Onboarding checklist

Business Summary: This checklist walks you through the first week in order — so you connect data, scope a real goal, and complete a governed run instead of wandering the product.

What's live today: Most steps below work in the web app today. Billing shows sample data until your workspace billing is activated. Some governed run and checkpoint flows are fuller in the Nimbus desktop app — steps that may be desktop-first are noted inline. See What works today for the full status matrix.

Follow this checklist to get your Nimbus workspace ready for production use. Each step builds on the previous one; skipping early steps usually means weaker outputs or blocked runs later.

Core principle: You cannot hire a Finance agent and expect complex analysis without data in the system first. Connectors supply live systems data; the Company Wiki supplies policies and definitions. Agents and workstreams come after that foundation.

Onboarding readiness score

Nimbus scores onboarding progress out of 100. Each action — confirming company context, connecting integrations, inviting teammates, building the wiki, creating a workstream — adds points. The platform uses this score to understand where you are in your journey and to tailor prompts that bring you back to incomplete steps.

Target: Reach 80–90 out of 100 within about 14 days of signup. Users who stall near zero receive contextual nudges to finish setup before heavy agent spend.

How this fits in Nimbus

Onboarding is the foundation for every workstream you create afterward. Domain context, connectors, and wiki content feed all future agent runs.

flowchart LR
  S1[Company context]
  S2[Connectors]
  S3[Company Wiki]
  S4[Browse functional teams]
  S5[Create workstream]
  S6[Run and approve]
  S7[Trace]

  S1 --> S2 --> S3 --> S4 --> S5 --> S6 --> S7

Invite teammates (Step 8) can run in parallel once you have org admin access — it is not a blocker for your first governed run.

First-two-weeks journey

timeline
  title Onboarding journey
  Day 0 : Sign up and company context
  Day 3 : First connector connected
  Day 7 : Wiki seeded
  Day 10 : Workstream scoped
  Day 14 : First governed run

Recommended order matches how successful customers adopt Nimbus:

1. Company context — confirm onboarding wizard entities (products, markets, competitors)
2. Connectors — live data from CRM, ERP, storage, messaging
3. Company Wiki — policies, manuals, procedures (often synced from the same connectors)
4. Name approvers — decide who signs off before a write or a published output
5. Create a workstream — guided scoping binds goal, agent, connectors, governance
6. Run and approve — governed plans, reports, optional downstream actions
7. Trace — Process Board, Lifecycle Graph, Audit & History, or Perception queries

Step 1: Confirm company context

During onboarding, Nimbus asks about your company — products, markets, competitors, and strategic priorities. This builds your domain context, which agents use to ground their work.

What you'll do:

1. Complete the onboarding wizard when you first sign in.
2. Review the entities Nimbus extracted from your inputs.
3. Confirm or edit products, markets, and competitors.

What you'll see: A review screen where you can approve or adjust company entities before they are committed.

Why it matters: Without domain context, agents lack the business grounding they need to produce relevant analysis. Finance and strategy agents especially depend on accurate product and market definitions.

Step 2: Connect a data source

Agents need access to your systems to produce credible outputs. Intelligence connectors supply read access; you can add Action connectors later when you are ready for governed writes.

What you'll do:

1. Go to Connectors in the sidebar (Knowledge section).
2. Browse Intelligence connectors relevant to your domain.
3. Connect at least one source — CRM, data warehouse, or document storage.

See Connecting a connector for detailed steps.

Step 3: Populate the Company Wiki (optional but recommended)

Upload policies, definitions, and onboarding documents so agents can reference approved knowledge instead of guessing.

What you'll do:

1. Go to Company Wiki in the sidebar.
2. Upload documents or sync from a connected knowledge source.
3. Wait for indexing to complete.

See Adding knowledge.

Step 4: Browse functional teams

Browse the workstreams to find a functional team for your domain. Read mandates and connector requirements before you scope a workstream — assignment happens during workstream creation, not from a separate hire action.

What you'll do:

1. Go to Marketplace in the sidebar.
2. Search or filter by domain (Finance, Revenue, Operations, etc.).
3. Open an agent profile to review its mandate and specialists.

See .

Step 5: Create your first workstream

A workstream is a scoped workspace where an agent runs on a specific goal — your initiative's home for chat, outputs, and audit history.

What you'll do:

1. Go to Workstreams in the sidebar.
2. Click Scope new workstream.
3. Enter a name and objective.
4. Assign connectors and team members.

See Creating a workstream.

Step 6: Run an agent and review outputs

Execute an agent on your workstream goal and review what it produces. Plan mode is best for governed deliverables; Analyze mode suits exploration.

What you'll do:

1. Open your workstream workspace.
2. Switch to Plan mode in chat (for governed report runs) or Analyze for exploratory work.
3. Describe what you need.
4. Review the run plan and click Confirm & run.
5. Review outputs in the Outputs tab and Activity timeline.

See .

Step 7: Explore your knowledge views

See how your work connects across the organization. Lifecycle Graph shows domain relationships; workstream Activity shows execution history.

What you'll do:

1. Go to Lifecycle Graph to see your domain ontology.
2. When available, explore Lifecycle Graph for unified operating memory.

See Graph views in the product.

Step 8: Invite teammates

Bring colleagues into your workspace so approvals and workstream access reflect real accountability.

What you'll do:

1. Use the team invite step during onboarding, or
2. Go to Governance → Invite members (or Settings → Members & Directory when shown).

See Inviting teammates.

What to do next

• Run your first governed Plan → Running an agent
• Trace outcomes after approval → Audit and History
• Check what's live in your build → What works today

Example scenario

A new customer completes steps 1–6 in three days: they confirm product lines in onboarding, connect Google Drive and their CRM, scope Board prep — Q2, run the Finance agent in Plan mode, and approve the draft board pack at a checkpoint. Step 8 adds the CFO as approver before the next run.

FAQs {#faqs}

Q: Can I skip connecting a data source? A: You can explore without connectors, but governed runs that need live data will block or warn until required sources are connected.

Q: Do I need to hire an agent separately? A: No. Open a workstream and confirm a run plan in chat. The agents for that goal run there.

Q: What if I make a mistake during onboarding? A: You can update company context, connectors, and wiki content at any time from settings and feature pages.

Q: How many workstreams should we create in week one? A: One well-scoped workstream with a real business goal beats several empty shells. Expand after your first successful run.

Q: Which step matters most for auditability? A: Step 6 — governed Plan runs with approvals create the Activity trail your compliance and finance teams will rely on.

Q: Can different teams run onboarding in parallel? A: Yes. One admin can own connectors while domain leads scope workstreams, but shared wiki and governance settings benefit from early alignment.