Getting started with VeLens

VeLens is an AI layer for Salesforce Marketing Cloud. It reads your org, answers questions with your own data, and makes a change only after you approve it.

VeLens comes in two parts: VeLens Cloud (the web app) and VeLens for Marketing Cloud (the Chrome extension). This guide covers getting started with each. Installing the extension and connecting your org takes about five minutes.

Choose your surface

Pick whichever fits how you work. They share one account and one connection, so you can use both:

VeLens Cloud: nothing to install on your machine. Open app.velens.cloud in any browser for AI Chat, Org Health, the Activity log and team controls. It can also open inside Marketing Cloud, from SFMC's own app menu.
VeLens for Marketing Cloud: the Chrome extension. In-context tools that live right inside Marketing Cloud pages: Search, lookups and AI Chat next to whatever you're looking at.

Install the extension

VeLens for Marketing Cloud installs like any other Chrome extension:

Add VeLens for Marketing Cloud from the Chrome Web Store.
A short setup tab opens on its own and explains what VeLens reads. Click Acknowledge & Continue and you are taken back to Marketing Cloud. VeLens does not touch Marketing Cloud until you do.
Pin the extension to your toolbar so the popup is one click away.
Open any Salesforce Marketing Cloud tab. The extension injects itself into the page automatically.
Press Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+K to open Search and confirm it's live.

Five tools work straight away and free, on the Marketing Cloud session you're already signed into, with no account and no connection: Search, the Query Studio editor, DE Inspector, Automations & Journeys and Dependency Mapper. Subscriber Lookup, the Error Log, the send dashboards and everything AI-powered need the one-time Connect step below.

Connect your org

The AI layer and cross-business-unit features connect through the VeLens Installed Package in your Marketing Cloud account, using OAuth. There's nothing for you to create and no Client ID, Client Secret, or Auth Base URL to paste anywhere. It's a single "Connect SFMC" flow that establishes both your identity and secure API access.

You do it once per Marketing Cloud account, and it covers every way you open VeLens.

What happens when you click Connect

Four steps, all of them in a browser window you can see.

You start it. Click Sign in with Marketing Cloud in VeLens Cloud, or Connect SFMC in the Chrome extension popup.
Marketing Cloud asks who you are. VeLens sends you to your own Marketing Cloud login page. You sign in there. VeLens never sees your password.
You allow access. Marketing Cloud shows what VeLens is asking for. Choose Allow. If you are already signed in, this step can pass without a prompt.
You land back in VeLens. Connected. VeLens stores its access server side, lists your business units, and switches on the AI features.

What you need

A Marketing Cloud user account you can sign in with.
The VeLens package present in your Marketing Cloud account. An administrator adds it once, under Setup → Apps → Installed Packages. If it is missing, the sign-in stops and says so.
That package enabled for the business unit you connect from.
Permission for your user to authorize it. Some orgs limit this to administrators.

Connecting your org needs the VeLens package installed by a Marketing Cloud admin. Ask us and we will set it up.

Connecting from each surface

Connect once, from wherever you happen to be. The other places pick up the same account and the same connection.

VeLens Cloud (web app). Open app.velens.cloud and click Sign in with Marketing Cloud. If your Marketing Cloud login lives on a tenant-specific domain, open Advanced: specify your tenant first and type your subdomain so you are sent to the right login page.
VeLens Cloud, opened inside Marketing Cloud. Open VeLens from the Marketing Cloud app menu. You are already signed into Marketing Cloud there, so the connection usually completes without any typing.
VeLens for Marketing Cloud (the Chrome extension). Open a Marketing Cloud tab, then open the extension popup and click Connect SFMC. The extension already knows your tenant, so it sends you straight to your login page. A small window opens for the sign-in and closes itself when it finishes.

After you connect

VeLens creates an organization for your Marketing Cloud enterprise. The first person to connect that enterprise becomes the owner. Anyone who connects it later joins as an editor. Owners and admins change roles on the Team tab of Settings in VeLens Cloud; only an owner can make someone an owner.
VeLens reads the business units your connection can reach and saves the list, so the BU picker and BU-aware answers work straight away.
AI Chat, the AI email tools, Query Studio AI and the cross-business-unit lookups switch on.
Access refreshes in the background. You do not sign in again unless the connection is revoked or expires.

More than one Marketing Cloud account

Consultants and agencies often work across separate enterprises. That is supported.

Connect each enterprise once. VeLens keeps a separate connection per enterprise.
The Chrome extension activates the connection that matches the enterprise you are looking at, so one org's data never shows up while you are in another.
In VeLens Cloud, each Sign in with Marketing Cloud opens the one enterprise you signed in to. To work in another, sign out and sign in to that one.
Child business units belong to their parent enterprise. They do not need a connection of their own.

Turn access off

Either of these is enough on its own.

From the extension. Click Disconnect in the Chrome extension popup. VeLens revokes and deletes the tokens it stored for that connection. In VeLens Cloud, Sign out ends your web session only, and Delete my account and data on the Account page also removes your stored connections.
From Marketing Cloud. Go to Setup → Apps → Installed Packages, open the VeLens package, and remove it or take away the business units it can reach. This cuts access from your side, whatever VeLens still holds.

Troubleshooting

What you see	What it means	What to do
VeLens isn't installed in this account yet	Marketing Cloud rejected the app rather than your login. The package is not in this account.	Ask an administrator to add VeLens under Setup → Apps → Installed Packages, and to enable it for the business unit you are connecting from. Then connect again.
Connection cancelled	Someone chose Deny on the Marketing Cloud consent screen. Nothing in your account was changed.	Start again and choose Allow. If no consent screen appeared, ask an admin whether your user is allowed to authorize the package.
Marketing Cloud rejected the connection	The sign-in finished but the final exchange failed, usually because the package is not fully enabled, or the window sat open too long.	Confirm the package is installed and enabled for this business unit, then run the connection through without pausing. The authorization step expires after a few minutes.
Your connection attempt timed out	Too much time passed between starting and finishing the sign-in.	Close the window and start the connection again.
Couldn't identify your Marketing Cloud account	Marketing Cloud did not return the account details VeLens needs. Often temporary, sometimes a missing permission on the package.	Try again in a minute. If it keeps happening, ask your administrator to confirm the package grants Accounts and Users: Read.
This connection covers one business unit only	You connected from a child business unit, and something asked for a different one.	Switch to the parent (enterprise) business unit in Marketing Cloud and connect again. Everything in the child BU keeps working in the meantime.
VeLens can't reach that business unit	The connection itself is fine, but this business unit is closed to it.	In Marketing Cloud, open the VeLens package and add that business unit to the ones it is enabled for. Check that your own Marketing Cloud user has access to it too.
Reconnect Marketing Cloud	The stored access was revoked or expired, so VeLens can no longer reach your org at all.	Connect again. There is nothing else to repair, and reconnecting keeps your organization, team and history.
No SFMC connection found	A feature asked for a connection this user does not have yet.	Connect from the extension popup or from VeLens Cloud.
Multiple SFMC connections found	Your user is connected to more than one Marketing Cloud enterprise and the request did not say which one to use.	Open the Marketing Cloud tab for the enterprise you mean and try again. In VeLens Cloud, sign out and sign in to that enterprise.

Still stuck? Tell us what you saw and we will work it out with you.

AI Chat

AI Chat is where you ask VeLens about your org. Open it from the floating toolbar on any Marketing Cloud page, or from AI Chat in VeLens Cloud, then type a question or an instruction.

Asks pull live data: "Why did the Welcome Series automation fail last night?" or "Which data extensions haven't been touched in 90 days?"
Actions change something: "Draft a re-engagement email for lapsed subscribers" or "Create a template-based email in the Newsletters folder."

Known failures get one answer. Ask "why did automation X fail", "why did import Y load nothing" or "why were only 9,000 of 12,000 sent", and AI Chat puts one answer together from the run history and the failing step. Error text from Marketing Cloud has any row values scrubbed out first. Ask about a journey by name and you get its entry source, the emails it sends with their send counts, and what fills its entry data extension.

Every reply shows a tool trace: the exact tools the agent called, whether they succeeded, and how long they took, so you can see the data it worked from. You can attach up to two images to a message, such as a screenshot of an error.

When you ask for a change, it proposes the change and waits: you see exactly what it plans to do, with a rendered preview for emails, and a Confirm / Cancel choice. For bigger jobs it proposes a plan first. Approving the plan changes nothing in Marketing Cloud, and each step that changes something asks for its own Confirm.

An email edit can be restored for seven days, from the Restore button on its card or by asking AI Chat to undo it. A create can't be undone from VeLens, and its Confirm card says so. Delete the item in Marketing Cloud if it is wrong.

Tools & actions

Behind the chat sit purpose-built tools of two kinds:

Reads: list automations and their run history, inspect data extension schemas and row counts, pull recent send performance and bounces, list journeys, business units, folders, and templates, and more. Reads run automatically as the agent works through your question.
Writes: create an email or update one and its blocks, build a layout template, create a data extension, create a query activity, restore an earlier edit, and run the steps of a work plan you have approved. Writes always propose first. The agent describes what it's about to do, you review it, and only your confirmation executes it. There's no auto-retry and no silent write.

Subscriber Lookup never goes through the AI. It runs as a direct query from its own panel.

Business units

VeLens is business-unit aware. In the extension it follows the BU you're currently viewing in Marketing Cloud, and in VeLens Cloud you pick the BU from the picker in AI Chat. Answers and actions are scoped to that context automatically.

When you move between business units in SFMC, VeLens keeps up. Certain read features, like subscriber lookup, can also search across the business units your package can access when you need the full picture.

The business unit you are sitting in when you connect decides how far VeLens can reach.

Connect from your parent (enterprise) business unit if you can. VeLens then works across every business unit your user can reach, and you get a BU picker.
Connect from a child business unit and VeLens works in that one business unit only. Cross-BU features stay off. The success screen tells you which of the two you got.
To go from child-only to full reach, switch to the parent business unit in Marketing Cloud and connect again.
Access is scoped per business unit. Every request VeLens makes is checked against the business unit you are working in, so a question asked in one BU cannot read or write in another.

Keyboard shortcuts

Three features have dedicated shortcuts; everything else opens from the floating toolbar.

Shortcut	Action
`Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+K`	Search (command palette)
`Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+L`	Subscriber Lookup
`Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+E`	Error Log

VeLens Cloud (web app)

VeLens Cloud is the web app. There is no extension to install: click Sign in with Marketing Cloud and you get:

Home: suggested questions for AI Chat, today's Org Health tiles (total contacts, emails sent, automation failures, journeys), your recent activity and your last conversations.
AI Chat: the full chat, with a business-unit picker and the same Confirm step for every change.
Activity: every action VeLens took in your org, with time presets and filters. Owners and admins see the whole org, and everyone else sees their own.
Settings: owners and admins turn features on or off, choose what the AI may read or write, manage team roles, and write the note AI Chat reads about how your org works.

VeLens Cloud also opens inside Marketing Cloud, from SFMC's own app menu, once an administrator sets it up. How that works.

Privacy & security

The AI works from schemas, counts, headers and errors, and your Marketing Cloud credentials stay encrypted on our server. Sign-in happens on Marketing Cloud's own pages, so VeLens never receives your password.

How VeLens handles your data, with full detail in the Privacy Policy.

FAQ

Is VeLens free?

Yes, while we're early: every feature on both surfaces, with no credit card. AI Chat conversations and the small AI tools have allowances, and we top them up for free. See pricing.

What do I get when I connect my org?

Connecting turns on the API-backed features: AI Chat, subscriber lookup and the error log, send performance and engagement, the subject scorer, Query Studio AI, DE Inspector's AI descriptions, and cross-business-unit features. All of it runs server-side and needs the one-time OAuth connection.

Does it work on my stack?

It should. VeLens works on every Marketing Cloud stack, including newer tenant-specific logins. If something doesn't work on yours, tell us.

Is it affiliated with Salesforce?

No. VeLens is an independent product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Salesforce, Inc.

How do I revoke access?

Disconnect from the extension popup, or revoke the Installed Package at any time from SFMC Setup → Installed Packages. Once revoked, VeLens can no longer reach your org.