Create a phantom in the web app

If you'd rather choose every setting yourself, create the site in the app and configure it afterwards. (For the automatic path, see KB-602.)

Create the site

1. Open Primitives ▾ → Phantoms in the header and press New Phantom.
2. Name: the masthead. Subject-based, not your company's name (a name containing it is refused). "Product for Engineers", "Field Notes on Payroll".
3. Tagline: one line under the name, up to 140 characters.
4. Content to publish: pick an existing collection, or Create a new collection named after the site (the usual choice).
5. Press Create Phantom.

Your organization can keep three hosted sites live at once on the house, so a fourth is refused until you pause or delete one. get_phantom_balance (or the agent: "how many phantoms can I still create?") says where you stand.

The site appears in the list as Setting up… and moves through building, connecting, and DNS on its own. A few minutes later it reads Live with its address.

Pick a theme

Open the site's Settings. The Theme picker groups looks by kind, clean and versatile, magazine fronts, brand and product, business and corporate, technology, each with a one-line hint. gazette (broadsheet, paper-of-record serif) is the default. The full list is in KB-804.

Configure it

A freshly created site has an identity and nothing else: no strategy, no topic map, no guaranteed passes, no writing voice. Bring it up to spec with one of:

• Ask an agent: "Configure the phantom I just created; show me the plan first." → set_phantom_config { configure: true, dry_run: true }, then the same call without the dry run (KB-604).
• By hand: the Control Room's Setup tab (Auto-Pen settings, the Planner, cover template, author bank, how your company is mentioned, tracked competitors), plus Context for positioning. The guaranteed passes (internal links, external sources, visuals, metadata) are switches on the Setup tab's Auto-Pen card (KB-303).

Write to it

Once configured, posts come from the Planner on schedule, from the Headlines tab in the Control Room, or from a topic on demand (KB-605). Publishing from the app rebuilds the live site for you; if the site ever looks behind, press Refresh content on its row.

The Control Room

Every phantom has one (open the site → Control Room), with three tabs:

• Headlines: the work, on one page: what the site covers, what we'd write next (queue a headline into a slot), and what's scheduled.
• Topics: the topic map: pillars, spokes, what's covered, and any series.
• Setup: everything you configure: Auto-Pen, the Planner, covers, authors, the tell pass, how your company is mentioned, and which competitors are tracked.