Getting started

This guide takes you from nothing installed to your first draft. It takes a few minutes.

What you need

• Google Chrome on a desktop or laptop computer, version 120 or later. To check, open the Chrome menu, then Help, then About Google Chrome.
• An X account that you post from.
• A Starling account. The Free plan is enough to try it.

The extension does not run on phones or in the X app. On a phone, use the writing page instead: paste the post you are answering, or its link, and copy the draft into the X app. It uses the same account, voice and plan.

1. Install the extension

1. Open the Starling listing in the Chrome Web Store.
2. Choose Add to Chrome, then Add extension.
3. Optional: pin Starling from Chrome's Extensions menu so its icon stays in the toolbar.

2. Create your account

1. Go to Create account.
2. Enter your email address and a password you do not use anywhere else.

3. Confirm your email

We send a 6-digit code and a link to the address you signed up with. Type the code on the page that asks for it, or open the link in the same browser, and you are signed in. Starling cannot draft for your account until your email address is confirmed.

No email? Check your spam folder, then choose Send the email again on the same page, or on your account page.

4. Connect the extension

1. Open x.com in Chrome, then open the Starling panel by clicking the Starling icon in Chrome's toolbar.
2. Choose Sign in. Chrome opens a small Starling sign-in window.
3. Sign in with your Starling email address and password if you are asked to.
4. Check the page: it names this browser and your account. Choose Connect this browser.
5. The window closes and the panel shows that you are connected.

Every connected browser is listed under Devices, where you can disconnect it at any time.

5. Choose what Starling may use

Before your first draft, the extension asks for your consent:

• Drafting (required). To draft or answer, the extension sends the post you ask about, the text in the composer, attached images as small copies, your panel messages and your writing samples to Starling's servers and to its AI provider. Starling cannot draft without this consent.
• Learning from your own activity (optional). While you browse X, the extension can send your own profile and post stats so drafts better match what works for you. This stays off unless you turn it on.

You can change these choices in the extension at any time. If you withdraw consent for drafting, Starling stops drafting until you agree again. If the consent terms change, the extension asks you again.

6. Let Starling learn how you write

Drafts sound like you once Starling has read enough of your own writing. The quickest way:

1. On x.com, open your own profile.
2. In the Starling panel, open Settings and press Add my posts from this page. It adds the posts of yours that X has loaded, never anyone else's, and never posts anything.
3. Scroll down your profile and press it again to add more. Until Starling has about 10 of your texts, drafts say that they may sound generic.

You can also paste examples of your writing one at a time in the same place, and remove any sample later.

7. Make your first draft

1. On x.com, open the reply box under a post, or start a new post.
2. Choose the ✦ Create button next to X's Reply or Post button. If you have already typed something, the button reads Enhance instead.
3. Starling writes the draft into X's composer. Edit it as much as you like.
4. Press Post yourself when you are happy with it, or discard it.

Next, read Writing with Starling for everything the composer controls can do.