AI Guides › Getting Started
By Nigel Guy · 2 min read
Most "getting started" guides hand you a features tour — here's the sidebar, here's the model picker, here's how to start a chat. None of that is onboarding. Onboarding is the handful of decisions that make every session after the first one faster, and nobody writes those down because they're not flashy enough for a feature tour.
The rule: five setup decisions, made once, do more for you than a month of "tips and tricks" posts.
| # | Decision | Why it's on this list |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tell it about yourself, once | So you stop re-explaining your role and preferences every chat |
| 2 | Start one real Project, not five test chats | Gives you a container that keeps context instead of scattering it |
| 3 | Connect exactly one tool you'll actually use | A connector you never touch is just an unused permission |
| 4 | Save one prompt you'll reuse | Turns a one-off win into a repeatable habit, day one |
| 5 | Pick your default model deliberately | Fast for quick back-and-forth, flagship for anything that needs real reasoning — decide this once, not every time |
Do these in order. Skipping straight to "connect everything" before you've told it who you are just means every connected tool inherits zero context about you.
Skip reading a full changelog before you've sent a single real message — you'll retain more of it once you have a use case to hang it on. Skip installing every skill or plugin you see recommended; an unused connector or skill is a permission you granted for nothing. And skip trying to build the "perfect" project structure before you've actually used it for a week — you don't yet know what you'll need.