# Account Setup

Sync can be used through our UI or entirely programatically through our APIs. This guide walks you through the initial setup required to start using Sync programatically. By the end, you'll have a fully configured account with a workspace and dataspace ready to ingest and process documents.

## Prerequisites

Before you begin, you need:

- **A Sync account** - Which you obtain after signing up for Sync
- **Your account ID** - This is provided when your account is created (format: `scd-xxxxxxxx`)
- **An API authentication token** - Instructions below


## Step 1: Get Your API Token

Our API Reference docs have instructions on how to obtain your first token [API Introduction](/api).

## Step 2: Create Your First Workspace

A **workspace** is a scalable compute cluster that handles all document processing, queries, and AI operations. Every Sync account needs at least one workspace to do work.

### Using the Admin API

You can create a workspace programmatically using the Admin API:


```bash
POST https://cloud.syncdocs.ai/api/accounts/{accountId}/workspaces
Authorization: Bearer <your-token>
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "name": "Production Workspace",
  "description": "Main workspace for document processing and AI operations",
  "resources": {
    "nodeCount": 2,
    "nodeSize": "medium"
  }
}
```

**Request Parameters:**

- `name` (required): A descriptive name for your workspace
- `description` (required): What this workspace will be used for
- `resources` (required): Cluster configuration
  - `nodeCount`: Number of compute nodes (1-10)
  - `nodeSize`: Node size - `"small"`, `"medium"`, or `"large"`


**Example Response:**


```json
{
  "id": "sws-x9p3q7r5",
  "name": "Production Workspace",
  "description": "Main workspace for document processing and AI operations",
  "plan": "us-east-1",
  "accountId": "scd-k2j8n4m1",
  "clusterStatus": "CREATING",
  "createdAt": "2025-01-15T10:30:00Z",
  "updatedAt": null
}
```

The workspace will initially have a `clusterStatus` of `CREATING`. You can poll the workspace status endpoint to check when it becomes `RUNNING`:


```bash
GET https://cloud.syncdocs.ai/api/accounts/{accountId}/workspaces/{workspaceId}
Authorization: Bearer <your-token>
```

## Step 3: Create Your First Dataspace

A **dataspace** is where you store and organize your documents along with their AI-generated metadata and structured derivatives. Think of it as a table of unstructured data paired with its structured counterparts.

While you do not need a dataspace to begin using Sync, you'll need it if you plan to do processing on your own documents and not just use our libraries feature.

### Using the Admin API

Create a dataspace using the Admin API:


```bash
POST https://cloud.syncdocs.ai/api/accounts/{accountId}/dataspaces
Authorization: Bearer <your-token>
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "name": "Document Repository",
  "description": "Central repository for all company documents",
  "ontologyId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6"
}
```

**Request Parameters:**

- `name` (required): A descriptive name for your dataspace
- `description` (required): What types of documents will be stored here
- `ontologyId` (required): UUID of the ontology that defines document categories and metadata structure


> **Note:** If you don't have an ontology yet, you can create one first using the ontologies API, or use the default Ontology provided to you by Sync


**Example Response:**


```json
{
  "id": "sds-a1b2c3d4",
  "name": "Document Repository",
  "description": "Central repository for all company documents",
  "accountId": "scd-k2j8n4m1",
  "ontologyId": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
  "createdAt": "2025-01-15T10:35:00Z"
}
```

## Step 4: Verify Your Setup

You now have:

- ✅ A Sync account with an API token
- ✅ A workspace (compute cluster) for processing
- ✅ A dataspace (storage) for your documents


You can verify everything is ready:


```bash
# List your workspaces
GET https://cloud.syncdocs.ai/api/accounts/{accountId}/workspaces
Authorization: Bearer <your-token>

# List your dataspaces
GET https://cloud.syncdocs.ai/api/accounts/{accountId}/dataspaces
Authorization: Bearer <your-token>
```

## What's Next?

Now that your account is set up, you're ready to start building:

### [Automate Metadata Labeling](/guides/automate-metadata-labeling)

Learn how to automatically extract and classify metadata from your documents using ontologies and AI workflows.

### [Build a Research Agent](/guides/build-research-agent)

Create an AI agent that can answer questions by researching across your entire document corpus.

## Core Concepts

To deepen your understanding of what you just created:

- [**Workspaces**](/concepts/workspaces) - Learn more about compute clusters and scaling
- [**Dataspaces**](/concepts/dataspaces) - Understand data organization and storage models
- [**Ontologies**](/concepts/ontologies) - Define custom document categories and metadata schemas
- [**Architecture**](/concepts/architecture) - See how all the pieces fit together