Clew

How to set up user onboarding with Claude Code without a developer

A complete first-session flow with Claude Code — welcome, guided first action, getting-started list — built from three Clew items that follow the user through the app instead of one long tour on page load.

Time
● 40 minutes
Price
Tours free · rest 14-day trial
Who does it
You and Claude Code

Example: user onboarding with Claude Code

An invoicing SaaS maintained with Claude Code. Welcome modal on /invoices, a tour of /invoices/new, and a checklist on the second visit for users who haven’t sent an invoice.

The product tour part is free on the Free plan (up to 3 published). The Modal, Checklist and audience rules are part of Pro: every new account gets a 14-day trial with everything included, no card. When the trial ends nothing is deleted and published items keep showing.

How to set up user onboarding with Claude Code, step by step

  1. Step 01

    Copy your Clew snippet

    Create a free account (or sign in), add your site and open Admin → Overview. Click the line in the “No signal from the widget yet.” card to copy it — it carries your real site key instead of the placeholder.

    <!-- Clew: replace PASTE_YOUR_SITE_KEY with the site key from Admin > Overview -->
    <script src="https://tryclew.io/widget/PASTE_YOUR_SITE_KEY.js" async></script>
    Clew admin Overview with the embed line and a masked site key (user onboarding with Claude Code)
    Step 1 · schematic illustration
  2. Step 02

    Start Claude Code in the project

    Run claude in the project folder (or open Claude Code in your IDE). It works on your real repository and asks before editing files.

    A terminal-style AI assistant session opened in a project (user onboarding with Claude Code)
    Step 2 · schematic illustration
  3. Step 03

    Send the prompt with your key

    Replace PASTE_YOUR_SITE_KEY with your key and send the prompt.

    Add the Clew onboarding widget to this app.
    
    Insert this exact tag once so it loads on every page, including after client-side route changes:
    <script src="https://tryclew.io/widget/PASTE_YOUR_SITE_KEY.js" async></script>
    
    Find the root HTML file or root layout of this project (index.html for Vite, app/layout.tsx with next/script for Next.js App Router, nuxt.config.ts app.head.script for Nuxt, src/app.html for SvelteKit, the base template for server-rendered apps) and add the tag there.
    
    After sign-in, call Clew.identify() with non-personal properties as strings that tell a new user from an existing one — for example { signup_source: "web", onboarded: "false", role: "owner" } — and update onboarded to "true" when the user completes the key action. If the widget may not have loaded yet, first define the queue stub: window.TutorKit = window.TutorKit || { q: [], identify: function (p) { this.q.push(["identify", p]); } }; then call window.TutorKit.identify(...). Also add data-tour attributes to the main navigation and the primary create button. Never pass names or emails.
    
    Rules:
    - Use the script URL exactly as given. Do not download it, bundle it or install an npm package.
    - If the project sets a Content-Security-Policy, allow https://tryclew.io in script-src and connect-src.
    - Change nothing else and show me the diff.
    AI chat with the Clew prompt in the message box (user onboarding with Claude Code)
    Step 3 · schematic illustration
  4. Step 04

    Approve the edits and ship

    Approve the proposed edits after reading them, then commit and deploy as usual — or ask Claude Code to open a pull request.

    Code diff with one script line added to the root file (user onboarding with Claude Code)
    Step 4 · schematic illustration
  5. Step 05

    Create the three onboarding items

    In Clew create three items in Flows: a Modal window with one welcome sentence and a link to the key screen; a Step-by-step tooltips tour of 3–4 steps on that screen, built with Edit on your site and Pick element; and a Onboarding checklist with the remaining setup tasks.

    A welcome popup, a tour tooltip and a checklist panel shown as three stages of user onboarding (user onboarding with Claude Code)
    Step 5 · schematic illustration
  6. Step 06

    Choose where, when and for whom it shows

    In the same editor, set Where to show (page URL), When to show, Audience targeting and Frequency. These are the settings of the example above:

    SettingValue
    Welcome popup
    FormatModal window
    Where to show (page URL)Exact path /invoices
    When to showRight on page load
    Audience targetingNo rules — everyone who opens the page
    FrequencyOnce per visitor
    Product tour
    FormatStep-by-step tooltips
    Where to show (page URL)Section by prefix /invoices/new
    When to showRight on page load
    Audience targetingNo rules — everyone who opens the page
    FrequencyOnce per visitor
    Checklist
    FormatOnboarding checklist
    Where to show (page URL)Section by prefix /invoices
    When to showOn the Nth visit: 2
    Audience targetingProperty first_invoice_sent not equals true
    FrequencyOnce per visitor
    Clew tour editor with the format, page URL rule, trigger and audience rule fields (user onboarding with Claude Code)
    Step 6 · schematic illustration
  7. Step 07

    Publish and check it on the live site

    Set Status to Published and save. Open the page in a private window — Clew remembers who has already seen a “once” item, so your usual browser may skip it. Views, completions and drop-offs appear in the tour stats.

    Clew admin Overview with the green “Widget is live” card (user onboarding with Claude Code)
    Step 7 · schematic illustration

Pitfalls: user onboarding with Claude Code

Claude.ai artifacts are not your app

Code in a Claude.ai chat or artifact runs in a sandbox and isn’t deployed to your users. Install Clew in the actual project with Claude Code, where the change reaches production.

Keep the key out of CLAUDE.md

The site key is public, but it belongs in the page, not in project instructions that get reused across repositories.

The welcome popup must not fire for existing users

“Once per visitor” is per browser: an old customer on a new laptop is a new visitor. If your app knows the user, add a rule on a property like onboarded so long-time users skip the welcome.

Don’t start everything on one page

If the popup, the tour and the checklist all match the same URL, only one starts and the others wait. Give each item its own page or trigger, as in the table above.

Questions and answers

Can Claude Code wire the onboarded flag?

Yes, that is part of the prompt: it sets the property when the first invoice is sent.

Do I need a paid Claude plan?

Claude Code is available with Claude subscriptions and API access; Clew itself doesn’t depend on which one you use.

Which parts are free?

Tours are free on the Free plan. The welcome popup, the checklist and audience rules are in Pro; the 14-day trial includes them all, no card.

How long does it take?

About forty minutes for a first version: ten for the popup, twenty for the tour, ten for the checklist. Then improve by the funnel.

One line on your site — then tours, tooltips and checklists without releases.

Get your site key — freeHow Clew worksFree plan forever, no credit card

Product tours, popups and onboarding in the age of AI

7 patterns with step counts, copy rules and what to measure, what AI changes, and a checklist before you publish. PDF, 2 pages. What is inside →