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lang: en
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# Getting started

Getting started is how a new account reaches a team: you accept an invitation, join a team that has proved your email's domain, or, as a team's owner, create your first product. Until payments open, an invitation or a joinable team still works, but a first sign-in with neither puts your address on the waitlist.

> Verified against the product on 2026-11-15

## While payments are closed

Until the team opens payments, a first sign-in does not make a team, and the login page says so: "New to Cactus? Logging in puts you on the waitlist." An invitation to you, or a team that has proved your email's domain, comes before the waitlist and works while payments are closed. Otherwise [Welcome](https://app.heycactus.ai/welcome) confirms the waitlist with your address.

When you are let in from the waitlist, you get an invitation email. Once you are let in, your next sign-in makes your own team, and you are its owner.

Once payments are open, a first sign-in makes your team straight away, with no waitlist. Whether the team starts on a free trial is on [Plans and billing](https://cactus.heycactus.ai/plans-and-billing).

## Create your first product

Only a teamspace owner can create a product. A member sees "Only a teamspace owner can create a product" and an **Open Members** button, not the form.

1. On [Your first product](https://app.heycactus.ai/new), check the name in **Company**, which starts as your team's name, and change it if you like.
   > **Note:** If you changed the company name, Cactus saves it before it creates the product.
2. Type the product's name in **Product**, up to 80 characters.
3. Select **Create product**. It stays off until a name is typed. Cactus then takes you to [the docs home](https://app.heycactus.ai/docs).

*Where you create your first product*

Your first product

- **Create product** (3)

Once payments are open, the first product screen also asks "Where did you hear about us?" in one optional line, below the form. It is not asked if you already answered it, here or when you joined the waitlist, and your answer is kept on your account.

Connecting your code and building your pages come next, on [Sources](https://cactus.heycactus.ai/sources) and [Builds](https://cactus.heycactus.ai/builds).

## Accept an invitation

Sign in with the address the invitation was sent to. An invitation sent to another address is refused. [Welcome](https://app.heycactus.ai/welcome) then shows who invited you and to which team.

1. On [Welcome](https://app.heycactus.ai/welcome), select **Accept invitation** to join the team.
2. Or select **Not now, make my own teamspace** to leave it. Cactus then tries to set up your own team, as a first sign-in does.

An invitation opened from its own link is accepted as soon as the page opens, and you land at home.

## Join a team that's already here

When a teamspace has proved your email's domain and already has members, [Welcome](https://app.heycactus.ai/welcome) offers to join it by name.

| The team lets you | What you see | What you press |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Join after asking an owner | "An owner needs to let you in." | **Request access**, and the team's owners get an email. |
| Join at once | "Join it to see its products." | **Join**, and you are in at once. |

After you request access, the page reads "Waiting for an owner of" the team's name until an owner decides. If an owner declines, it reads that the team didn't approve your request, and asks you to get an invitation by email.

## If an invitation doesn't work

| What you see | What it means | What to do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| "This invitation has expired. Ask for a new one." | The invitation was accepted or declined, or it has run out. | Ask a teamspace owner for a new invitation. |
| "This invitation was sent to" a masked address, "Sign in with that account." | You are signed in with another address. | Sign in with the address the invitation was sent to. |
| "You already belong to" a team, "Cactus supports one teamspace per account for now." | Your account is already on a team. | Use that team; an account belongs to one teamspace. |
| "Your request wasn't approved. Ask a teamspace owner to invite you." | An owner declined your request, and you asked again. | Ask a teamspace owner to invite you by email. |