# First steps

From a fresh install to a first issue in your subscribers' inboxes.

Paste this into your agent:

> Set the sender on my Mailpiece newsletter, write a first post from my notes and send me a test. Read mailpiece.dev/llms.txt first.

## Sign in

Go to `/signup`, as in `https://app.example.com/signup`, and enter your email address. Until the first account exists the code is shown on screen, so this works before mail is set up; after, it goes by email.

Give your name and you're in. The newsletter starts out named after you; change its name, description and logo on Settings › Newsletter.

## Set the sender

On Settings › Sending, fill in the From name and the From address, on a domain verified with your sending service, and a Reply to if you like. Until both are set, nothing goes out by email and the subscribe forms take no one; a post says "Email sending is not set up".

On Settings › Outgoing mail, set the relay or SMTP server its mail leaves through: without one, nothing goes out either. See [Mail](https://mailpiece.dev/docs/mail).

## Write a post and test it

Under Posts, press New post and write. It saves as a draft.

Send a test, in the post's bar, mails the draft to your own address, or any other, with `[Test]` before the title. Subscribers don't get it.

## Paste in a snippet

Write the things you say again and again once, such as a sign-off or a sponsor note, as snippets under Posts › Snippets.

In a post or a welcome email, type `/` and the snippet's name, then pick it. Its text is pasted in for you to change. The post keeps its own copy, so changing or deleting the snippet later leaves what you wrote alone.

## Publish or schedule it

The arrow beside the main button picks where it goes (on the web and by email, on the web only, by email only, or on the web by link only) and the publication date. The button says what will happen, as in "Publish and send to 120 subscribers", or "Schedule and send" for a date ahead.

Only confirmed subscribers are mailed. An email that has gone out cannot be changed or sent again.

## See how it did

Each issue ends with a line asking the reader to tell you if they liked it or if it wasn't for them. A click opens a page where they confirm, and they can change their mind. The links work for a month.

Press Results at the top of the post to see how many liked it and how many said it wasn't for them, and how many people subscribed from the post's page.

Results also lists every link the issue mailed. They go through Mailpiece, so you can fix where one leads after it went out: press Edit beside it.

## Bring in subscribers

On Subscribers, Add subscribers takes addresses typed in, or Import subscribers... reads a CSV with an "email" column or a text file with one address per line, up to 1,000 at a time. Untick any you don't want, then add them. They are confirmed at once, with no confirmation email. An address that unsubscribed or bounced is skipped, since only they can subscribe again, and so is one you stopped.

Settings › Subscribe form gives you a form to copy onto your own website, and the page to send people to after. Your newsletter's own pages have one too. Someone who subscribes there gets a confirmation email, and is mailed once they confirm.

## Welcome emails

Journeys, at the top of Posts, are emails that go out by themselves to new subscribers. Under When someone subscribes, add a New email with its subject, message and the days after subscribing it waits, send yourself a test, and press Start sending.

They start when someone confirms from the link, or when you confirm someone who hasn't, never for subscribers you add or import.

## Greet first-time visitors

Settings › Welcome is for people who haven't subscribed yet. Turn it on, and someone new to your newsletter's home page sees only its name, description and subscribe form, with Let me read it first to go on to the posts. Write a Welcome message to show there in place of the description.

It shows only while email sending is set up, and once a visitor subscribes or reads on, it doesn't show again in that browser. It mails nothing: what new subscribers get by email are the welcome emails above.

## From an agent

All of this can be done from the `mailpiece` CLI, or by an agent through its MCP server and skill. See [Agents and the CLI](https://mailpiece.dev/docs/agents).

Still need help? Ask on [GitHub](https://github.com/mailpiece/mailpiece).