AI coding agents can build a setup checklist. Should they?

Yes.

That is exactly why this page exists.

A modern coding agent can generate a list UI, a progress bar, skip buttons, and a couple of API routes.

That makes "add first-run onboarding" feel like a commodity feature.

It is a commodity feature to start.

The maintenance trap

The problem with agent-built infrastructure is not that it fails to exist.

It is that it now belongs to you.

For setup checklists, ownership tends to expand along predictable lines:

just a list of checkboxes
who is the user, really?
shared steps vs personal steps
billing already connected — how do we mark it done?
admins should not see invite-a-teammate
where is progress stored?
did dismiss just look like 100% complete?
can Slack hear about flow_completed without getting host flags?

This is not an unusual story. It is the default story.

Bootstrapware's role

Onboard is not anti-agent. It is a product built for an agent-native development world.

The premise is:

agents are good at building and wiring
small SaaS teams are still the ones who inherit maintenance
buying narrow production software is often a better use of time than owning another generated subsystem

So the correct pairing is often:

AI agent
  → integrates @bootstrapware/onboard
  → your team ships faster
  → you do not own a DAP as a product

Prefer Path A (local adapter) if you only need a working UI. Assert user.id from your session. Choose BYO ($9.99) or Hosted ($19.99) when you go live. Never send host context through MCP. MCP configures flows only. If env has no publishable key, the agent must stop and ask a human.

Operating checklist

Choose Path A, BYO, or Hosted.
Install @bootstrapware/onboard and import styles.
Assert opaque stable user.id and workspaceKey from your session.
Configure flows via dashboard or MCP. Never host context in MCP tools.
Call completeStep from the host on real actions; pass facts for reconciliation.

Vendor-specific prompts: Cursor, Claude Code, Codex.

Copy-paste briefs: Agent prompt template, Give this to your coding agent.

Formal rules: Agents.

Buy narrow, keep velocity

The old "build vs buy" conversation assumed build was slow.

That is no longer true.

Now the conversation is: build is fast, but ownership still persists.

That is exactly the market Onboard is for.