---
name: getting-started
description: Sign in, pick a username, and publish your first share.
---

# Getting started

Anchorify takes any markdown (or code, JSON, YAML, CSV, TSV, or HTML) file and hands you back a public URL with clean rendering. There is no editor, no project, no permission ceremony. You publish a file, you get a link, you send it.

This page walks through one end-to-end loop: sign in, pick a username, publish a file, and share the URL.

## 1. Sign in with Google

Visit <https://anchorify.io> and click **Sign in with Google**. We use Google OAuth and pull two things only: your email address and your Google subject ID. Nothing else.

If this is your first visit, you land on a username screen. The username becomes part of every share URL you create — `https://anchorify.io/<username>/<slug>` — so pick something you are happy to put in front of a client. Usernames are lowercase alphanumeric plus dashes, 1–32 characters, no leading or trailing dash.

After you pick a username, you land on the dashboard.

## 2. Publish your first share

There are three ways to publish. They are equivalent on the wire.

### Option A — Web

From the dashboard, click **New share**. You get two input modes:

- **Paste**: paste the content into the textarea. Fill in **Filename** if you want the extension to drive the render type.
- **Upload**: pick a file from disk. The filename is captured automatically.

Set **Visibility** (Secret by default), optionally pick a **Slug** (or let the server mint one), and click **Publish**. You land on a confirmation page with the share URL.

### Option B — CLI

```bash
npm install -g anchorify-cli
anchorify login
anchorify path/to/report.md
```

The last command prints the share URL on stdout. Re-running it on the same file path updates the same URL in place.

### Option C — REST API

```bash
curl -s https://anchorify.io/api/v1/shares \
  -H "authorization: Bearer $REPO_SHARE_TOKEN" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"filename":"report.md","content":"# Hello\n\nWorld."}'
```

Returns JSON with the canonical URL. See the [API reference](/docs/api) for the full surface.

## 3. Share the URL

Share URLs are public by default — anyone with the link can read the content. They take one of two shapes:

- `https://anchorify.io/<username>/<slug>` — the canonical form for shares created by signed-in users.
- `https://anchorify.io/<id>` — the legacy form, still served for shares that pre-date usernames.

Copy the URL from the dashboard (each row has a **Copy URL** button) or from the CLI's stdout, and paste it into an email, Slack message, or anywhere else.

## 4. Update a share

Re-running the CLI on the same file path picks up the existing share from the local mapping and pushes the new content to the same URL:

```bash
anchorify path/to/report.md
```

From the web, open the share, click the actions menu on the dashboard row, and choose the right action — or upload a new version using the same slug.

From the API, send a `PATCH` with the share id. See [REST API](/docs/api).

## Next steps

- [Web dashboard](/docs/web) — every action available in the browser.
- [Command-line](/docs/cli) — every subcommand and flag.
- [Visibility and passwords](/docs/visibility) — public, unlisted, and members-only tiers with optional passwords.
- [Content types and rendering](/docs/content-types) — markdown, code, JSON, YAML, CSV, TSV, HTML, PDFs, images.