Skip to main content
Getting Started
5 min readUpdated 2026-02-15

Quick Start Guide

Get up and running with Klarvo in minutes. This guide walks you through creating your account, setting up your organization, adding your first AI system, and understanding the core compliance workflow.

Welcome to Klarvo

Klarvo is the EU AI Act compliance platform built for SMEs. It turns the complexity of the regulation into guided workflows, auto-generated checklists, and audit-ready evidence packs — so you can demonstrate compliance without hiring a dedicated legal team.

This guide takes you from sign-up to your first classified AI system in minutes.

Step 1: Create Your Organization

After signing up, you'll be prompted to create your organization profile. This is the workspace where all your AI systems, evidence, policies, and compliance data live.

  • Organization Name: Enter your legal entity name
  • Industry Sector: Select your primary industry — this tailors risk recommendations and template language
  • Company Size: Choose your employee count range (1–10, 11–50, 51–250, 250+)
  • EU Presence: Indicate the EU member states where you operate — this determines which national market surveillance authorities are relevant
  • 💡 Tip: You can update organization settings at any time in Settings → General. Getting these right from the start means better-tailored templates, smarter classification suggestions, and more relevant compliance alerts.

    Step 2: Understand the Dashboard

    Your Dashboard is the compliance command center. At a glance you'll see:

  • AI Systems Overview: Total count with breakdown by classification level (Minimal, Limited, High-Risk Candidate, Blocked)
  • Compliance Alerts: Upcoming deadlines, evidence renewals, overdue tasks, and systems flagged for reassessment
  • Risk Distribution Chart: Pie chart of your AI portfolio by risk level — helps you prioritize
  • Department Risk Heatmap: Which teams carry the most high-risk systems
  • Audit Readiness Score: A composite percentage based on evidence completeness, control implementation, task completion, and training coverage
  • Aim for 80%+ on the Audit Readiness Score to be considered audit-ready. Most organizations start below 30% and improve rapidly once they begin systematically uploading evidence and completing classification.

    Step 3: Add Your First AI System

    The AI System Inventory is the heart of Klarvo. Every compliance artifact — classifications, evidence, controls, tasks — connects back to an AI system record.

  • Navigate to AI Systems in the sidebar
  • Click Add AI System
  • Choose your intake mode:
  • - Quick Capture (2–4 minutes) — Captures name, owner, vendor, and basic scope. Creates follow-up tasks for the rest. Best for initial inventory building.

    - KlarvoEngine Classification (under 60 seconds) — Describe your system in 4 fields. KlarvoEngine's 3-pass pipeline handles prohibited practices screening, risk classification, transparency checks, and oversight mapping automatically. Best for production systems you need classified immediately.

    Step 4: Complete the Classification

    The AI System Wizard guides you through a structured questionnaire aligned to the EU AI Act:

  • Basic Information: Name, internal ID, department, lifecycle status
  • Vendor & Supply Chain: Third-party provider details, contract links, foundation model identification
  • Scope & Impact: Deployment regions, affected groups, customer-facing vs. internal
  • Value Chain Role: Are you a deployer (using AI built by others), provider (building/selling AI), or both?
  • AI Definition Test: Does this qualify as an "AI system" under the Act's definition? (Commission guidelines referenced)
  • Prohibited Practices Screening: Eight critical Article 5 checks — any flag blocks further classification until legal review
  • High-Risk Screening: Nine Annex III category checks (employment, education, credit, etc.)
  • Transparency Obligations: Article 50 disclosure requirements
  • Data & Privacy: Personal data processing, DPIA linkage
  • Human Oversight: HITL/HOTL/HOOTL model, oversight authority
  • Review & Sign-off: Reviewer assignment and classification confirmation
  • Step 5: Review Your Classification

    After completing the wizard, Klarvo auto-generates:

  • Risk Level Classification: Minimal, Limited Risk (transparency obligations), High-Risk Candidate (full Article 26 deployer duties), or Blocked (potential prohibited practice)
  • Classification Memo PDF: A one-page auditable document with inputs, result, confidence level, reviewer, and rationale
  • Gap Checklist: Every missing control and evidence item, mapped to applicable obligations
  • Task Plan: Auto-created tasks with owners and suggested due dates
  • Evidence Requests: Specific documents you need to upload (vendor docs, oversight SOPs, training records)
  • Next Steps

    Now that you've added your first AI system:

  • Understanding the Dashboard — Deep dive into every metric and chart
  • Inviting Team Members — Assign system owners, oversight roles, and reviewers
  • Evidence Vault Overview — Start uploading and organizing compliance documentation
  • The Classification Engine Explained — Understand how risk levels are determined

  • Need Help?

  • Check our FAQ for common questions
  • Contact Support for personalized assistance
  • Explore Features to see a full capability overview