Cursor (Anysphere)
Cursor has moved beyond a one-time install wizard to persistent setup checklists: a "Your setup" card on the web dashboard (connect GitHub/GitLab, Slack, plugins, cloud environment) and a "Getting Started" progress card in the desktop sidebar, plus a cursor.com/onboard page for picking a repo so cloud agents can run and test it. Public forum threads show the checklists are sticky when completion detection misses.
Notes
- The dashboard "Your setup" checklist (April 2026 forum screenshot) has four items — Connect GitHub or GitLab, Connect Slack, Extend Cursor with plugins, and "Set up your cloud environment for faster, parallelizable agents everywhere" with a Set up button — shown directly above an AI Line Edits contribution heatmap and streak stats.
- A Cursor staffer confirmed the checklist "doesn't detect cloud agent usage for individual accounts (only team-based setups)", leaving users stuck at 3/4 even though the feature worked; a second user reported the "Getting started" flow wouldn't disappear after finishing environment setup.
- The desktop app sidebar carries a "Getting Started 2/3" card with a progress ring and a single next action ("Connect Slack"); an August 2026 thread shows it staying at 2/3 after Slack was linked until the app was restarted.
- cursor.com/onboard frames repo setup around the payoff — headline "Get demos, not diffs" — asking the user to select a repository and provide environment secrets so agents can test their work; one thread shows the dropdown empty ("No repositories available") for a ~300-project GitLab org.
- An older 2024 thread shows the original IDE welcome flow tracked progress too: users saw "20% done" in the WELCOME section and could not re-trigger onboarding after skipping steps, even after reinstalling and clearing ~/Library files.
- Cursor designer John Bai announced in a public LinkedIn post (2026) that Cursor shipped in-product onboarding tips. The post gives no design rationale. A commenter pointed to the gap it fills: users find useful features months after they start (LinkedIn).
Patterns
setup checklistprogress indicatorintegration connect stepsbenefit-led headlinepersistent getting-started card
Articles
- Shipped onboarding tips in Cursor (John Bai)LinkedIn post by John Bai, Cursor designerby the team
- Stuck on cloud environment setup (3/4) — new "Your setup" checklist won't finishCursor Community Forum
- Slack and desktop Getting Started still show Connect/Link after Slack is already linkedCursor Community Forum
- Cursor onboard not showing repositoriesCursor Community Forum
- Re-trigger the onboarding experienceCursor Community Forum