> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.aiaxoniq.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Choose your onboarding path

> Six end-to-end journeys from an empty account to a team using aiAxonIQ daily — pick the one that matches how you run software.

Everyone starts the same way — an account, a key, a first record — and diverges
immediately after. These journeys are the sequence for each common shape,
including what to do on the second day rather than only the first hour.

<Info>
  **In a hurry?** The [Quickstart](/get-started/quickstart) gets telemetry on
  screen in ten minutes with nothing but `curl`. Come back here when you want
  to do it properly.
</Info>

## Pick your path

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="SaaS customer" icon="cloud" href="/onboarding/saas">
    You use aiAxonIQ Cloud and run your services somewhere. The default path,
    and the one most teams want.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Docker" icon="docker" href="/onboarding/docker">
    Containers on one or a few hosts, with Docker or Compose.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Kubernetes" icon="dharmachakra" href="/onboarding/kubernetes">
    A cluster, a DaemonSet, and the decisions that are painful to change later.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Developer" icon="laptop-code" href="/onboarding/developer">
    You are one engineer instrumenting one service, and want it working this
    afternoon.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Enterprise" icon="building-columns" href="/onboarding/enterprise">
    Many teams, a security review, single sign-on and a rollout plan.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Self-hosted" icon="server" href="/onboarding/self-hosted">
    What is and is not available today if you cannot use a hosted service.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## What every path shares

Whatever your shape, the same four things have to be true:

<Steps>
  <Step title="An account and an organization">
    Everything belongs to an organization. During the private beta you arrive
    by invitation — see [Create your account](/get-started/accounts).
  </Step>

  <Step title="A license key">
    The credential every ingest request carries, and what decides which
    organization data lands in. See
    [Create a license key](/get-started/license-keys).
  </Step>

  <Step title="An endpoint">
    Shown on **Get Started** in the dashboard, which knows the right value for
    your deployment. See [Ingest endpoints](/send-data/endpoints).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Something that exports">
    An OpenTelemetry SDK, a Collector, a Prometheus server, or the eBPF agent.
    None of them is aiAxonIQ-specific software.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Two decisions worth making early

Both are cheap now and annoying later, on every path.

<Warning>
  **Set `service.name` on everything.** Its default is `unknown_service`, and
  every service that omits it collapses into one entry that appears enormous
  and means nothing. The service map, per-service views and most alert rules
  all depend on it.
</Warning>

<Warning>
  **Decide how you separate environments before you send production traffic.**

  A `deployment.environment` attribute keeps one set of keys, one place to
  look, and shared dashboards. A second organization gives you a real access
  boundary and nothing shared.

  Most teams want the attribute. The comparison is on
  [Organizations and multi-tenancy](/concepts/organizations#separating-environments).
</Warning>

## How long each takes

| Path       | First data | Something useful | A team using it |
| :--------- | :--------- | :--------------- | :-------------- |
| Developer  | 10 minutes | An hour          | —               |
| Docker     | 20 minutes | An afternoon     | A few days      |
| SaaS       | 20 minutes | An afternoon     | A week          |
| Kubernetes | An hour    | A day            | A week or two   |
| Enterprise | An hour    | A week           | A quarter       |

<Note>
  **"Something useful" is the number that matters.** First data is easy and
  proves very little. The gap between the two columns is where the actual work
  is: naming services, setting environments, and building the two or three
  views your team will really open.
</Note>

## Next

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Quickstart" icon="rocket" href="/get-started/quickstart">
    Ten minutes, `curl` only, every hop proven.
  </Card>

  <Card title="How aiAxonIQ works" icon="diagram-project" href="/get-started/how-it-works">
    The path your data takes.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Installation overview" icon="download" href="/send-data/overview">
    Collector or direct, and which platform guide to open.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>