# Getting started

import { CardGrid, LinkCard } from "@astrojs/starlight/components"

Start here to learn how Mindflow is organized and sign in to your workspace. For hands-on lessons, open
[Learn](../learn/).

## How the pieces fit together

| Building block  | Role                                                                              |
| --------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Environment** | Execution context: credentials, configuration, and access for runs                |
| **Integration** | Connector to a third-party service (Slack, AWS, Google, and more)                 |
| **Credential**  | Secret and auth settings for a vendor, scoped to an environment                   |
| **Flow**        | Deterministic sequence of steps started by a trigger                              |
| **Agent**       | Goal-driven AI that can reason and call tools within the same environment         |
| **Deployment**  | A specific flow version running in a specific environment (with its own triggers) |

In practice: you **design** a flow (or agent), **deploy** a version into an environment, and that deployment runs with
the **integrations and credentials** available there.

:::note
You build once, then deploy as many times as you need across environments—each with its own configuration and
credentials.
:::

## Key concepts

[Plan before you build](./plan-before-you-build/)
  [Environments](./environments/)
  [Activate an integration](./integrations/)
  [Credentials](./credentials/)
  [Flows and agents](./flows-and-agents/)
  [Visual Mindflow language](./visual-mindflow-language/)
## Sign in

[Sign in](./sign-in/)
:::tip
New to Mindflow? Read the key concepts, then [Sign in](./sign-in/), then start
[Lesson #1](../learn/l1-build-your-first-flow/). Review
[No-code best practices](../guides/build/design-your-flow/no-code-best-practices/) early so you build clean flows from
the start.
:::