Quickstart Guide

This guide will walk you through creating your first developer portal with Launchpad. By the end, you'll have a fully functional API documentation site.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you'll need:

• A Launchpad account (request access at early access)
• At least one OpenAPI specification (YAML or JSON)
• Admin access to configure your portal

Step 1: Create Your Portal

After logging into the Launchpad management console, you'll be guided through the portal creation wizard.

1. Click New Developer Portal from the dashboard
2. Enter your Developer Portal Name and Developer Portal Slug
3. Choose your GCP region for data residency
4. Select your Developer Portal Capacity

Step 2: Configure Branding

Customize your portal's appearance to match your brand identity.

1. Navigate to Configuration → Theme
2. Upload your logo (SVG recommended for best quality)
3. Set your primary and secondary brand colors
4. Optionally, use our AI Theme Generator to create a complete theme from your logo

The AI Theme Generator analyzes your logo and brand colors to automatically generate a cohesive color palette, typography settings, and component styles.

Step 3: Add API Specifications

Upload your OpenAPI specifications to create interactive API documentation.

1. Go to API Specifications in the Admin sidebar
2. Click Upload Specification
3. Upload your OpenAPI file or paste a URL
4. Set the title, description, version and select a category
5. Click on Upload Specification

openapi: 3.0.0
info:
  title: Example API
  version: 1.0.0
  description: A sample API for demonstration
paths:
  /users:
    get:
      summary: List all users
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Successful response

Step 4: Create an API Product

API Products group related APIs together and define access policies.

1. Navigate to API Products
2. Click Add API Product
3. Give your product a name and description
4. Select which API Product to include
5. Finally, click on save.

Step 5: Publish Documentation

Use the AI Page Builder to create additional documentation pages.

1. Go to Page Builder in the sidebar
2. Describe the page in the prompt box and click Generate
3. Watch the live preview, then refine copy, images, and sections in the editor
4. Click Publish when ready

Step 6: Add people

Create portal accounts first, then add those people to a team if they should collaborate on team apps.

1. Open Configuration → Users and click Add User, or leave registration open so developers can sign up. See Users.
2. To put an existing user on a team, open Teams, select the team, Members, then Invite Member with their portal email. See Teams.

Next Steps

Now that your portal is set up, explore these advanced features:

• Connect Apigee for API management integration
• Configure RBAC for fine-grained access control
• Set up SSO for enterprise authentication
• Master the Page Builder to create rich documentation
• Build a form for contact, intake, or access requests