Getting started

Open This week in Strays

1. Create your organisation. Sign in, name your organisation; you're its admin.
2. Connect AWS. One account, or your whole AWS Organization at once. One click in your AWS console creates a read-only role (which to choose, and how it works). Someone else can do this step for you.
3. Read your first results. This week shows what needs you; Everything found lists waste with its monthly cost and security risks by severity, with an owner for each.
4. Fix, accept or hand over. Owners get a message in Slack with buttons (or a card in a Teams channel); you get a weekly summary of what changed.

Nothing to install, and Strays never changes anything in your account.

Creating your account

Choose Start your free trial on the website, then Create my account. The sign-up pages are run by Amazon Cognito on auth.getstrays.com, so your password never reaches Strays.

• Password: at least 14 characters, with upper and lower case letters and a number.
• Email code: a 6-digit code goes to your work email. If it hasn't arrived after a few minutes, check spam, then use Resend code.
• Authenticator app: every account needs one, because Strays can see your AWS set-up. Scan the QR code with Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, 1Password or similar, and type the code it shows. You'll be asked for a code each time you sign in.

The trial is 14 days with no card. One trial per person: a second sign-up with the same email starts on the free plan.

Your first scan

Plan on about 10 minutes from sign-up to your first results: around 5 to create your account, 5 to connect AWS, and a minute or two for the first scan. While the scan runs, the account page and This week check for the result every 20 seconds and reload themselves when it's done.

Once your sign-in is set up, Strays counts three set-up steps: "Step 1 of 3: name your organisation", "Step 2 of 3: connect AWS" and "Step 3 of 3: your first scan". After you check the connection the scan starts by itself, usually within a few minutes, and finishes in a minute or two. The account's page then says Scan finished: see what Strays found; This week shows its progress until the results are in. If it takes longer than usual, here is what to do.

The home screen: This week

When the first scan is done, This week shows what only you can decide, who owns what, and the money and security picture. What each part of it means.

Your team

Anyone can leave later from the Team page (leaving an organisation), and someone an admin removes is told so when they next sign in.

Admins invite people from Team, in the menu (more on roles and invitations), with their email and a role:

• Viewer: sees everything.
• Member: also keeps, snoozes and scans, and makes leaver reports.
• Admin: also manages AWS accounts, the team, Slack, Teams, alerts and billing.

They get an email with a link that works for 7 days (admins can also copy the link from the Team page). They sign in or sign up with that email and join. Each person belongs to one organisation. Admins can change anyone's role or remove them; an organisation always keeps at least one admin. The Free plan is for one person; Team and Business have no limit.

Using Strays with a keyboard or screen reader

Every page starts with a Skip to content link. After you send a form, the page comes back with focus on what happened: the field to correct, the error, the message saying it worked, or the row you changed, so you carry on from there instead of the top of the page. Pages that wait for something (a first scan, an access review being gathered) check by themselves and say Finished when the result is in; they update in place without moving your focus. If your device is set to reduce motion, they wait for you to choose Show the result instead.