Quickstart

This is the whole path, from an organisation that has never heard of Sigil to a signature appearing in Outlook. Each step links to the detail.

You need a Microsoft 365 tenant with Exchange Online, and an account that can grant admin consent in Entra and upload an add-in in the Microsoft 365 admin centre. Global Administrator covers both.

1. Connect your organisation

Visit https://portal.usesigil.app/admin/consent. You are redirected to Microsoft’s admin consent screen, which lists the read-only Graph permissions Sigil needs. Granting consent installs Sigil’s service principal in your tenant.

The callback provisions your tenant automatically: it creates a trial subscription, pre-fills the billing profile from your organisation’s registered address, and seeds a ready-made starter signature so you do not open the portal to a blank page.

The first person to sign in afterwards becomes the tenant administrator.

Full detail: connect your organisation.

2. Sign in to the portal

Go to https://portal.usesigil.app/admin and sign in with your Microsoft account. There is no separate password.

You land on the Getting started checklist rather than an empty portal. Each step’s completion is worked out from real state rather than being ticked off by hand, so the list stays honest.

3. Design your signature

Open Templates. You already have a starter template. From here you can either build a new one in the drag-and-drop designer or edit markup directly in the HTML editor.

If you are moving from another product, the usual approach is to recreate your existing signature so the switch is invisible to recipients. Both editors can do that; the HTML editor gives you exact control.

Drop in placeholders such as {{displayName}} and {{jobTitle}} wherever directory data belongs, and wrap optional parts in conditional sections so a missing phone number does not leave a stray separator behind.

Preview with sample data, then publish. The editor shows a line diff against the live version before you commit.

4. Deploy the Outlook add-in

This is the step that makes signatures appear, and the one that needs care.

In the Microsoft 365 admin centre, go to Settings, then Integrated apps, then Upload custom apps, and upload the Sigil manifest. The Getting started checklist carries the exact manifest URL for your tenant.

Target a pilot group first. Allow 6 to 72 hours for propagation before treating a missing add-in as a fault.

Event-based add-ins only auto-launch when an administrator deploys them. A person installing it themselves will not get automatic signatures.

Full detail: deploy the add-in.

5. Check it is working

Open Activity in the portal. It shows every signature request and every apply outcome, per mailbox, plus a list of mailboxes that have never successfully applied one.

Send yourself a test email to see the rendered signature in a real client.

If something is missing, troubleshooting works from tenant state down to a single mailbox.

6. Invite colleagues and add a card

Under Users and roles, invite the people who need portal access and give each a role. Marketing usually needs the Marketing role, which reaches banners and link analytics only. See users and roles.

Under Billing, add a card through Stripe Checkout. At the end of the trial Stripe either charges the card or, if there is no card on file, cancels the subscription. An organisation that never adds a card simply stops rather than being billed by surprise, and once the trial ends without an active subscription signatures stop being served.

What comes next

Once the basics work, the pieces that usually follow are assignment rules to give different departments different signatures, a compliance footer for legal, and banners when marketing wants a campaign.

For a phased rollout across a larger organisation, see planning a rollout.