---
title: "Quickstart"
description: "Add CanaryLytics to any site in under five minutes. Create a project, paste one script tag, and verify events are flowing with /v1/validate."
last_updated: "2026-07-30"
---
# Quickstart
Adding CanaryLytics to a site takes three things: a project, one script tag, and a page load. No account signup, no config file, no build step.
1. ### Create a project
Projects are invite-gated. Open the CanaryLytics dashboard, paste your invite code, name the project, and list the domain(s) it will run on (for example `myapp.com`). You get back a secret key:
```
cly_live_5f3a9c2e1b7d4a80f6c3e9d2a1b4c7e0
```
2. ### Add the tracking snippet
Paste this before `
` (or anywhere in ``) on every page you want tracked. The snippet never carries a key. `data-domain` just needs to match one of the project's trusted domains:
```html
```
If you omit `data-domain`, it defaults to `location.hostname` at runtime.
3. ### Verify the setup
`/ingest` always answers `204`, even when an event is silently dropped, so there is no error to watch for in the browser. Dry-run the acceptance rules with your key instead:
```bash
curl "https://api.analytics.canarycoders.es/v1/validate?domain=myapp.com&origin=https://myapp.com" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer cly_live_5f3a9c2e1b7d4a80f6c3e9d2a1b4c7e0"
```
```json
{ "domain": "myapp.com", "origin": "https://myapp.com", "wouldAccept": true, "checks": { "...": "..." }, "reasons": [] }
```
`wouldAccept: true` means a real visitor's events will be accepted. `wouldAccept: false` comes with a `reasons` array explaining exactly why. See [troubleshooting](/docs/troubleshooting/) for the field-by-field walkthrough.
4. ### Watch the data arrive
Load a page on the tracked domain, then open the CanaryLytics dashboard. Sessions, pageviews, and the live-visitors counter update within a couple of seconds.
## Next steps
## Sitemap
- [Docs sitemap](https://analytics.canarycoders.es/docs/sitemap.md)
- [Full documentation as a single file](https://analytics.canarycoders.es/llms-full.txt)