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Getting Started: An Admins Guide

Welcome to elvex! This tutorial will guide you through the basics for setting up elvex for your team.

Updated over a week ago

What you'll learn

  • How to set default AI providers - so you control costs and model selection

  • How to configure single sign-on - streamlining access and maintaining security

  • How to enable integrations - allowing agents to take actions beyond conversation

  • How to add company context - making agents knowledgeable about your specific business

  • How to create groups and custom roles - managing permissions at scale

Before you begin

Prerequisites:

  • You have administrative access to your organization's identity provider (if setting up SSO)

  • You have the authority to create accounts with AI providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google

  • You've received administrator credentials from the elvex team

Step 1: Choose and Set Up Your AI Provider

elvex agents need an AI provider to function. While elvex supports multiple providers, you'll need to set up at least one before your team can start using agents. Most organizations begin with OpenAI due to its broad capabilities and reliability.

Supported AI Providers

elvex currently supports:

  • OpenAI

  • Azure OpenAI

  • Azure Foundry

  • Anthropic

  • Google Gemini

  • Grok

  • Cohere

  • Mistral

  • AWS Bedrock

Setting Up Your API Key

  1. Create an account or log into your existing account with your chosen AI provider

  2. Navigate to the API section of your provider's dashboard

  3. Create a new API key with appropriate permissions

  4. Set up billing to ensure uninterrupted service

  5. Copy and securely save your API key (you'll need this in the next step)

✅ Success check: You should now have an API key saved securely.

Step 2: Add Your AI Provider to elvex

Now you'll connect the AI provider you set up to your elvex organization.

  1. Log into elvex using the administrator credentials provided by the elvex team

  2. Navigate to Settings > AI Providers

  3. Click Add Provider

  4. Select your AI provider from the dropdown menu

  5. Paste the API key you created in Step 1

  6. Give this connection a descriptive name (e.g., "OpenAI - Production" or "Anthropic - Main")

  7. Click Test Connection to verify your API key works

  8. Click Save once you see the success message

✅ Success check: You can see your connected AI provider in the AI Providers list with an "Active" status.

Step 3: Select Default AI Providers

Setting default AI providers ensures consistency across your organization and helps control costs by directing usage to your preferred models.

  1. Navigate to Settings > Agents

  2. Locate the Default Provider section

  3. Select your preferred default provider from the dropdown. This will be used for the Home agent chat for all conversations. The model associated with that provider will be selected by elvex.

  4. Set a provider and default model for new agents

  5. Set a provider and default model for image generation

  6. Click Save Defaults

✅ Success check: Your default provider and models are displayed in the AI Providers settings.

Step 4: Set Up Single Sign-On (Recommended)

Single sign-on streamlines access for your team and ensures that user management stays synchronized with your organization's identity provider. This means when someone joins or leaves your company, their elvex access is automatically managed.

Note: We recommend setting the default role for new users via SSO to "Creator" so team members can immediately start building agents.

Configure Your Identity Provider

  1. Create a new SAML application in your identity provider (Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace, etc.)

  2. Configure elvex as the Service Provider with these details:

  3. Set up attribute mappings:

    • Email → user's email address

    • FirstName → user's first name

    • LastName → user's last name

  4. Download the metadata XML file from your identity provider

Configure SSO in elvex

  1. Navigate to Settings > SAML in elvex

  2. Click Upload IdP Metadata

  3. Select the XML file you downloaded from your identity provider

  4. Configure allowed email domains:

    • Enter your organization's email domains (e.g., yourcompany.com)

    • Users with these email addresses will be automatically redirected to SSO

  5. Set the Default Role for New SSO Users to "Creator" or "Member"

    • Learn more about roles and permissions here

  6. Click Activate SAML Connection

  7. You'll see a confirmation that SSO is active

Test Your SSO Configuration

  1. Open a private/incognito browser window

  2. Go to https://auth.elvex.ai

  3. Enter an email address from your domain

  4. You should be redirected to your identity provider

  5. Complete the login process

  6. Verify you're successfully logged into elvex

✅ Success check: Users with your organization's email domain are automatically redirected to your identity provider and can successfully log in to elvex.

Step 5: Select Integrations to Enable

Integrations allow your team members to perform actions beyond conversation—like creating tasks, sending emails, or updating spreadsheets. By enabling integrations at the organization level, you make them available for your team to use when building agents.

You might want to enable integrations when:

  • Your team needs agents to read or update data in your calendars

  • You want agents to create tasks in project management tools

  • You need agents to send notifications through Slack

  • You want agents to access customer data from your CRM

Enable Integrations

  1. Navigate to Settings > Integrations

  2. Browse the available integrations or search for specific tools

  3. For each integration you want to enable, click Enable for Organization

  4. Click on the gear icon of each integration to adjust action-level settings if needed

  5. Some integrations require authentication:

    • Click Connect to authorize elvex to access the service

    • Follow the OAuth flow to grant permissions

    • You'll see a confirmation when the connection is successful

✅ Success check: Your enabled integrations appear in the Integrations list with "Active" status, and team members can see these integrations when building agents.

Step 6: Fill Out Company Context

Company context helps all agents in your organization understand your specific business—your products, terminology, policies, and processes. This ensures agents provide accurate, relevant responses that align with your company's knowledge.

Without company context, agents only have general knowledge. With company context, they become experts on your organization.

Add Company Context

  1. Navigate to your personal icon > Company Context

  2. Click Edit Context

  3. Add information that would be useful for any agent in your organization:

    • Company Overview: What your company does, key products/services

    • Common Terminology: Industry-specific terms, acronyms, or internal jargon

    • Key Policies: Important guidelines agents should follow

    • Product Information: Names, features, and details about your offerings

    • Common Processes: Standard workflows or procedures

  4. Use clear, concise language that an AI can easily reference

  5. Click Save Context

✅ Success check: Your company context is saved and visible in the Company Context settings. When team members create agents, this context will be automatically available.

Step 7: Create Groups and Custom Roles

Groups and custom roles help you manage permissions at scale, especially as your organization grows. Groups allow you to organize users by team or function, while custom roles let you define specific permission sets beyond the default Admin, Creator, and Member roles.

Understanding Default Roles

elvex has three default company-wide roles:

  • Admin: Full access to all settings, can manage users and AI providers

  • Creator: Can create and manage agents and datasources, and share them with others

  • Member: Can use agents and datasources but cannot share them with others

Create Groups

Groups help you organize users and manage access to specific agents or datasources. You can only add users to a group after they have logged into elvex for the first time.

  1. Navigate to Settings > Groups

  2. Click Create Group

  3. Enter a descriptive group name (e.g., "Sales Team", "Engineering", "Customer Support")

  4. Add a description explaining the group's purpose

  5. Add members to the group:

    • Search for users by name or email

    • Select users to add them to the group

  6. Click Create Group

  7. Connect the group to an existing SSO group in your organization

Create Custom Roles (Optional)

Custom roles allow you to define specific permission sets for unique use cases in your organization.

  1. Navigate to Settings > Roles

  2. Click Create Custom Role

  3. Enter a role name (e.g., "Agent Reviewer", "Data Analyst", "Read-Only User")

  4. Configure permissions:

    • Agent Permissions: Can create, edit, delete, or only use agents

    • Datasource Permissions: Can create, edit, delete, or only use datasources

    • Integration Permissions: Can connect, use, or view integrations

    • Settings Access: Can view or modify organization settings

  5. Click Create Role

✅ Success check: Your groups are created with appropriate members, and users have the correct roles assigned. You can see groups and custom roles listed in their respective settings sections.

What You've Accomplished

Congratulations! You've successfully set up elvex for your organization. You now have:

✅ AI providers connected and configured with default models
✅ Single sign-on enabled for streamlined, secure access
✅ Integrations enabled so agents can take actions beyond conversation
✅ Company context filled out to make agents knowledgeable about your business
✅ Groups and roles configured to manage permissions effectively
✅ A foundation for your team to start building and using powerful AI agents

Related Articles

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Personal Context in elvex
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