Getting Started with Align
Align runs at app.alignsoft.us. This page covers signing in, workspaces, what the admin of a new workspace sees first, how the app is laid out, and where to go next.
Workspaces
Everything in Align happens inside a workspace: your organisation's own space, with its own people, projects, settings and connected accounts. A workspace's projects and connections are its own; other workspaces can't see them.
One account can belong to several workspaces, with a different role in each. You might be an admin in your own company's workspace and a client in a supplier's.
Joining a workspace from an invitation
When an admin invites you, you get an email titled "(name) invited you to join (workspace) on Align". The link in it expires after 72 hours.
- Click Accept invitation in the email.
- What happens next depends on whether you already use Align:
- New to Align: the Join (workspace) page shows the email address the invitation was sent to. Enter Your name and a Password of at least 8 characters, then click Join workspace. You are signed in and land on the dashboard.
- Already have an account for that address: you are taken to the sign-in page. Sign in and you join the workspace straight away; Align switches you into it and shows "Welcome to your new workspace!". If you were already signed in with that address, you join without signing in again.
- Signed in as someone else: the page says Wrong account. Click Sign out and switch accounts, then sign in with the address the invitation was sent to.
If the page says Invite invalid, the link has expired or was already used. Ask the person who invited you to send it again.
The Join page shown to someone new to Align, with Your name and Password fields and the Join workspace button.
Starting a new workspace
Align is in an invitation-only pilot. You can't create a workspace yourself: the Align team sets up each new workspace and invites its first admin, who then invites everyone else. To ask about joining the pilot, get in touch through www.alignsoft.us.
app.alignsoft.us/signup says the same and links to that site. A verification link from an earlier sign-up no longer opens a workspace either.
If you've been invited, follow Joining a workspace from an invitation above. Setting up a new workspace covers what a new workspace's first admin sees.
Signing in
- Go to app.alignsoft.us.
- Enter your Email address and Password, then click Sign In.
- If you have two-factor authentication on, enter the 6-digit code from your authenticator app and click Verify. Lost your authenticator? Click Can't access your authenticator? and enter one of your recovery codes instead. Each recovery code works once.
- If you belong to more than one workspace, Choose a workspace lists them with your role in each. Pick one to continue.
Forgot your password? See Forgot your password below.
An admin can also create your account directly, with a temporary password. If they chose Force password reset on first login, Align asks you to set a new password (Change password) the first time you sign in.
If your workspace uses SAML single sign-on, you sign in through your identity provider instead. Your admin sets this up in Settings → Single Sign-On.
Switching workspaces
The workspace you are in is named at the top of the sidebar. If you belong to more than one, click the name to open Your workspaces and choose another. Profile Settings → Organizations also lists every workspace you belong to and your role in each.
Forgot your password
If you can't remember your Align password, reset it yourself from the sign-in page. You don't need an admin.
- Go to app.alignsoft.us and click Forgot password?.
- Enter your email address and click Send Reset Link. The page says Check your email.
- Open the email from Align and click the link. It expires after 30 minutes and works once.
- On Set new password, enter a New Password of at least 8 characters, enter it again under Confirm Password, and click Reset Password.
- When the page says Password reset, click Continue to sign in and sign in with the new password.
Resetting your password signs you out of Align everywhere, including any MCP connections, and Align emails you to confirm the change.
If the page says Invalid reset link, the link has expired or was already used. Request a new one.
No email? Check your spam folder, and check that you typed the address you sign in with. Align sends nothing to an address it doesn't know, or to an account that is suspended or archived; ask your workspace admin to check your account in Settings → Users. If your workspace signs in through single sign-on, your password belongs to your identity provider: reset it there.
This is how you reset your own password. An admin can also set a temporary password for someone else; see Reset someone else's password.
Change your password
To change your password while you're signed in:
- Click your name at the bottom of the sidebar to open Profile Settings.
- Open the Security tab.
- Enter your Current Password, then your New Password, and enter it again under Confirm New Password.
- Click Change Password.
You stay signed in on this browser. Align signs you out of every other session and disconnects your MCP connections, so sign in again on your other devices.
If you don't know your current password, sign out and use Forgot your password instead. Accounts that sign in only through single sign-on have no Align password to change; change it with your identity provider.
Setting up a new workspace
The first time an admin of a new workspace opens Align, Align takes them to Workspace Setup (the page is headed Set up (workspace name)) instead of the dashboard. It opens by itself only once per workspace. After that, a Finish setting up (workspace name) card on the dashboard takes its place until setup is finished.
Workspaces that existed before Workspace Setup was introduced do not open it by themselves, and neither does a visit from an Align platform operator. Any admin of the workspace can run it; for anyone else it explains that setting up a workspace takes one of its admins.
Set up (workspace name): the step rail on the left and the current step on the right.
The seven steps
| Step | What it does |
|---|---|
| Workspace | The workspace's name, its Logo, and a Billing contact (Name, Email and Payment terms) for whoever receives its invoices. The name is already filled in; everything else is optional. Your plan's payment details stay on the Billing page. |
| Your team | Invite people by Email with a Role: User, Developer, Tester, Tech Lead, Product Owner, DevOps Engineer, Manager, Admin or Client. Each invitation is sent as soon as you click Invite, is for this workspace only, and expires after 72 hours. Waiting to accept lists invitations not yet accepted; you can withdraw one from there. |
| Integrations | Connect GitHub, Sentry, Slack, Prometheus, Grafana and Loki. Align maintains the GitHub App, so connecting GitHub never asks you for an app id, private key or client secret: you authorise the GitHub account or organisation your team already uses. The other services connect with a key, token or webhook from your own account (for Sentry, an internal integration in your Sentry organisation; for Slack, a webhook or bot token from your own Slack app). Whatever you enter is stored encrypted for this workspace alone and never shown again. When an install takes you to GitHub's or Sentry's own pages, you come back to this step. See Integrations. |
| First project | New project opens the New Project wizard (see Projects). When you click Open project at its end, or Cancel before creating anything, it brings you back to this step. The sample Welcome to Align project does not count as your first project until you rename it or change its description. |
| Delivery defaults | Shows the eight statuses every entry moves through and what each one means. Add the standard templates adds three release templates (a major release, a minor release and a hotfix). You can change them later in Settings → Plan Settings. |
| Commercials | Labor categories (the roles you bill for and their hourly rates, which Align uses to put a cost on estimates) and estimation defaults. These are the same panels as Settings → Cost Settings. If you don't bill by the hour, skip this step. |
| Review | Each step marked Done, Skipped or Not done yet, with a link to where you change it later. Finish setup ends setup and returns you to the dashboard. |
How it behaves
- Every step is optional. Use Skip this step to pass one over; it is marked Skipped, and you can come back to it at any time. The Workspace step has no skip; if you have nothing to change there, click Continue.
- Each step takes effect as you go. An invitation is sent, a connection is made and a project is created the moment you do it. Only the Workspace step has anything to save, with Save and continue.
- A step's state comes from the workspace itself. A step you complete somewhere else, for example by inviting someone from Settings, shows as Done here too.
- Finish later takes you to the dashboard without losing your place.
The "Finish setting up" card
Until setup is finished, the dashboard shows admins a Finish setting up (workspace name) card. It says how many of the six setup steps are done and which are still to do. Continue setup opens the first step still to do.
The card goes away when every step is done or skipped, or when an admin clicks Finish setup. Closing it with its × hides it for every admin of the workspace.
Workspace Setup stays available afterwards in Settings → Workspace Setup. It is also where an admin changes the workspace's name, logo and billing contact.
Your dashboard
Dashboard is where Align opens. For your team it is headed Workspace and shows what needs you today, release readiness across your projects, delivery signals and your tiles. Admins and managers can rearrange it with Customize: Edit tile layout to move and resize tiles, or Manage tiles… to add and remove them.
Team members also see a Get Started with Align checklist until they dismiss it: create your first project, add your first entry, explore the boards and customise your dashboard. A step your role can't do says why, rather than offering a button. While a new workspace's Finish setting up card is showing, the checklist waits.
Clients see a simpler dashboard: their projects' status in plain language, and recent updates in their projects.
Finding your way around
The top of the sidebar
Below the Align logo is a row of icons:
| Icon | What it does |
|---|---|
| My Approvals (clipboard) | Opens My Pending Approvals: everything waiting on you. A badge shows how many. See Approvals. |
| What's New in Align (sparkles) | Opens What's New, the product changelog. A badge shows how many updates you haven't seen. |
| Align Documentation (book) | Opens these docs in a new tab. |
| Send feedback about Align (speech bubble) | Opens the feedback form. See Feedback about Align. |
| Platform Administration (shield) | Platform operators only. |
Under the icons:
- The workspace name. With more than one workspace, click it to switch.
- The project picker. Choose one project, All Projects or My Workspace. Choosing a project fills the sidebar's Workspace section with that project's pages. Admins also see New project here.
- Search... Searches entries and projects. Press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows) from anywhere.
The main sections
What you see depends on your role in the workspace; see Team and Roles.
| Section | What it holds | Who sees it |
|---|---|---|
| Dashboard | Your overview. | Everyone |
| Workspace | The selected project's pages: Overview, Entries, Plan, Files and more. See Projects. With no project selected, it says No project selected and offers Choose a project. | Everyone |
| Portfolio | Your projects, grouped by program. Team members also find Library, Roadmap and Dependencies here; clients find Roadmap and My Users. | Everyone |
| Management | Insights, Reports, Agreements, Cost, Profitability and Capacity, plus Utilization for admins. | Admins and managers. Clients see Reports and Cost. |
| My Time | Timesheet, and Time Approvals for admins and managers. See Time Tracking. | Team members, unless time tracking is turned off |
| Tools | Align's AI tools. | Everyone except clients and users |
| Marketplace | Apps you can add to the workspace. | Admins |
| Settings | Workspace settings (below). | Admins and managers |
Clicking a section that has pages opens a second column listing them. Its arrow button collapses the column or pins it open.
At the bottom of the sidebar, your name and role open Profile Settings, and Log out signs you out. If Max is on for your workspace, the round button at the bottom right of the screen opens it; see Max. On a phone, the menu button at the top left opens the sidebar.
Members of a partner organisation see the partner console instead of these sections. See the Partner Guide.
Settings
Settings sits below the main sections. Admins see the workspace's settings, including Users, Projects, Workspace Setup, Plan Settings, Cost Settings, Integrations, Developer, Single Sign-On, Client Portal, Notifications, Audit Log, Billing and Data & Privacy. Managers see Data Import/Export and Developer. Developers, tech leads and DevOps engineers can use the Developer page too, but have no Settings link to it; see API keys. For Billing and Data & Privacy, see Billing and Your Data.
Your profile
Click your name at the bottom of the sidebar to open Profile Settings:
| Tab | What's there |
|---|---|
| Profile | Your photo, Display Name, Bio, Phone and Location. Click Save Profile. Once you add a phone number you can turn on WhatsApp notifications. |
| Security | Change your password, and turn two-factor authentication on or off. |
| Notifications | Which emails Align sends you. |
| Appearance | Light, Dark or System theme. Your choice is remembered on this browser. |
| Organizations | The workspaces you belong to and your role in each. |
| Integrations | Your personal connections, such as GitHub for commit attribution and Google Drive for attaching files. Not shown to clients. |
Feedback about Align
The speech-bubble icon next to the documentation link, Send feedback about Align, is for feedback about Align itself. It goes to the Align team at Forward Rise, not to your workspace. Choose Something is broken, An idea or request or Other feedback, give it a Title and Details, and click Send feedback. Align includes the page you were on, the app version and your workspace name. Your feedback waits in a review queue at Forward Rise: the Align team either turns it into an entry on Align's own board or declines it. Every signed-in user has the link, including people using a client portal. See Help and Feedback for more.
Next steps
- Team and Roles: invite people and choose what each can do.
- Projects: create a project and find your way around one.
- Entries: raise bugs, requests and tasks, and see how they move.
- Releases: plan entries into releases.
- GitHub Integration: let merges and deploys move entries for you.