> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.beam.cloud/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction

export const Banner = () => {
  return <div className="flex not-prose bg-primary-dark" style={{
    borderRadius: '1rem'
  }}>
      <div className="flex-1" style={{
    padding: '2rem 2rem'
  }}>
        <h1 className="text-3xl text-white font-bold">Templates</h1>
        <h2 className="mt-1 text-white">Here you'll find guides, resources, and references to build with Venus.</h2>
        <button className="mt-5 flex items-center space-x-1 font-medium px-4 py-1 bg-white rounded-xl group-hover:opacity-[0.9]" style={{
    color: '#09090B'
  }}>
          <span>Get started</span>
          <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width={20} height={20} viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" strokeWidth={2} strokeLinecap="round" strokeLinejoin="round" className="w-3 h-3">
            <path d="m9 18 6-6-6-6" />
          </svg>
        </button>
      </div>
      <div className="hidden sm:flex flex-1">
        <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mintlify/themes/main/prism/images/cta.svg" />
      </div>
    </div>;
};

export const HeroCard = ({img, title, description, href}) => {
  return <a className="border-b pb-8 cursor-pointer border-gray-500 dark:border-gray-800 hover:!border-primary dark:hover:!border-primary-light" href={href}>
      <img src={img} className="w-full" />
      <h1 className="mt-4 font-semibold text-gray-900 dark:text-white">{title}</h1>
      <h2 className="mt-1 text-gray-600 dark:text-gray-400 text-sm leading-6">{description}</h2>
    </a>;
};

<CardGroup>
  <HeroCard img="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mernit/docs-assets/refs/heads/main/quickstart-wave.jpg" title="Run the Hello World" description="Run a basic Hello World and learn Beam interactively." href="/v2/getting-started/quickstart" />

  <HeroCard img="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mernit/docs-assets/refs/heads/main/quickstart-book.jpg" title="Core Concepts" description="Learn about running functions, deploying endpoints, and testing your code." href="/v2/getting-started/core-concepts" />
</CardGroup>

## Features

Beam is an open-source cloud platform that lets you:

* Run serverless workloads on CPUs and [GPUs](/v2/environment/gpu)
* Securely execute code generated by LLMs in [Sandboxes](/v2/sandbox/overview)
* [Launch containers](/v2/environment/custom-images) in the cloud in under 1 second
* Instantly deploy any [existing Docker image](/v2/environment/custom-registries) as a [REST API](/v2/endpoint/overview)
* Deploy [task queues](/v2/task-queue/running-tasks), [scheduled jobs](/v2/function/scheduled-job), and long-running [functions](/v2/function/running-functions) with no timeouts
* Automatically [scale jobs](/v2/scaling/concurrency) to thousands of containers

You only pay for the compute you use, by the [millisecond of usage](/v2/resources/pricing-and-billing).

## Get Started

<Steps>
  <Step title="🎁 Create an Account">
    Create an account on [Beam](https://platform.beam.cloud). You'll get 15 hours of free credit when you signup!
  </Step>

  <Step title="🚧 Activate a Python Virtual Environment (Recommended)">
    Activate a Python virtualenv, which is where you'll install the Beam SDK.

    ```python theme={null}
    python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="📝 Register API Token and Install SDK">
    Retrieve your API token from the dashboard, on the [API Keys](https://platform.beam.cloud/settings/api-keys) page.

    Paste the token in the command below to install the Beam SDK. Make sure to replace `[TOKEN]` with your actual token.

    ```python theme={null}
    pip install beam-client && beam configure default --token [TOKEN]
    ```

    Your API key will be saved to the `~/.beam/config.ini` file on your computer.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Once these steps are complete, you can follow our [Hello World](/v2/getting-started/quickstart) to begin running workloads right away!

<Check>
  [Give us a star on Github](https://github.com/beam-cloud/beta9)! Beam is
  completely open source.
</Check>