---
title: "Quickstart"
description: "Get started with BackTalk: sign in, add your first keyword, run a sync, and triage your inbox. From nothing to a working dev-signal feed in a few minutes."
source: https://backtalk.sh/docs/getting-started
---
# Quickstart

BackTalk watches where developers talk (Hacker News, Reddit, GitHub, Stack Overflow, YouTube, Bluesky and more) and surfaces every mention of your keywords as a **signal** you can triage in one inbox. It also measures your **AI share of voice**: whether Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and more recommend you when someone asks a buying question.

This page takes you from nothing to a working feed in a few minutes.

## 1. Sign in

Open the app and sign in with **Google**. The first sign-in creates your workspace: your own keywords, inbox, and settings, private to you until you invite anyone.

## 2. Add your first keyword

Go to **Keywords** (from the inbox, use **Manage keywords**) and add one:

- **Phrase** is the concept to watch, such as `paypal sdk`.
- **Variants** are the other ways people write it (spellings and handles like `paypal-js` or `@paypal`). They do not count as extra keywords, though each variant runs its own search per platform.
- **Exclude terms** drop mentions you never want (for example `hiring, job`).

In a hurry? Paste a URL into **Suggest keywords from a link** (your site, docs, or a GitHub repo) and BackTalk proposes brand-shaped candidates you can add with one click.

See [Keywords and watchers](/docs/keywords) for the full setup, including grouping keywords into watchers.

## 3. Run the first sync

A new keyword kicks off its own first sweep right away and backfills the last 7 days. Out of the box that covers **Hacker News, dev.to and GitHub**; most other platforms switch on once you add their key, and Bluesky is enabled by the deployment operator (see [What BackTalk watches](/docs/sources)). You can also press **Sync now** whenever you need fresh results; each plan includes a daily allowance of manual syncs (see [Plans](/docs/plans)).

## 4. Triage your inbox

Open the **Inbox**. New mentions land in the **Inbox** view, each with a sentiment chip. Work through them:

- **Mark seen**, **Replied**, or **Ignore…** (with a reason that trains the filter), and **star** anything worth coming back to.
- Filter by source, watcher, keyword, sentiment and more from the left rail, or search the text.

Full details in [Inbox and triage](/docs/inbox).

## Next steps

- **Add an AI key** in **Settings → AI** to upgrade sentiment, category and priority from the free offline scorer to a real model, and to unlock [AI visibility](/docs/ai-visibility).
- **Turn on more platforms** with their keys in **Settings → Platform keys** ([which ones need a key](/docs/sources)).
- **Cut the noise** with [global ignore lists](/docs/global-ignore).
- **Get the digest** by email ([notifications](/docs/notifications)) or pushed to [Slack, Discord or a webhook](/docs/integrations).
- **Share the picture** with the [report and recap image](/docs/reports).
- **Invite your team** on the Business plan ([managing members](/docs/members)).
- **Ask us anything** from inside the app, and get the answer in your inbox too ([messages and support](/docs/messages)).