Getting Started

Get up and running with ContextRail

Create your first context, generate an MCP token, and connect your AI tool — all in under 30 minutes.

Prerequisites
  • A ContextRail account with organization access
  • Admin or member role in your organization
  • An MCP-compatible AI tool (Cursor, Copilot, Claude, Codex, Gemini CLI, or Windsurf)

Setup in 5 steps

Follow these steps to have ContextRail delivering standards to your AI tool.

01
Create your organization

Sign up for a ContextRail account and complete the organization setup flow. Invite teammates as members or admins.

02
Author your first context

Open Contexts and select "Add Context," or use the Onboarding Wizard to generate context cards from your existing docs.

03
Generate an MCP token

Go to Settings → Token Management, choose an expiration and organization, then copy the generated token.

04
Connect your AI tool

Paste the MCP URL and token into your AI tool config. Follow the Integrations guide for Cursor, Copilot, Claude, and more.

05
Bootstrap your AI tool

Use the ContextRail repo bootstrap prompt to configure your AI tool by typing `contextrail/repo-bootstrap` in your AI tool. This will detect your AI tool setup and generate the appropriate files needed for development.

06
Test context retrieval

Ask your AI tool about a standard you created. It should reference the context content you authored.

Verify your setup
  • Your AI tool references content from the contexts you created.
  • Contexts appear in the Contexts list in the web app.
  • No authentication errors appear in your AI tool output.
Troubleshooting
  • Unauthorized errors: regenerate the token in Settings and update your tool config with the new value.
  • No contexts returned: confirm the organization selected when generating the token matches the org where your contexts live.
  • Connection failure: verify the MCP server URL and that your network can reach the ContextRail API.