Getting started with Textual

When you sign up for a Tonic Textual account, you can immediately get started with a new pipeline.

Note that these instructions are for setting up a new account on Textual Cloud. For a self-hosted instance, depending on how it is set up, you might either create an account manually or use single sign-on (SSO).

Signing up for Textual

To get started with a new Textual account:

1. Go to https://textual.tonic.ai/.

2. Click Sign up.

3. Enter your email address.

4. Create and confirm a password for your Textual account.

5. Click Sign Up.

Textual creates your account, and prompts you to provide some additional information about yourself and how you plan to use Textual.

Survey for new Textual accounts

After you fill out the information and click Get Started, Textual displays the Textual Home page.

It also displays a panel that prompts you to create a Textual pipeline. Textual pipelines extract text from files and transform it into content that you can use to populate a RAG system or LLM. For information about this workflow, go to Pipelines workflow for LLM preparation.

From the panel, you can create a demo pipeline that uses example data, or you can create a pipeline that uses your own data.

Panel with prompts to create a pipeline

Creating a demo pipeline with example data

Textual provides example pipeline data that consists of files of different types. To create a pipeline that uses the example data, click Try Demo Pipeline.

The pipeline is named Sample Pipeline. From the pipeline details, you can view the details for the example files and add more files.

Pipeline details for Sample Pipeline

Creating a Textual pipeline with your own data

From the Getting Started panel, to create a pipeline that uses your own data:

1. Click Create a Pipeline.

Create A New Pipeline panel

1. On the Create A New Pipeline panel, provide the pipeline name.

2. Select the source option for the files:

   • Files uploaded from a local filesystem

   • Amazon S3

   • Databricks

   • Azure Blob Storage

Selecting the file upload option

To upload the files, click File Upload, then click Save.

For information, go to Selecting files for an uploaded file pipeline.

Selecting the Amazon S3 option

To have the files come from Amazon S3:

1. Click Amazon S3.

Create A New Pipeline panel with Amazon S3 selected

1. In the Access Key field, provide an AWS access key that is associated with an IAM user or role.

2. In the Access Secret field, provide the secret key that is associated with the access key.

3. From the Region dropdown list, select the AWS Region to send the authentication request to.

4. To test the credentials, click Test AWS Connection.

5. Click Save.

For more information, go to Configuring an Amazon S3 pipeline.

Selecting the Databricks option

To have the files come from a Databricks volume:

1. Click Databricks.

Create A New Pipeline panel with Databricks selected

1. In the Databricks URL field, provide the URL to the databricks data volume.

2. In the Access Token field, provide the access token to use to get access to the volume.

3. To test the connection, click Test Databricks Connection.

4. Click Save.

For more information, go to Configuring a Databricks pipeline.

Selecting the Azure option

To have the files from Azure Blob Storage:

1. Click Azure.

Create a New Pipeline panel with Azure selected

1. In the Account Name field, provide the name of your Azure account.

2. In the Account Key field, provide the access key for your Azure account.

3. To test the connection, click Test Azure Connection.

4. Click Save.

For more information, go to Configuring an Azure pipeline.

Next steps

After you set up an account on Textual Cloud, you start a Textual free trial, during which Textual scans up to 100,000 words for free. Note that Textual counts actual words, not tokens. For example, "Hello, my name is John Smith." counts as six words.

After the 100,000 words, Textual disables scanning for your account. Until you purchase a pay-as-you-go subscription, you cannot:

• Add files to a dataset or pipeline

• Run a pipeline

• Use the Playground

During your free trial, Textual displays the current usage in the following locations:

• On the Home page

• In the navigation menu

• On the Playground

Textual also prompts you to purchase a pay-as-you-go subscription, which allows an unlimited number of words scanned for a flat rate per 1,000 words.