Quickstart: zero to dashboard

Sign in with GitHub

Go to latchkey.dev/sign-in and sign in with your GitHub account. Use the GitHub account that has access to the organization you want to monitor: the app install in step 3 happens under this identity, and the person who installs the app becomes the workspace owner. If you get interrupted at any point, just sign in again; onboarding resumes where you left off.

Pick a plan

New accounts are taken to the plan picker. Every plan starts with a 30-day free trial. Developer and Launch start immediately with no credit card; Scale goes through checkout first, with the trial applied there. The practical difference at this stage is how many repositories you can monitor: 1 on Developer, up to 10 on Launch, up to 40 on Scale. Do not overthink the choice: you can change plans later, and the trial does not restart when you do. The full comparison is in Plans and the free trial.

Install the GitHub App

Onboarding step 1, "Connect GitHub," sends you to GitHub to install the Latchkey app: click Authorize Latchkey and GitHub opens the installation page. When GitHub asks where to install, choose your organization (not your personal account). You need owner or admin permissions on the organization; if you have neither, ask an organization owner to install the app or grant you admin rights. What the app can and cannot access is covered in Install the GitHub App.

Select repositories to monitor

Onboarding step 2 lists your organization repositories with search and a visibility filter. Select the ones you want Latchkey to monitor; the counter shows how many your plan allows (1 on Developer, 10 on Launch, 40 on Scale). Two things worth knowing while you choose: managed runners only serve monitored repositories, so include any repo you plan to point at latchkey-* labels; and you can skip this step entirely and add repositories later from the dashboard. Guidance on choosing under a plan limit is in Managing repositories.

Finish and open the dashboard

Step 3 confirms your setup and takes you to the dashboard. On your first visit, a short guided tour walks you through each area; you can skip it at any point. For each repository you enabled, Latchkey backfills recent completed workflow runs from the last 30 days, so most teams see data within a few minutes. A progress banner shows while backfill runs, and the AI analysis kicks off automatically once it completes. If a page looks empty, check the filter bar at the top first: analytics pages show data for the repositories you select and prompt you to pick one if nothing is selected.

Optional: run a job on a Latchkey runner

Change one line in any workflow to try a managed self-healing runner. After you push, the job shows as queued on GitHub until a runner picks it up: seconds when a warm runner is available, about 10 seconds when a fresh runner cold-starts for you. The full walkthrough, including how to verify where the job ran, is in Run your first job.

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: latchkey-small
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - run: npm ci && npm test

Optional: invite your team

On Launch and Scale, open Team in the dashboard sidebar to invite teammates by email or shareable link (the Developer plan is for individual use, so invites are unavailable there). Invites grant the Admin or Member role. See Team and roles.