> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://t-matic.gitbook.io/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://t-matic.gitbook.io/docs/getting-started/connecting-data-source.md).

# Connecting Your First Data Source

In T-Matic, a **data source** is any external resource that feeds brand intelligence into a project. The most fundamental source is a brand's website — a URL you hand to T-Matic and it does the rest. You can also connect social accounts (Meta / Instagram) to pull real-world content performance data alongside the AI analysis.

This page walks through connecting both. Start with the website source — it is required before anything else is useful.

***

## Option A — Brand website (required first step)

A website source is created automatically when you create a project. If you entered a URL during project creation, your first source is already connected and the crawl is either running or complete.

### Verifying the source is connected

1. Open your project.
2. Go to the **Sources** tab.
3. You should see the homepage URL listed with a status badge.

If the source status shows **Complete**, T-Matic has finished analyzing that page. If it shows **In progress**, the pipeline is still running.

### Adding additional website sources

You can add individual URLs to a project beyond the initial homepage crawl. This is useful when a brand has microsites, landing pages, or separate product domains that were not discovered automatically.

1. In the **Sources** tab, click **Add source**.
2. Enter the URL.
3. Click **Analyze**.

T-Matic will run the full analysis pipeline on that page: factual extraction, voice analysis, knowledge graph extraction, and taxonomy mapping. The results appear in the source's detail view, and the extracted entities and relationships are merged into the project's knowledge graph.

### What T-Matic looks for during crawl

When you provide a URL, T-Matic crawls in priority order:

1. **Homepage** — analyzed first, used to generate the Brand DNA draft within 2–4 minutes
2. **Priority 1 pages** — About, Products, Pricing, and other high-signal pages discovered from the homepage and sitemap
3. **Priority 2 and 3 pages** — Supporting pages, blog posts, press, and other content

You do not need to provide a sitemap. T-Matic discovers links automatically from both the homepage HTML and `sitemap.xml` if one exists.

***

## Option B — Social account (Meta / Instagram)

Connecting a Meta social account lets T-Matic pull your published posts, captions, and engagement data into the project. This enriches the brand's knowledge base with real-world content and informs the AI content creation tools.

### Before you begin

* You must have a Facebook Business account or Instagram Professional account
* You must be an admin of the Facebook Page or Instagram account you are connecting
* Your workspace must have the Social features enabled (available on Pro tier and above)

### Connect an Instagram account

1. Open your project and go to the **Social** tab.
2. Click **Connect account**.
3. Select **Instagram** (via Meta).
4. You will be redirected to Meta's authentication flow. Log in with the Facebook account that manages the Instagram profile.
5. Grant T-Matic the requested permissions:
   * `instagram_basic` — read profile and media
   * `instagram_content_publish` — publish posts (required for scheduling)
   * `pages_read_engagement` — read page engagement data
6. Select the Instagram account you want to connect and confirm.

You will be returned to T-Matic. The connected account will appear in the Social tab with a green status indicator.

### What happens after connection

Once connected, T-Matic:

* Imports recent posts and captions into the project's knowledge base
* Makes post history available as brand voice reference for the AI content tools
* Enables post scheduling and publishing directly from the **Calendar** and **Social** tabs

### Disconnecting a social account

To remove a connected social account, go to the **Social** tab, open the account options menu, and select **Disconnect**. This does not delete any previously imported content from the project — it only stops future syncs and disables publishing.

***

## Troubleshooting

**The crawl is stuck on "Crawling website" for more than 10 minutes.** The website may be blocking automated requests. Some sites use bot detection (Cloudflare, etc.) that prevents crawling. Try adding the site's main content pages as individual sources instead.

**My Instagram account is not appearing in the connection flow.** Make sure you are logged into the correct Facebook account (the one that manages the Instagram Professional account). Personal Instagram accounts cannot be connected — you need an Instagram Business or Creator account linked to a Facebook Page.

**Source analysis shows "Failed".** Open the source to see the error details. Common causes are empty pages, login-gated content, or CAPTCHA-blocked pages. Remove the source and try a publicly accessible URL instead.


---

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