Getting Started

Getting Started

This page is the fastest path to a successful first session.

1. Open Zcrafter

You can begin in either of these modes:

  • Guest mode: Best for trying Zcrafter quickly.
  • Signed-in mode: Best if you want saved chats, projects, usage tracking, and a consistent workspace across sessions.

If you know you want to keep your work, sign in first.

2. Choose how you want to work

  • General chat and study help: Ask Aura for explanations, summaries, drafts, or practice questions.
  • Mainframe work: Connect your environment if you want Zcrafter to act on real datasets, members, or jobs.
  • Saved organization: Sign in so you can group related chats into projects.

3. Pick a model

For most everyday work, start with Aura.

Use a heavier model when you need a longer answer, deeper reasoning, or a more involved draft. If model availability changes, check Settings > Usage.

4. Ask your first prompt

Good first prompts:

  • Summarize this topic for a beginner.
  • Turn this into a study guide with a short quiz.
  • List the members in Z62429.JCL.
  • Read Z62429.JCL(JCL1) and explain what it does.
  • Show the latest spool output for my most recent job and summarize any errors.

5. Organize your work

If you are signed in, use Projects to keep related chats together. This is useful for exam prep, dataset investigations, repeated job analysis, and multi-day work.

6. Check your usage when something seems unavailable

Open Settings > Usage if:

  • a model is temporarily unavailable
  • you want to know how much you have left today
  • you are not sure whether you are in guest mode or on a plan
  • a request tells you to try again later

7. Connect your mainframe only when you need live actions

You do not need a mainframe connection for normal chat. Connect only when you want Zcrafter to work against your actual environment.

Have these ready:

  • Host
  • Port
  • User ID
  • Password
  • Any VPN or network access your team requires

Next steps

  • Read Installation for setup guidance and prerequisites.
  • Read Account Setup if you are unsure about guest mode, sign-in, or usage.
  • Read Interactive Mode if you want stronger prompts for datasets, members, and jobs.
Get StartedInstallation