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

# Quickstart

> Spin up your first investigation, ask about an incident, or explore your system using natural-language questions.

## Start an investigation

The Traversal Investigation page lets you describe an incident or system question in plain language. Traversal analyzes your connected stack and returns a triage with root cause candidates, timelines, and cited evidence.

### Add context quickly

**@-mention entities** — Type `@` to reference teams, services, applications, or environments. Use the dropdown or autocomplete to select the right item.

**Paste an incident description** — Paste in a snippet from a ticket, Slack thread, or alert. Traversal parses entity names (teams and services) and extracts the date and time if present.

<Tip>
  Include when the issue started, error messages, affected teams and services, and any alert or runbook links. More specific context produces better diagnostics.
</Tip>

### Set the time window

Deep mode requires a start date, time, and timezone. If you paste an incident description that includes a timestamp, Traversal parses it automatically. Otherwise, use the date and time controls on the page.

Examples that parse correctly:

* `Oct 23 20:00 UTC`
* `10/23/2024 at 20:00 UTC`
* `Oct 23 4pm ET 2024`
* `5pm EST yesterday`

### Ask follow-up questions

If the first pass doesn't capture the full picture, ask follow-up questions in the web app or the Slack thread.

* Drill into any symptom
* Slice the timeline
* Request more detail on a specific signal

<Note>
  To change the analysis window, start a new investigation with the revised time range.
</Note>

<Tip>
  Reply with `@Traversal` and additional context to sharpen the analysis — for example: "focus on payments-api in prod-us-east after 12:05 UTC".
</Tip>