Cortex needs to know who's actually running this install so approvals, activity, and the audit log all point to a real person — never a shared account.
Who is the operator of this install?
Work only starts once it has somewhere to belong. This sets the first company this install manages — you can add more anytime from Settings.
What's the first company this install runs?
Gates like design, plan, and test-results approval need at least one human approver by default. This just sets a safe starting point — grant or revoke per-gate later in Settings.
Who approves gates by default?
Every agent needs a default model + envelope to run in until you fine-tune per-role. This picks a safe, capable default — cheaper or more specialized options can be assigned later, per agent.
Default model & deployment envelope
You can change any of this later in Settings — this walkthrough just sets a sensible starting point, one decision at a time.