Before the first ask
The user has arrived but does not know what the system is for, what it can reach, or what it will do with what they give it.
Say too little and the user cannot form a first request. Say too much and the onboarding becomes a manual nobody reads. The work is choosing the smallest set of claims that makes one useful first action obvious.
7 patterns for this moment
Each one is a different way to resolve the tradeoff above.
A plain statement of what the agent can do, what it cannot, and what it will never do without asking.
A curated set of example prompts on the empty state, teaching capability by demonstration rather than description.
Finished outputs shown with the prompt and settings that produced them, teaching by worked example.
An in-place hint that an AI action is available on the object the user is already looking at.
A deliberate name, voice and character for the AI, setting expectations before any output arrives.
A consistent color, icon and motion vocabulary that marks AI surfaces as distinct from deterministic ones.
Explicit control over what the system may retain, train on, and share, stated before capture.
Audit checklist for this moment
Walk one flow through these questions. Ticks are saved in this browser.