# Quick start

> From an empty window to a playing, published track in about five minutes.

You need three things: a Songcode [account](https://docs.songco.de/account/), which takes an invite to create while Songcode is in [early access](https://docs.songco.de/account/early-access/), a current desktop browser, and an API key from Anthropic or OpenAI. The key is how the track gets written: Songcode sends your prompt to the model you pick, on your account, and the model sends back code.

## 1. Open the app

Go to [studio.songco.de](https://studio.songco.de/) and sign in. The first time, the window is empty: a composer on the left, an empty stage on the right, and a note under the generate button that says a key is missing.

![The app on a first visit. Nothing is loaded and no key is saved.](https://docs.songco.de/img/first-run.webp)

On that first visit Songcode also shows you around. A card lights one part of the window at a time and says what it is for, in 6 steps. Press **next** to follow it, or the **×** to close it and start on your own. It covers the same ground as this page in half a minute. [The first-visit tour](https://docs.songco.de/app/#the-first-visit-tour) has the details, and how to see it again.

![The first step of the tour: the prompt is lit and the rest of the window is dimmed.](https://docs.songco.de/img/first-visit.webp)

## 2. Add your key

Click the key icon at the top right, or just press **generate**: with no key saved, the key sheet opens by itself.

![The key sheet. Pick the provider, paste the key, save.](https://docs.songco.de/img/key-sheet-empty.webp)

Pick **anthropic** or **openai**, paste the key and press **save**. The key is stored in this browser only. [API keys and models](https://docs.songco.de/app/models-and-keys/) covers where to get one and exactly where it goes.

## 3. Describe the track

Type what you want into **prompt**. Plain words work: a mood, a tempo, instruments, a place. Then pick a **genre**. The genre sets the tempo range, the drum kit and the conventions the model follows, so the prompt can stay short.

![The composer: prompt, genre, length and model.](https://docs.songco.de/img/composer.webp)

Leave **length** on **loop** for now. A loop is a few bars that repeat without a seam, and it is written in seconds. Leave **composition quality** as it is: sonnet at medium reasoning on an Anthropic key, **balanced** on a plan.

## 4. Generate

Press **generate** or `⌘↵`. The code appears on the right as the model writes it, with grey bars standing in for the lines still to come.

![A loop being written. The button now says stop.](https://docs.songco.de/img/generating.webp)

When the model finishes, Songcode runs the code once without sound to check that every stem plays. If something is broken it asks the model for one fix. The status line at the bottom then reads `done`, with the model and the number of stems checked.

## 5. Play it

Press the green play button or `space`. The first play loads the Songcode Audio Engine and the sounds, which takes a few seconds.

![The loop playing. The clock shows the position and the meter shows the level.](https://docs.songco.de/img/playing.webp)

`space` pauses and resumes. The square button next to play stops and goes back to the start.

## 6. Change something

The code on the right is the track. Find the block that starts with `stem kick:` and change a mark in its row, for example a `.` to an `x` to add a hit. The **update** button in the transport lights up. Press it and the change takes over without stopping the music.

Prefer handles to code? Click **stems** above the editor. Every stem in the code becomes a track with a mute button, a solo button, a pan knob and a level slider.

![The same loop in the stems view.](https://docs.songco.de/img/stems.webp)

## 7. Keep it

The track was kept as a draft the moment it was written, and every edit since is kept too; it is in the library under **drafts**. Press **publish** to give it a short link that you can send to anyone. **download** gives you the source, a WAV or an MP3, rendered in your browser.

![A published track. The pill next to publish is its link.](https://docs.songco.de/img/track-actions.webp)

## Where to go next

- [Compose a track](https://docs.songco.de/app/compose/) explains prompts, genres, loops against full tracks, and what happens while a track is written.
- [Advanced controls](https://docs.songco.de/app/advanced/) lists the 30 settings that steer the model.
- [The stems view](https://docs.songco.de/app/stems/) and [edit a stem](https://docs.songco.de/app/stem-editor/) cover the mixer, the timeline and the note editor.
- [The song format](https://docs.songco.de/ode/language/) explains how to read the code.

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This page on the web: https://docs.songco.de/start/quick-start/
Every page of the Songcode docs, for agents: https://docs.songco.de/llms.txt (index) and https://docs.songco.de/llms-full.txt (all of it in one file).