# Onboarding with the CLI

As soon as you [sign up for free](https://dashboard.commercelayer.io/sign_up) and your account is successfully confirmed, you will be prompted to follow a short onboarding tutorial that will show you how to place your first order from scratch, directly from the command line.

The tutorial is split into four steps:

1. [Create an organization](#create-an-organization)
2. [Seed it with test data](#seed-the-organization-with-test-data)
3. [Place a test order](#place-a-test-order)
4. [Explore all the resources](#explore-all-the-resources)

### Create an organization

To create your first sample organization all you need to do is choose a meaningful name for it and select the region where your data will be stored.

{% hint style="warning" %}
Once the organization is created, the chosen data storage location cannot be changed anymore.
{% endhint %}

![](/files/cJvMCO6xzpkOqw4LHnUf)

{% hint style="info" %}
If — for whatever reason — you need to delete one or more of the organizations you created, please ask the organization owner to reach out to our support team and send a specific request to [support@commercelayer.io ](mailto:support@commercelayer.io)specifying the list of the organization slug you want to be deleted.
{% endhint %}

### Seed the organization with test data

You can now seed your newly created organization with some test data using the [seeder plugin](https://github.com/commercelayer/commercelayer-cli-plugin-seeder) of the CLI.

![](/files/CfMjZbwiiKAhmvvMJgkd)

### Place a test order

Once your sample organization gets populated with everything you need to get started, you can place your first order in test mode. To do that you need to generate the checkout URL using the [checkout plugin](https://github.com/commercelayer/commercelayer-cli-plugin-checkout/) of the CLI and complete the process in the browser through Commerce Layer [hosted checkout](https://github.com/commercelayer/commercelayer-react-checkout).

![](/files/8U4s7oqfqfn6og2in8Xm)

{% hint style="success" %}
Congratulations! :tada: You just placed your first order with Commerce Layer, and it took you less than 5 minutes. Cool, right?
{% endhint %}

### Explore all the resources

As the last step of your first dive into Commerce Layer we suggest you install the [resources plugin](https://github.com/commercelayer/commercelayer-cli-plugin-resources) and get more familiar with the CLI by exploring your organization's test data:

![](/files/p7MIx0nGuHwxlM5hX8jG)

{% hint style="info" %}
Please note that a live documentation option is also available on the command line: just append `--doc` to any CLI command of the resources plugin to show the command in a specific language of your choice (**cURL** and **Node** currently available, more to come).
{% endhint %}

#### Example

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="CLI command" %}
The following command fetches a collection of SKUs using the CLI, prompting you the options to select a format to show the command live documentation:

```shell
commercelayer list skus --doc
```

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="cURL" %}
This is the corresponding cURL command to fetch a collection of SKUs:

```shell
curl -g -X GET \
  'https://your-organization.commercelayer.io/api/skus' \
  -H 'Accept: application/vnd.api+json' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/vnd.api+json' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer your-access-token'
```

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Node" %}
This is the corresponding Node command to fetch a collection of SKUs:

```javascript
import commercelayer from '@commercelayer/sdk'

const organization = 'your-organization'
const accessToken = 'your-access-token'

const cl = commercelayer({ organization, accessToken })

cl.skus.list().then(console.log)
```

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}

## Let's go deeper!

The onboarding tutorial just scratches the surface of what you can build and achieve with Commerce Layer. Now, you can take the time to explore the rest of this guide, check the [API reference](https://docs.commercelayer.io/core-api-reference/), have a look at our recipe-like [how-tos](https://docs.commercelayer.io/how-tos/), and become a pro!

{% hint style="success" %}
Do you need to extract some kind of data information from your Commerce Layer's organization? Check our [Metrics API](https://docs.commercelayer.io/metrics/) and see how it can enable you to gather and aggregate useful data that you can leverage to measure the health and performance of your ecommerce business.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="success" %}
If you want to exercise greater control over your organizational structure and user roles and be able to manage provisioning tasks programmatically instead of manually, leverage our [Provisioning API](https://docs.commercelayer.io/provisioning/).
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="success" %}
Would you like to benefit from a DSL that enables you to define promotional rules? If you're an enterprise customer, you can ask to test our [Rules Engine](https://docs.commercelayer.io/rules-engine/) and start setting up almost any kind of promotions to boost your sales, from the simplest to the most complex.
{% endhint %}

For everything else, [join us on Discord](https://discord.gg/commercelayer) and feel free to ask any questions to the team or get involved in the conversation with the rest of our developers' community.

If you want to dig deeper into how Commerce Layer's data model is structured, feel free to skip this tutorial by clicking on the related text in the upper right corner, create a new organization, and [seed it manually](/core/onboarding/manual-configuration.md), as explained in the following step-by-step guide.


---

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