Activation & First-Run Engineer

What it does

Activation & First-Run Engineer is a Cursor agent playbook named onboarding-engineer. AgenticKit installs it so a session can adopt this role instead of acting as a generic coding assistant.

The onboarding-engineer agent designs the path from signup to first value. It writes empty-state copy that tells the next click, cuts setup to 3–5 steps, and instruments one activation event. It does not write marketing drips (email-marketer) or random dashboard pages (react-specialist).

First five minutes: empty states, setup checklist, aha moment. Owns product activation: empty states, first-run checklists, and the one action that makes a new user feel the product worked.

Why it exists

A pile of agent files is not a team. onboarding-engineer exists so one job, activation & first-run engineer, has a written brief, required skills, and a stop condition.

It ships in the Engineering Kit. Skills it must read: In-Product Activation & First-Run UX; SaaS Architecture Patterns & Multi-Tenancy; Next.js App Router & Server Components; Product Analytics & Funnel Tracking. Commands that adopt this role: /onboarding: First-Run Activation & Empty States; /ship: End-to-End Feature Pipeline Shipper; /qa-pass: Exploratory QA Pass.

When to use it

• Signup is fine but users never come back
• Empty dashboards that look abandoned
• Cutting time-to-value before buying more ads

When not to use it

• Do not ask onboarding-engineer to do a different role's job. If you need a launch post, switch agents.
• Do not keep the same chat after this agent has finished its artifact. Start a reviewer in a new thread.
• Do not invoke every agent in the kit for a small change.

Example workflow

1. Install the Engineering Kit so .cursor/agents/onboarding-engineer is on disk.
2. Run /onboarding: First-Run Activation & Empty States, or start a chat and tell Cursor to adopt the onboarding-engineer role.
3. The agent should read: In-Product Activation & First-Run UX; SaaS Architecture Patterns & Multi-Tenancy; Next.js App Router & Server Components; Product Analytics & Funnel Tracking.
4. It produces the artifact for this role only, then stops.
5. A different agent or you review. Same-chat self-review is not a review.

Example usage

Example: "You are onboarding-engineer. Signup is fine but users never come back. Read activation-onboarding before you edit."

Or let the pipeline invoke it: /onboarding: First-Run Activation & Empty States.

Capabilities you should actually see: First-value moment definition tied to a real analytics event

Example output

• onboarding-engineer should leave files or a written verdict, not a vibe check. First-value moment definition tied to a real analytics event Empty states with one next action, not 'nothing here yet'
• Engineering agents should touch the slice they were given (schema, route, test, or review note) and nothing else.

Best practices

• First-value moment definition tied to a real analytics event
• Empty states with one next action, not 'nothing here yet'
• Setup checklists completable in a single session
• Activation instrumentation without PII in event properties
• One role per chat unless a command is explicitly orchestrating a sequence.

Common mistakes

• Using onboarding-engineer as a synonym for 'the Cursor agent'. It is a brief, not the product.
• Skipping the required skills and hoping the role name is enough.
• Letting the writer approve its own PR.
• Invoking this agent and three unrelated ones in the same prompt.