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@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ engine does with it.
 
 | | |
 |---|---|
+| [Getting started](getting-started.md) | Bringing your people in: from an empty Kanidm to everyone at their own desk, from what the content says. |
 | [Architecture](architecture.md) | What the engine is made of and where each piece lives in the source. |
 | [Content reference](content-reference.md) | Every key a content repo may write, and what it does. |
 | [State machines](state-machines.md) | `aggregates.yaml`: stages, who moves a case, mail, deadlines, memberships. |
diff --git a/docs/getting-started.md b/docs/getting-started.md
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+# Getting started: bringing your people in
+
+A site is run by a handful of people: whoever answers for each question
+it asks, and whoever works each desk. This is how they get in - from
+an empty Kanidm to everyone signed in at their own desk - without
+anyone handing out passwords or running an admin tool per person.
+
+The idea in one line: **the content says who is involved, and portal
+makes their accounts.** A page names who is responsible for it; a
+directory is gated on a group; a desk may invite into groups. Portal
+reads that and does the rest at start.
+
+## What you need
+
+- A content repo, and a portal instance running it
+  ([Operations](operations.md) has adding a site).
+- A Kanidm of the site's own. Group names below are exactly the ones
+  the content uses, with no prefix; that is only safe when the Kanidm
+  serves this site alone.
+- Mail: `mail: { from }` in `site.yaml`, and gdo on the host. Without
+  it accounts are still made, but nobody hears about them.
+
+## 1. Say who is involved, in the content
+
+Three things in the content decide who needs an account:
+
+| content | who | what they get |
+|---|---|---|
+| `responsible: { name, contact }` on a page | the person answering for that question | an account, and a mail saying they are listed as responsible for asking it |
+| `qualifies: styret` on a page or `_section.yaml` | members of that group | the pages and desks under it |
+| `invite: { group: kasserer }` on a desk page | the desk's own group | the right to bring people into `kasserer` |
+
+The desk whose group may invite into the most groups is the site's most
+privileged one; on a vel that is the board. Portal works that out from
+the content (see step 4).
+
+## 2. Set up Kanidm for portal
+
+Portal needs four things from Kanidm. The
+[tomtervel/infrastructure](https://prosjekt.klingenbergbygg.no/tomtervel/infrastructure)
+repo's `kanidm-setup.sh` does all of them and is a good starting point;
+by hand, as `idm_admin`:
+
+```sh
+K="kanidm -D idm_admin -H https://id.example.no"
+
+# An onboarding account: may create people and issue a first password
+# link, nothing more. pii_read lets an invite find someone who already
+# has an account by their email instead of making a second one.
+$K service-account create portal-onboarding "Portal onboarding" idm_admin
+$K group add-members idm_people_on_boarding portal-onboarding
+$K group add-members idm_people_pii_read portal-onboarding
+
+# One group per `qualifies:` in the content, managed by that account:
+# adding a member to a group takes the right to manage it.
+for g in styret kasserer trafikk; do
+  $K group create "$g" portal-onboarding
+done
+
+# The sign-in client. Everyone in this Kanidm may sign in; what they
+# see comes from their groups, in the `groups` claim.
+$K system oauth2 create portal "My site" https://site.example.no
+$K system oauth2 add-redirect-url portal https://site.example.no/auth/callback
+$K system oauth2 update-scope-map portal idm_all_persons openid profile email
+for g in styret kasserer trafikk; do
+  $K system oauth2 update-claim-map portal groups "$g" "$g"
+done
+$K system oauth2 update-claim-map-join portal groups array
+
+# The onboarding token, read-write, shown once: into portal's env.
+$K service-account api-token generate portal-onboarding portal --readwrite
+```
+
+Then portal's environment:
+
+| variable | value |
+|---|---|
+| `KANIDM_URL` | `https://id.example.no` |
+| `OAUTH2_CLIENT_ID`, `OAUTH2_CLIENT_SECRET` | the client above (`show-basic-secret`) |
+| `KANIDM_API_TOKEN` | the onboarding token |
+
+## 3. Name the first person
+
+Someone has to be first: every later person is invited from a desk,
+and on an empty Kanidm there is no desk anyone can open yet.
+
+| variable | value |
+|---|---|
+| `SEED_ADMIN_EMAIL` | the first person's address |
+| `SEED_ADMIN_NAME` | their name, as it should appear (optional) |
+| `SEED_GROUP` | a group to put them in, if not the most privileged one (optional) |
+| `RESPONSIBLE_GROUP` | a group every responsible person joins, e.g. `redaktor` (optional) |
+
+## 4. Start portal
+
+At start, portal:
+
+1. **Invites the first person** into `SEED_GROUP`, or the most
+   privileged group, and mails them the one-time link. Once: it is
+   remembered in the `portal_seed` bucket, so restarts and upgrades
+   never send a second link.
+2. **Makes an account for everyone named responsible** who has none,
+   and mails them that they are listed as responsible for asking those
+   questions, with their link. With `RESPONSIBLE_GROUP` they all join
+   it; someone who already had an account is added without a mail.
+
+Kanidm may still be starting beside portal, so a failed attempt is
+tried again, a minute apart. The log says what happened, per person.
+
+## 5. The rest come in from the desks
+
+From here nobody touches Kanidm:
+
+- **At a desk**, whoever may invite fills in a name and an address.
+  Portal makes the account, adds them to the group, and mails the link.
+  The invites sent are listed on that desk.
+- **A decision can be the invitation.** A state with `grants: group`
+  in `aggregates.yaml` puts the person a case is about into that group
+  when the case arrives there - an approved committee application that
+  *is* the membership.
+- **A new page with a new responsible person** gets them an account at
+  the next start.
+
+## 6. What the people who ask the questions can do
+
+Signed in, a person a page names as responsible sees a card at the
+foot of their own pages to suggest a change. The server checks it is
+really them; the suggestion is kept (`portal_edit_suggestions`),
+announced (`portal.edits.suggested`), and mailed to the site's inbox
+with them as reply-to, so answering it answers them.
+
+Their group can also be the way into other tools. The vel's
+`redaktor` group signs in to the project Gitea with the same account:
+a second OAuth2 client scoped to that group alone.
+
+## When it does not work
+
+| what you see | why |
+|---|---|
+| an invite fails with `403` setting `mail` | a portal before 0.5.4 set the address in a second call; the onboarding account may create but not modify |
+| an invite fails with `404` adding to a group | the group is not managed by `portal-onboarding`: `group set-entry-manager <group> portal-onboarding` |
+| `Item not found` setting the login page's name or logo | those are system settings only `admin` may change, not `idm_admin` - or the CLI and server versions differ |
+| accounts are made but nobody is mailed | `site.yaml` has no `mail.from`, or gdo is not running on the host |
+| someone responsible never got a mail | they already had an account (they are only added to `RESPONSIBLE_GROUP`), or their `contact` is not an email address |
+| the first person was invited twice | it cannot be, per address and group; changing `SEED_ADMIN_EMAIL` or `SEED_GROUP` invites the new pair |