Getting started
Sign in with your email — there is no password, you get a one-time code. Create a cluster, drag images straight onto the canvas from your desktop, arrange them, and send a view-only link to anyone. No account is needed to view a shared board, and the free plan includes 25 cards and up to 10 people who edit.
From an empty account to a board you would show someone, in about five minutes.
1. Sign in
Go to clusters.soleilpictures.com and enter your email address. You will get a one-time code — there is no password.
Once you're in, you can save a passkey so the next sign-in skips the code: your browser offers it as soon as you tap the email box, or press Use a passkey under it. Save one from the note that appears after a code sign-in, or any time in Settings › Profile › Passkeys.
Some new accounts start with a short setup before the canvas; others go straight to their first cluster.
The setup is three screens:
- Name your workspace. It is where your clusters, files and people live, and you can rename it any time. This is the one step you can't skip.
- Tell us about it. Who's working in it? (Just me, A few people or A team) and What kind of work? — film and video, photo, design, ads and brand, music, school, personal, or something else. One tap each, or Skip. The work answer changes what your first cluster says when it is empty.
- Invite people. The step leads with an invite link to the whole workspace — Copy link on a computer, Share invite link on a phone — and under it, or invite by email. See Inviting a whole workspace for what the link does. Skip for now goes straight in.
If you skip the invite step, you may be asked once more in your first two weeks, after you have put a few things on the board, and never a third time.
Once something is on your board, three short tips point out where your clusters are, that Files takes any file and a pasted link becomes a card, and how to bring a folder over from Google Drive or Dropbox. Next moves on, Skip ends them, and the last one's See how opens the steps for downloading a folder from Google Drive and bringing it in. They show once.
Someone who joins your workspace through an invite is asked only what kind of work they do (optional), then opens it. If nothing is in it yet, they see whose workspace it is, so the empty board is not a mystery.
2. Start a project
Click the + next to Clusters in the sidebar, choose New cluster on Home, or press ⌘K and type "new project". Each one creates a cluster at the top of your workspace and opens it.
Name it after the thing it is for — a scene, a project, a pitch. Names are searchable later and "Untitled cluster" is not.
3. Get things onto the canvas
The fastest way is to drag files straight from your desktop onto the canvas. Drop twelve images at once and they arrange themselves rather than landing in a pile.
Everything else lives in two places:
- The tool rail down the left edge — select, pan, image, note, doc, cluster, grid, arrow.
- Right-click the canvas — an Add menu grouped into Cards, Visual, Web and Annotate, plus paste, select all, background colour and export.
A few things worth knowing on day one:
| To do this | Do this |
|---|---|
| Add a note | Press N, or right-click where you want it |
| Add images | Drag them in, paste from the clipboard, or use the image tool — the picker is multi-select. Drop a whole folder and it becomes a cluster, its folders nested ones |
| Add a link | Paste a URL onto the canvas — it unfurls into a real card |
| Pan | Hold Space and drag, or press H |
| Fit everything on screen | ⇧1 |
| Undo | ⌘Z |
Double-clicking empty canvas opens an add menu right at your cursor, which is usually faster than crossing the screen to the rail.
4. Arrange it
Drag cards around. Alignment guides appear as you move, and cards snap to each other — hold Alt to bypass snapping when you want something deliberately off.
Select several cards and press ⌘G to group them. A group gets a name and an outline, moves as one, and can be commented on as a unit.
Draw connections with the arrow tool (A). Arrows anchor to cards, so they stay attached when you move things.
5. Share it
Click Share. You have two different things there, and the difference matters:
- Invite by email gives a named person Editor or Viewer access. Editors can change the board. This does not require them to pay — collaboration is free on every plan.
- The workspace invite link from setup brings people into the whole workspace, every cluster and file in it, as editors.
- Create a public link produces a view-only URL that works for anyone, with no account and no sign-in. You can set it to expire, and choose whether sub-clusters are included.
Where to go next
Inside the app, the ? button at the top right (or ⌘K → "Help") opens one screen that names every kind of card you can add and links to these pages. Press ? on its own for the keyboard shortcuts.
- Core concepts — the vocabulary, in two minutes
- The canvas — every tool and gesture
- Cards — what each card type does
- Sharing — links, roles, expiry and public boards
- The API — read and write all of this from your own code
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to install anything?
No. Clusters runs in the browser and can be added to your home screen as a web app. There is no App Store or Play Store listing yet, and nothing is required to start.
Is there a password?
No. Sign-in is a one-time code sent to your email address. There is no password to lose or rotate.
My sign-in code didn't arrive. What now?
Look in Spam or Promotions first. On the code screen, a Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud or Proton address gets a button that opens that inbox in a new tab, and for Gmail it searches every folder. Work and school mail servers can hold a code back for a few minutes or quarantine it, so check there too — signing in with a different address creates a separate account. You can ask for a new code once the resend timer runs out. Asking again cancels the code before it, so type the one from the newest email. Reloading the page keeps you on the code step.
Do I have to invite anyone during setup?
No. Every question after the workspace's name can be skipped. If you skip the invite step you may be asked once more, after you have added a few things, and never again. The invite link and the Share panel are there whenever you want them.
Can people I share with edit my board?
Only if you invite them as an editor. A public link is view-only. Editors do not need a paid plan — collaboration is free on every tier.
Machine-readable: /docs/getting-started.md · /llms.txt
What changed and when: /changelog