> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.aloop.icustomer.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.aloop.icustomer.ai/plays/setup.md).

# Setting up a play

From the library to live: picking a play, reviewing the spec, and confirming activation.

Setting up a play is a conversation, not a form.

{% stepper %}
{% step %}

### Pick a play

Browse the [library](/plays/library-b2b.md) and choose the motion. Each card says what it does, what it needs, and what good looks like.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### iHarness instantiates it

A chat opens, and the template becomes *your* play: your audience slice, your connected channels, your goal. If something it needs is missing, a connector, an identifier, consent coverage, it says so now, not mid-run.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Review the spec

One card: who it will touch, through what, on what cadence, spending what. The per-action rates behind that number, and a worked example of what a play run draws, are on [Billing](/settings/billing.md). Adjust anything in the chat, a different cohort, a swapped channel, a lower cap.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Confirm to activate

Activation is the [gate](/iharness/gates.md): budget, sends, and audience claims commit only on your explicit confirmation. Until then, nothing has been spent.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Watch it run

The play shows its runs: when it fired, what each run delivered, into which [activations](/plays/what-is-a-play.md). Anything needing you raises a hand in Pulse.
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

## What you get back

An activated play returns four things, continuously:

* **runs**: each firing, with when and why it fired,
* **activations**: what each run delivered, into which destination,
* **decision traces**: the receipt behind every choice the play made, readable before and after it runs,
* and **pulses** whenever something needs you: an approval, a problem, a first worth seeing.

Nothing else arrives unannounced: if the play is quiet, nothing crossed its bar. Ask [iHarness](/iharness/ask-iharness.md) why; that is always the shortest path to the answer.

## Editing later

The chat that created a play stays its control room. Reopen it to retune, retarget, swap a destination, pause, or stop, the play's history rides along, so changes are made in context.

Every play runs inside the platform rules; read them once in [Guardrails and suppression](/plays/guardrails-and-suppression.md).


---

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