How to set up user onboarding in an app built with Cursor without a developer
A complete first-session flow in an app built with Cursor — 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 Cursor Agent
Example: user onboarding in an app built with Cursor
A CRM maintained in Cursor. Sales reps (role = sales_rep) get a welcome modal on /deals, a pipeline tour on /deals/pipeline and a checklist on the second visit; managers skip it.
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 in an app built with Cursor, step by step
- 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>

Step 1 · schematic illustration - Step 02
Open the repository in Cursor, Agent mode
Open the project folder in Cursor and the chat in Agent mode, so it can edit files itself.

Step 2 · schematic illustration - Step 03
Send the prompt with your key
Replace
PASTE_YOUR_SITE_KEYwith your key and send it. Cursor reads the repository and picks the right root file from the list in 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) 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.
Step 3 · schematic illustration - Step 04
Accept the diff, commit and deploy
Review the diff — the tag in one root file plus the prompt’s small additions — then accept, commit and push. Your hosting deploys as usual.

Step 4 · schematic illustration - 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.

Step 5 · schematic illustration - 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:
Setting Value Welcome popup Format Modal window Where to show (page URL) Exact path /dealsWhen to show Right on page load Audience targeting Property roleequalssales_repFrequency Once per visitor Product tour Format Step-by-step tooltips Where to show (page URL) Section by prefix /deals/pipelineWhen to show Right on page load Audience targeting No rules — everyone who opens the page Frequency Once per visitor Checklist Format Onboarding checklist Where to show (page URL) Section by prefix /dealsWhen to show On the Nth visit: 2 Audience targeting No rules — everyone who opens the page Frequency Once per visitor 
Step 6 · schematic illustration - 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.

Step 7 · schematic illustration
Pitfalls: user onboarding in an app built with Cursor
Review before accepting
Agents sometimes “improve” nearby code. Reject changes outside the files the prompt mentions; the user onboarding needs nothing else.
Local dev isn’t production
The widget works on localhost too, which is great for testing, but visitors’ stats and the “Widget is live” signal come from the deployed app.
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 managers get their own onboarding?
Yes. Duplicate the items with a rule for role = manager and different pages.
Which Cursor model should I use?
Any model in Agent mode handles this; the task is small and the prompt names the files.
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.
What else you can add in an app built with Cursor
- How to create a product tour in an app built with Cursor without a developer
- How to add an onboarding checklist in an app built with Cursor without a developer
- How to add a paywall upgrade prompt in an app built with Cursor without a developer
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