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

# What is Forge?

> Understand Forge's three core workflows and how it fits with your PSA.

Forge is an AI-first work surface for IT service firms. It gathers context from the systems your team already uses, helps people reason about the next step, and can carry out allowed actions with visible controls.

It is organized around three core jobs:

1. **Helpdesk:** understand, prioritize, plan, and resolve service tickets.
2. **Projects:** scope, plan, coordinate, and deliver longer-running work.
3. **Custom agents:** run repeatable operational workflows on demand or on a schedule.

Chat, connected knowledge, reusable guidance, insights, and administration support all three.

## Forge and your PSA

Your PSA remains the authoritative record for operational fields such as ticket and project status, queue or board, assignment, time, billing, and provider-specific administration. Forge gives the team an AI work surface over that record:

* context is assembled from the PSA and other connected systems;
* the next action can be investigated, planned, reviewed, or executed;
* allowed writebacks are visible in the workflow;
* provider-specific fields or actions that Forge does not support stay in the PSA.

See [Forge and your PSA](/reference/forge-and-your-psa) for the full boundary.

## Human work and background work

Forge supports two operating patterns.

### Interactive work

A person is present in Chat or a ticket or project workspace. Their role determines the broadest access they can receive. **Ask mode** keeps the session read-oriented; **Full access** can expose allowed write tools. Some tools may require a one-time approval before they run.

### Background work

An AI Engineer or Custom Agent can run without a person present. Administrators decide which tools are available to each background surface. Interactive approval prompts do not apply because nobody is present to answer them.

<Warning>
  Full access is not unrestricted access. It never bypasses your role, system permissions, tool permissions, surface Availability, or provider capabilities.
</Warning>

## A practical adoption path

Most organizations get more value by expanding deliberately:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Start with visible, reviewable work">
    Connect the core systems, train a pilot group, and use Forge to gather context and recommend next steps.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Turn repeatable work into guidance">
    Capture successful procedures as runbooks or skills and test them against representative work.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Enable controlled execution">
    Decide which people and background surfaces can use write tools, then monitor outcomes.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Improve from evidence">
    Review Insights, agent runs, recurring blockers, and weekly user feedback to choose the next workflow.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Next, take the [first-day tour](/getting-started/first-day).