> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.infraudit.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Quickstart: sign up, connect AWS, and run a scan

> Sign up for InfraAudit, connect your first AWS account, run a drift scan, and review your first findings — in about five minutes.

This guide takes you from a fresh InfraAudit account to a completed drift scan with findings you can act on. The only thing you need is an AWS account and IAM credentials with read-only access.

## Sign up

<Steps>
  <Step title="Create your account">
    Go to [infraaudit.dev](https://infraaudit.dev) and click **Get started**. Sign up with Google, GitHub, or an email address and password.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Land on the dashboard">
    After signing up you land on the dashboard. It's empty — no cloud accounts are connected yet. That's what the next step fixes.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Connect your AWS account

Cloud accounts are called **providers** in InfraAudit. You connect one from the **Cloud Providers** page.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open Cloud Providers">
    In the sidebar, click **Cloud Providers**, then **Connect AWS**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Enter your credentials">
    Fill in the form:

    | Field                 | What to enter                          |
    | --------------------- | -------------------------------------- |
    | **Access Key ID**     | From an IAM user or assumed role       |
    | **Secret Access Key** | The corresponding secret               |
    | **Region**            | Your primary region (e.g. `us-east-1`) |
    | **Display name**      | Any label you like, e.g. "Production"  |
  </Step>

  <Step title="Connect">
    Click **Connect**. InfraAudit validates the credentials and starts an initial resource sync. This typically finishes in under a minute for accounts with fewer than a few hundred resources.
  </Step>
</Steps>

### Required AWS permissions

Read-only access is enough to get started. Attach this IAM policy to the user or role whose credentials you're providing:

```json theme={null}
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "ec2:Describe*",
        "s3:List*",
        "s3:GetBucketLocation",
        "rds:Describe*",
        "lambda:List*",
        "cloudfront:List*",
        "ce:GetCostAndUsage",
        "ce:GetCostForecast"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}
```

<Note>
  Vulnerability scanning and IaC drift detection run entirely against data already ingested into InfraAudit. No additional AWS permissions are needed for those features.
</Note>

### Connecting GCP or Azure

The connection flow is the same. See [Connecting cloud accounts](/platform/connecting-cloud-accounts) for the GCP service account and Azure service principal setup instructions.

## Run your first drift scan

Once the initial sync finishes, the resource count on the Cloud Providers card updates. Now you can run a drift scan.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open Drift Detection">
    In the sidebar, click **Drift Detection**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Trigger the scan">
    Click **Run scan**. InfraAudit compares the current state of your resources against the baseline captured during the initial sync.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review findings">
    On a fresh account, the first scan usually returns no drift — the baseline was just captured, so nothing has changed yet. To see drift in action, make a change in your AWS account (add a tag, modify a security group rule), then click **Run scan** again.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Tip>
  Drift findings are sorted by severity. Filter by **Critical** and **High** first to focus on the most impactful changes.
</Tip>

## What to do next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Browse your resources" icon="server" href="/platform/resources-and-inventory">
    Click **Resources** in the sidebar to see everything InfraAudit discovered, filterable by type, region, and status.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Enable a compliance framework" icon="clipboard-check" href="/platform/compliance">
    Go to **Compliance** and enable the CIS AWS Benchmark to get a scored assessment with control-level findings.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Set up alerts" icon="bell" href="/platform/alerts">
    Go to **Settings → Notifications** and connect a Slack channel or email address to receive alerts.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Review cost data" icon="circle-dollar-sign" href="/platform/cost-optimization">
    Billing data syncs daily. The **Cost** section shows historical spend, trends, and savings recommendations.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Further reading

* [Platform guide](/platform/overview) — full walkthrough of every section of the UI
* [CLI quickstart](/getting-started/quickstart-cli) — do everything above without leaving the terminal
* [Connecting cloud accounts](/platform/connecting-cloud-accounts) — full credential requirements for each provider