaces a document or database lives in (each shows an "In …" row with a ＋ to add a space and a × on each to remove it).
   • Ask Monad in the chat to change things — "add a #hiring channel", "trim to three channels", "drop the asset database", "add a launch checklist doc", "make #sales green with a 💰 emoji", "add a leadership group and put the strategy doc in it". It updates the plan as you go.

   The setup card stays in the conversation like any other message. When you send a follow-up, the earlier card makes way so your new messages read in order, and Monad's updated plan appears fresh at the bottom — you always see just the latest setup, never a stale copy.

4. When you're happy, click Create workspace. Monad creates everything and drops you into your new workspace.

Nothing is created until you click Create workspace — the plan is just a draft, so explore freely. If you step away, you can come back and pick up where you left off.

When Monad already knows your company#

If you signed up with a work email, Monad takes a quick look at your company's public website (from your email domain) before you start, so it can save you some typing. If you signed up with a personal email (like Gmail), the signup form quietly adds an optional Work website field — fill in your company's site (for example acme.com) and Monad will take the same quick look using that instead.

When it finds your company, the very first thing you see is a short read-only card with what it found — the company name and a brief summary — and a simple question: does this look right? It always checks with you first, because a quick look can be out of date or mix up similarly-named companies, so treat it as Monad's opening guess, not the final word:

• Click Yes, that's us and Monad keeps the profile, then starts the conversation already knowing what your company does — so it skips those questions and gets you to a recommended setup faster.
• Click No, that's not right and Monad throws the profile away and just asks you the usual questions instead. (This also removes it from the Company profile card in your workspace settings.)

Either way, nothing is created yet, and the setup conversation begins right after you answer.

If your name is on your company's public team or about page, Monad may also think it has spotted you and ask you to confirm your role — "I think you might be the Dana listed as Creative Director, is that right?" Just confirm it or correct it; if it's the wrong person, tell Monad and it moves on. It uses your role to tailor what it sets up for you, so it's worth a quick correction.

You'll only see this when Monad has a reasonable read on your company — if it isn't sure, it simply asks you the usual questions. The work website is entirely optional: leave it blank and Monad just asks you the usual questions instead.

Starting fresh#

If the conversation has wandered and you'd rather begin again, click Start over at the top of the wizard. It clears the chat and the drafted plan and takes you back to the opening greeting. Nothing has been created yet, so there's nothing to undo — you just get a clean slate.

Prefer to set it up yourself?#

Not in the mood to chat? Click Set it up myself at the top of the wizard and you'll go straight to the ready-made #general and #random channels every workspace starts with. Add your own channels, documents, and agents whenever you like.

What every workspace starts with#

However you set things up, every new workspace comes with two channels — #general and #random — already in place, so you're never staring at an empty sidebar. These two are always included: you'll see them in your setup plan as locked channels you can't remove, right alongside the ones Monad drafts for you. You'll find a welcome message from Monad waiting in them, and that same welcome appears in both channels at once: it's a quick taste of a handy Monad feature — a single message can live in more than one channel, so you don't have to copy and repost it. The other channels Monad sets up for you start empty and ready for your team's first message.

Inviting your team#

You can ask Monad to invite teammates by email while setting up, or invite them any time afterward from your workspace settings. Invited teammates land straight in the channels you've set up for them.