New Onboarding: Deploy Faster, Then Let Agents Take Over

We shipped a redesigned onboarding recently. I want to explain what changed, why we changed it, and what it unlocks for you.

The Problem

Too many people were signing up for Cosmic and never making it to deployment.

Not because the product was broken. Because the onboarding wasn't pulling them through. Users would get into setup, make some progress, and then get stuck.

We had to fix that.

What Changed

The old onboarding was a multi-step questionnaire. A series of form fields, screens, and prompts you had to work through before you could touch anything real. It felt like a survey. Plenty of people dropped off before they ever saw the product.

The new onboarding is one screen.

Here is exactly what you see now:

One natural language prompt. A single text box at the top of the screen. Type what you want to build: "A recipe blog with seasonal collections," "A portfolio for my design work," whatever it is. That description drives everything that follows.

Quick-pick project types. Below the prompt, seven buttons: Blog, Online Store, Portfolio, Company Site, Restaurant, SaaS Landing, Docs Site. One tap and your project type is set. No questionnaire, no branching paths.

Goal categories. Start an online business. Share my creative work. Promote my company. Manage content for my app. Something else. Five options. You pick one and move on.

Your AI team, named and ready before you hit Build. This is the part I want you to pay attention to. Before you do anything else, you see the agents that will be hired for your project. Not generic icons. Named agents: Nora, Growth Strategist; Maya, Social Media; Elena, SEO Analyst. You know exactly who you're getting and what they do before you commit to a single thing.

Channel selection built into onboarding. Slack, WhatsApp, or Telegram. Where do you want your agents to reach you? You pick it here, during setup, not later in some settings menu you have to go find.

"Build my project." One button. That's it. You're done.

From a multi-step form to a single screen. From a blank slate to a named AI team.

The Part That Matters Most: Agents Ready on Day One

Here's what the old onboarding was really missing. And this is the part I'm most excited about.

In the old flow, agents were something you discovered later, if you went looking. An add-on. An afterthought.

In the new flow, your AI team is visible before you even hit Build. You see Nora, Maya, and Elena waiting for you. You know they're part of the project. They're not a feature you stumble across after the fact; they're part of the thing you just built.

That changes the mental model completely. Cosmic isn't a CMS where you add agents later. It's a platform where you and your agents get started together.

Once your project is live, those agents are ready to work: creating blog posts, managing content pipelines, running SEO analysis, posting to social. Head to the Agent Marketplace to see everything that's available.

Early Signal

After we shipped this, within 24 hours, we already saw fewer users dropping off before deployment. It's a directional signal, and it's moving the right way.

When onboarding works, you see it immediately. We're seeing it.

Try It

If you haven't signed up yet, now is a good time. The onboarding is faster, clearer, and designed to get you somewhere real before you lose momentum.

Create your free account and see how quickly you can go from zero to deployed.

Once you're there, head to the Agent Marketplace and meet your team.