Legend

Quick Start

This walkthrough takes you from nothing to a small, working map in well under an hour. You can map a single team first and expand later, so there is no need to plan the whole organization up front. If you just want to deploy the software, the Installation page in the Admin Guide has the full procedure; this page focuses on getting your first content into the map.

Before you begin

You need three things to complete this walkthrough:

  1. A running Legend instance you can open in a browser. If you do not have one yet, follow the Installation page first, then come back here.
  2. An administrator account. This is created the first time you open a fresh instance.
  3. A short list of real people, teams, and systems to start with. Five to ten entities is plenty for a first pass.

Screenshot: the first-run setup screen where the initial administrator account is created.

Step 1: Sign in and orient yourself

  1. Open your instance URL in a browser and sign in with your administrator account.
  2. Take note of the main navigation: the map view, the Agents list, the Landmarks list, and search.
  3. If you are on a paid plan, open the settings area and paste in the license key from the customer portal. The Community tier runs without a key.

Step 2: Add your first Agents

Agents are the people and teams in your organization. Start with the owners who answer the most questions.

  1. Open the Agents view and choose the option to create a new Agent.
  2. Add a team first, for example "Platform Engineering", and give it a short description.
  3. Add two or three people, and record which team each person belongs to.

You do not need everyone on day one. A few key owners are enough to make the map useful.

Step 3: Add your first Landmarks

Landmarks are the things people need to find. Add the ones your team touches most often.

  1. Open the Landmarks view and choose the option to create a new Landmark.
  2. Create a service you operate, for example "Billing API", and set its type to Service.
  3. Create a process everyone asks about, for example "New Hire Onboarding", and set its type to Process.
  4. Create a document, for example a runbook, and set its type to Documentation.

Screenshot: the Landmark editor with the name, type, and owner fields filled in for the Billing API.

Step 4: Connect them

The value of the map comes from the connections, not the entities on their own.

  1. Open the Billing API Landmark and set its owner to the Platform Engineering team.
  2. Link the runbook document to the Billing API so the explanation sits next to the service it describes.
  3. Open the New Hire Onboarding process and link it to the people or team that runs it, plus any systems it touches.

Now a service points to its owner, a process points to the systems it uses, and a document sits next to the thing it explains.

Step 5: Search and follow the map

  1. Open search and type part of a name, for example "billing".
  2. Select the Billing API from the results.
  3. From the entity, follow its relationships to reach its owner and its runbook.

That first successful search is the moment the map starts paying off. When a colleague asks "who owns billing?", the answer is now one search away instead of a round of messages.

Where to go next

  • Read Core Concepts to understand Agents, Landmarks, and relationships in depth.
  • Use the User Guide to add more entities and keep the map accurate.
  • Hand the Admin Guide to whoever runs your infrastructure for install, SSO, and backups.