Getting Started

Deck's first-run setup helps you create a workspace, tell Deck what you want to do first, and start from the page that job opens.

Open beta access

During capped open beta periods, Deck may ask new sign-ups to join the waitlist before creating a workspace. If you are already on the waitlist, choose Waitlist Sign Up on the capped sign-up screen and enter the same email you used for the waitlist. Deck verifies that email before opening the sign-up form with your email prefilled. If you sign up with Google One Tap while sign-ups are capped, Deck still creates your account, but not your workspace: when you submit the workspace form, Deck shows a message that this week's limit for new organizations is reached. If your email is already on the waitlist, the workspace is created as usual.

If you are already signed in with a different email, sign out first, then sign up with your waitlist email. Deck checks the authenticated account again during workspace creation, so the email on your account needs to match an email on the waitlist.

Work email

You can create your account with a 6-digit verification code sent to your email, or with Google or Microsoft. New accounts need a work email. Personal inboxes such as Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, Yahoo, and iCloud cannot create a new Deck account. If you enter one of those, or sign up with Google or Microsoft using a personal inbox, Deck asks you to sign up with a work email and can send a one-time reminder link to that work address. Existing accounts can still sign in. Organization invitations are unchanged.

By signing up, whether with an email code, Google, or Microsoft, you agree to Deck's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. There is no checkbox: the notice is under the Send verification code button.

If Google offers One Tap sign-in on the Deck website, choosing your account works like signing up with the Google button. A new work email creates your account and opens onboarding. An existing account signs you in. A personal Gmail address shows the work-email prompt and does not create an account.

Onboarding chat

After you create an account, Deck opens an onboarding chat — not a step-by-step wizard.

1. Create your workspace in the chat: confirm a name and a lowercase slug, and pick a data hosting region (North America, Europe, or APAC). Deck fills in the name and slug from your work email's domain. For example, ada@northwind.io starts with Northwind and northwind. Edit either one if it is not right. The slug follows the name until you change the slug yourself, and if the slug is already taken Deck says so under the slug field. You always choose the region yourself, and it cannot be changed later.
2. Deck confirms your workspace is created, tells you that finishing onboarding earns an extra 200 credits on top of the 200 Free plan credits, and asks what you want to get out of Deck. Choose a chip or type your own answer. The options depend on how you arrived (for example, AI PM, competitors, projects, or MCP). Deck may also use public information about your work-email domain to ask sharper questions and suggest a relevant integration — it will not tell you what it looked up.
3. The agent then walks you through that job in chat. You can connect a feedback source, start competitor research, import Linear or Jira work, set up MCP, create a feedback widget, or invite a teammate — without leaving the conversation. Your steps show beside the chat (on a phone, tap the steps at the top), ending with Finish onboarding and the 200 credits it earns.
4. When the required jobs are done, a Go to button at the end of the chat takes you into the matching page in the app. Finishing onboarding grants an extra 200 credits once, on top of the 200 Free plan credits. Deck Intelligence opens on that page with a short greeting and suggested next steps from any leftover setup tasks (or a few starter questions if nothing remains).
5. You can leave before you finish. Unfinished jobs stay on the Setup checklist in the app header, including a Finish onboarding task that brings you back to the same chat. Credits are not granted if you leave early.

You can create another workspace later from the org switcher: choose Create Organization. Deck keeps your current workspace active until the new one exists, then walks you through onboarding for that workspace (including its own 200 credits). A Back to link returns you to the previous workspace until you submit the form. The form for an additional workspace starts empty, because your company's name is usually already in use.

The Setup checklist points you to the right upload, integration, billing, or MCP setup page and updates as tasks are completed. The general Upload feedback task is also complete if your workspace has claimed competitor intelligence or has competitor research queued, running, or ready.

You can also set Deck up from your AI agent instead of this in-app chat. On the Deck homepage, open Sign Up from AI Agent and pick your agent:

• Claude and ChatGPT open in a new tab with the setup prompt filled in.
• Cursor opens the prompt in the Cursor desktop app.
• Claude Code and Codex copy a terminal command that starts the agent with the prompt. Paste it in your terminal.
• Another agent copies the prompt so you can paste it anywhere.

The product pages on the Deck website have a Signup from AI Agent button that copies a setup prompt. Your agent follows the AI PM protocol. If you are new to Deck, it sends you to /agent-setup to create your account and workspace and connect MCP, then you go back to the agent. On /agent-setup you type the organization name and slug yourself; they are not suggested from your email.

Sample workspace data

If a workspace still has onboarding sample data, the Themes list shows a banner so you can explore how feedback becomes themes, opportunities, and initiatives before importing your own sources. That sample data is marked separately from real feedback. Delete Sample Data on the Themes list opens a confirm dialog that stays open, with a deleting state, until the seed is gone. Theme detail does not show the banner. The onboarding chat does not add this sample data.

Adding your own data

You can add real feedback from the onboarding chat, the setup checklist, or directly from the relevant page:

When you add your first real first-party source (CSV, interviews, or an integration), Deck removes onboarding sample data before importing your feedback. If sample cleanup cannot complete, Deck stops the import and asks you to retry so sample data is not mixed with real customer data. Claiming a competitor report or starting competitor research completes Upload feedback without deleting sample data.

Once real first-party feedback is processed, Deck can generate your first Opportunity Backlog automatically and notify you when it is ready.

Credit checks during setup

AI processing uses credits. If overages are disabled and your workspace is running low, Deck may keep some credits available for activation work such as feedback synthesis, theme synthesis, NPS synthesis, initiative generation, and chat.

Onboarding chat is free for seven days from the start of your onboarding session in that workspace, even if you leave and come back. After that, chat turns use credits like Deck Intelligence. If your workspace has no credits left and overages are off, the chat shows a credit-limit message and your message is not sent. Upgrade, enable overages, or wait for the next billing period, then send it again. The hidden wrap-up turn at the end of onboarding is never charged. Jobs the agent starts for you — competitor research, imports, and similar workflows — still use credits during the free week.

For large CSV imports, rows that cannot be processed immediately because of credit limits are saved as waiting for credits instead of being discarded. You can still review the upload, and more rows can be processed after credits are available.

Finishing setup

Open the Setup checklist in the app header whenever you want to continue setup. When all checklist tasks are complete, the checklist is hidden automatically. You can also choose Don't show again to hide the checklist without completing every task.