Your First Send

This guide walks you through the complete Distill workflow from a fresh workspace to a sent newsletter issue. By the end, you will have created a newsletter, added a link with an AI-generated summary, and sent the issue to a subscriber.

Before you start

You need a workspace. If you have not created one yet, follow the Workspace Setup guide first.

Step 1: Create a newsletter

A newsletter is a recurring publication — you create it once and then produce individual issues from it.

1. Click the Newsletters icon (Newsletters) in the sidebar.
2. Click New newsletter.
3. Enter a Name (for example, "Monthly Market Update").
4. Optionally add a Description so your subscribers know what to expect.
5. Click Create newsletter.
6. Click the Edit Current Issue button to start working on the first issue, which was automatically created for you.

Step 2: Add a link

1. In the issue editor, click Add link.
2. Paste a URL — a news article, blog post, or any web page you want to include.
3. Click Add.

Distill queues the link for AI processing. Within a few seconds, the link card updates with a title and AI-generated summary pulled from the page content.

Step 3: Organize into a category

Links are grouped into categories in the sent email. When you add your first link, a default "General" category is created automatically.

To rename a category:

1. Click the category name (it is editable inline).
2. Type the new name (for example, "Market Trends").
3. Press Enter or click outside the field.

Step 4: Add a subscriber

Before you can send, you need at least one subscriber.

1. Click the Users icon (Subscribers) in the sidebar.
2. Click Add subscriber.
3. Enter the subscriber's Email address and optionally their First name and Last name.
4. Click Add subscriber.

For testing purposes, you can use your own email address. A confirmation email is sent to the address — the subscriber must click the confirmation link before they appear as active.

Step 5: Send the issue

1. Return to the issue editor (click the Newsletters icon (Newsletters) in the sidebar, select your newsletter, then click the issue).
2. Click Send in the top-right corner.
3. Select the subscriber list you want to send to.
4. Choose Send now.
5. Review the send confirmation — it shows the subscriber count and from address.
6. Click Confirm send.

Distill processes the send immediately. The issue status changes from Draft to Sending and then to Sent once all emails are dispatched.

What you just did

You went through the full Distill workflow:

1. Created a newsletter (the recurring publication)
2. Created an issue (this month's edition)
3. Added a link with an AI-generated summary
4. Added a subscriber
5. Sent the issue

From here, you can explore adding more links, importing a subscriber list from CSV, or setting up your custom sending domain for production sends.

Next steps

• Adding Subscribers
• Creating a Newsletter
• Building an Issue