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Welcome

What is the Welcome walkthrough?

The first time you launch AnyAutomation Studio on a fresh installation, a full-screen welcome walkthrough opens automatically. It temporarily hides the side bar, panel and secondary side bar so you can focus on getting set up, and walks you through four short steps — importing your existing setup and picking a theme — before dropping you into the workspace.

It is a one-time first-run experience, not a tab you keep open. Once you finish it (or skip it), it does not appear again on the next launch. You can always bring it back from the Command Palette — see Reopening it later.

When it opens

  • On a brand-new installation the walkthrough opens automatically after the workbench has finished loading.
  • It does not reopen on later launches, after a window reload, or in the browser-based build.
  • You can disable the automatic first-run entirely with the setting anyautomation.onboarding.enabled (on by default).

The four steps

A row of pager dots at the bottom of the screen shows where you are. The steps are:

1 · Welcome

The opening screen shows the AnyAutomation Studio brandmark, the installed version, and the tagline "Engineer the flow." Click Get Started (or press Enter) to begin.

2 · Bring Your Setup

AnyAutomation Studio looks for an existing VS Code installation it can import from.

  • If one is found, you can import your settings, keybindings and extensions in one click. A toggle lets you leave extensions out (Include installed extensions). Choose the VS Code card and click Import & Continue, or pick Start Fresh for a clean setup and click Continue. Skip moves on without importing.
  • If none is found, the step offers Start Fresh only — click Continue.

3 · Choose Your Theme

Pick one of three built-in themes — AnyAutomation Light, AnyAutomation Dark, or AnyAutomation Black (the default). A live SCL preview window shows how each looks. The theme applies immediately; you can change it anytime later from the Command Palette. Click Next to continue.

4 · You're Set

The closing screen confirms you're ready and offers four shortcuts into the most common starting points:

  • Open a TIA Project (Ctrl+O)
  • Connect a PLC
  • Open AI Cascade (Ctrl+L)
  • Browse the Docs (F1)

Click any tile to jump straight there, or click Enter Workspace to finish.

  • Pager dots at the bottom show progress; click a dot to jump to that step.
  • ← Back returns to the previous step; Skip → moves forward without acting (hidden on the last step).
  • Keyboard: → next, ← back, Enter triggers the primary button, Esc dismisses the walkthrough.

Reopening it later

Open the Command Palette (F1 or Ctrl+Shift+P) and run AnyAutomation: Open Welcome Walkthrough. This restarts the walkthrough from the first step, regardless of whether you completed it before.

Get Started walkthrough in the editor

Separately from the first-run overlay, the standard welcome editor lists a Get Started with AnyAutomation Studio walkthrough. Its single step prompts you to sign in to AnyAutomation to activate your license; it checks itself off once you're signed in. Use Show welcome page on startup at the bottom of that editor to control whether it opens with the app.

AI & Agentic Coding walkthrough

The welcome editor also offers an AI & Agentic Coding walkthrough, listed on the Welcome page under Walkthroughs. It is a guided tour of the built-in AI assistant, with one card per capability so you can try each in turn. It helps you:

  • Chat about your project with the assistant, using your own AI provider and model — no separate third-party subscription is required.
  • Put the assistant to work as an agent that uses tools on your behalf to carry out multi-step tasks.
  • Run several agents in parallel in a dedicated Agents window, compare their results, and keep the best one.
  • Index your codebase so the assistant can search it by meaning, not just by exact text.
  • Add documentation sites that the assistant can search while it helps you.
  • Let the assistant search the web for up-to-date information.
  • Choose which model powers each AI feature — completion, next edit, apply, summarization and inline hints can each use a model you pick.
  • Sign in with a subscription or bring your own API key for each provider you use.
  • Customize the assistant to fit how you work: define your own agents and skills, set always-on instructions, save prompt shortcuts, add hooks and tool servers, install plugins, and decide which tools run automatically and which ask first.

Work through the cards at your own pace; each one checks itself off as you go.

Unit Testing walkthrough

The welcome editor lists a Unit Testing for PLC Blocks walkthrough on the Welcome page under Walkthroughs. It is a guided tour of the block-testing workspace, one card per step, so you build up a working test suite as you go. It helps you:

  • Build a test suite from your blocks by picking the function blocks and functions you want to cover.
  • Choose where the tests run — against PLCSIM Advanced, an OPC UA server, a real S7 CPU, or an offline folder of exported blocks when no hardware is on hand.
  • Run the suite and read the results at a glance, with each test marked pass or fail and the values that produced it.
  • See coverage and mutation gaps so you know which inputs and logic paths are still untested.
  • Guard the block interface so a later change to a parameter or its type is flagged before it surprises you.
  • Generate a CI pipeline so the same tests run automatically on every change.

For the full reference, see Unit Testing.

Hardware Simulation walkthrough

The welcome editor also lists a Hardware Simulation walkthrough on the Welcome page under Walkthroughs. It is a guided tour of the simulation workspace that lets you exercise a program without wiring up real field devices. It helps you:

  • Connect to your PLC over OPC UA or a PLCSIM instance, then browse its devices and channels to see the I/O you can drive.
  • Force signals by hand to set a channel to a fixed value, or drive them automatically with built-in functions — a constant, a step, a ramp, a pulse, a sine wave, or a PI response — to mimic real-world behaviour.
  • Link signals together with rules so one value reacts to another, building a small model of your plant.
  • Watch values update live while the simulation engine runs, and start or stop the engine whenever you like.
  • Keep things safe with fail-safe I/O handling, so safety-relevant channels behave predictably throughout.

For the full reference, see Hardware Simulation.

Forge walkthrough

The welcome editor also lists a Forge: Generate Code from a Graph walkthrough on the Welcome page under Walkthroughs. It is a guided tour of Forge, where you describe a plant as a graph and let Studio generate the controller code. It helps you:

  • Model your plant as a graph, connect the generation engine, and try the built-in MixingPlant example to see a finished graph end to end.
  • Create your own graph, add nodes and edges, and browse the objects in your project as you wire it up.
  • Validate the graph so problems surface before you generate anything.
  • Generate code — SCL, user-defined types, and data blocks — from the finished graph.
  • Customize the output by adjusting block types, profiles, and plugins to match how your team works.
  • Deploy or scaffold straight into TIA Portal, dropping the generated code into a project ready to compile.

For the full reference, see Forge.

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Introduction