> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://developer.harness.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://developer.harness.io/harness-solutions-factory/3.0/new-to-hsf/get-started.md).

# Get started with HSF

If you haven't been through deployment yet or have questions about getting started, reach out to your Harness account team.

### Before you begin <a href="#before-you-begin" id="before-you-begin"></a>

Confirm the following with your Harness account team before working through this guide:

* HSF has been successfully deployed to your account.
* The **Harness Platform Management** organization is visible in your account.
* You have been added to the **HSF Admins** group, which gives you the permissions needed to complete the steps below.

{% hint style="info" %}
If anything above is not in place, contact your Harness account team before continuing. Do not attempt to run any HSF pipelines until deployment is confirmed complete.
{% endhint %}

### Create organizations and projects <a href="#create-organizations-and-projects" id="create-organizations-and-projects"></a>

Set up the organizational structure your teams will use within Harness. This includes creating the orgs and projects that HSF workflows will provision resources into.

For a walkthrough of how organizations and projects work in Harness, go to [Organizations and projects](/harness-ai/new-to-harness-platform/overview.md#organizations-and-projects).

**Why this matters:** HSF workflows provision resources into specific orgs and projects. Getting this structure right before running your first workflow saves reorganization work later.

### Add users to HSF groups <a href="#add-users-to-hsf-groups" id="add-users-to-hsf-groups"></a>

Add your team members to the appropriate groups based on their role:

| Group                | Level        | Who belongs here                                                                                                                                 |
| -------------------- | ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| HSF Admins           | Account      | Platform engineers managing the HSF implementation. This group approves workflow changes and receives email notifications for pending approvals. |
| HSF Users            | Account      | Developers and teams who will submit and monitor workflows via IDP.                                                                              |
| HSF Mirror Reviewers | Organization | Anyone responsible for reviewing and merging PRs when new HSF versions are released.                                                             |

{% hint style="info" %}
All three groups can be bound to your SSO provider groups. Set this up now to avoid managing group membership manually as your team grows.
{% endhint %}

### Configure notifications for HSF Admins <a href="#configure-notifications-for-hsf-admins" id="configure-notifications-for-hsf-admins"></a>

HSF Admins receive notifications when workflow approvals are pending. Choose the notification channel that works best for your team.

Supported channels: **Slack**, **Email**, **Microsoft Teams**

1. Navigate to **Account Settings**, then select **Access Control**.
2. Select **User Groups**, then select **HSF Admins**.
3. Under **Notification Preferences**, click **+Channel**.
4. Select your channel and enter its details:
   * **Slack:** the Slack channel incoming webhook URL.
   * **Email/Alias:** the group email addresses that receive notifications.
   * **Microsoft Teams:** the Microsoft Teams incoming webhook URL.
5. Click **Test** to confirm the channel details are valid, then click **Apply**.

Go to [Manage user groups](/harness-ai/use-harness-platform/platform-access-control/add-user-groups.md#edit-notification-preferences) to review the full list of notification channels and their settings.

### Review token configuration <a href="#review-token-configuration" id="review-token-configuration"></a>

HSF creates a one-year token for the `harness-platform-manager` service account with automatic weekly rotation enabled by default.

To change the rotation behavior, navigate to the **Harness Pilot Light** workspace and update the following variables:

| Variable                    | Description                                            | Default                  |
| --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------ |
| `should_rotate_on_schedule` | Whether the token rotates automatically on a schedule. | `true`                   |
| `rotation_schedule`         | Cron expression for the rotation schedule.             | Weekly, Sundays at 03:00 |

After changing either variable, run **Manage Pilot Light** to apply the update.

### Configure the mirror schedule (optional) <a href="#configure-the-mirror-schedule-optional" id="configure-the-mirror-schedule-optional"></a>

By default, HSF checks for new releases from Harness on a set schedule and creates a pull request when a new version is available.

To change the schedule, navigate to the **Harness Pilot Light** workspace and update the `mirror_schedule` variable. After updating, run **Manage Pilot Light** to apply the change.

### Move Custom Template Library to your own SCM (optional) <a href="#move-custom-template-library-to-your-own-scm-optional" id="move-custom-template-library-to-your-own-scm-optional"></a>

By default, Custom Template Library is hosted in Harness Code Repository. If your team prefers to manage it in an external SCM (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket), update the following account-level variables:

| Variable                            | What to change it to             |
| ----------------------------------- | -------------------------------- |
| `custom_template_library_connector` | Connector reference for your SCM |
| `custom_template_library_repo`      | URL of the repo in your SCM      |

For instructions on setting up a code repository connector, go to [Connect to a Git repository](/harness-ai/use-harness-platform/connectors/code-repositories/connect-to-code-repo.md).

### Configure your container registry <a href="#configure-your-container-registry" id="configure-your-container-registry"></a>

{% hint style="warning" %}
By default, HSF uses an organization-level connector (`hsf_dockerhub_connector`) to pull images from DockerHub using **anonymous authentication**. Anonymous DockerHub pulls are rate limited. Add credentials to this connector before running any workflows to avoid pipeline failures.
{% endhint %}

To add credentials to the DockerHub connector, navigate to **Harness Platform Management** → **Connectors** → `hsf_dockerhub_connector` and update the authentication settings.

**Using a different container registry?**

If your organization uses a private registry (Nexus, Artifactory, ECR, etc.), update the following:

1. Change the `hsf_pipeline_connector_ref` account variable to point to your registry connector.
2. If using **Nexus or Artifactory**, ensure you use the fully qualified image path for all images, including the registry hostname.

### Configure Kubernetes execution (optional) <a href="#configure-kubernetes-execution-optional" id="configure-kubernetes-execution-optional"></a>

By default, HSF pipelines run on Harness Cloud infrastructure. To run pipelines on your own Kubernetes cluster, go to [Convert your HSF installation to use Kubernetes](/harness-solutions-factory/use-hsf/configurations/converting-to-kubernetes.md).

### Verify your installation <a href="#verify-your-installation" id="verify-your-installation"></a>

Once you have completed the steps above, confirm everything is working:

* [ ] Confirm the workflow layer is available for your operating mode:
  * **Core+IDP:** Navigate to **IDP**, then select **Workflows**. The default HSF workflows are listed.
  * **Core+Hub:** Navigate to the **HSF Hub** project, then select **Pipelines**. The HSF Hub pipelines are listed and available to run. These pipelines are the Hub equivalent of the IDP workflows. Go to [HSF Hub](/harness-solutions-factory/use-hsf/hsf-hub.md) to understand how they map to each other.
* [ ] Confirm the `harness-platform-manager` service account exists at the account level.
* [ ] Confirm the **HSF Admins**, **HSF Users**, and **HSF Mirror Reviewers** groups are visible in the correct scopes.
* [ ] Check the `hsf_dockerhub_connector` connector: verify it has credentials and the connection test passes.

{% hint style="info" %}
For a complete list of everything HSF created in your account during deployment, including all pipelines, workspaces, repositories, and variables, go to [Created Resources](/harness-solutions-factory/use-hsf/created-resources.md).
{% endhint %}

### Next steps <a href="#next-steps" id="next-steps"></a>

* Run your first workflow: execute an IDP workflow end to end and verify the output.
* [Customize a workflow](/harness-solutions-factory/use-hsf/template-library/customizing-using-custom-htl.md): modify a default workflow using Custom Template Library.
* [Upgrade HSF](/harness-solutions-factory/new-to-hsf/hsf-upgrade.md): how to pull and apply new HSF releases when they are available.