Auto-create default project and API key on signup

[ade555]

Description: Currently, a developer who signs up must manually create a project and then create an API key for that project before they can write a single line of code. These are two unnecessary steps that add friction at the highest drop-off risk point in the onboarding flow.

Proposed change: Auto-create a default project and an associated API key immediately on signup. The developer should land in a ready-to-use environment with credentials already available — no setup wizard, no manual steps.

Why this matters: Every decision a developer has to make before seeing Tambo work is a drop-off risk. Removing these two steps gets them closer to writing code and seeing the agent render a real component.

These updates have been previously discussed with @MichaelMilstead.

[michaelmagan]

I'm ok with auto-creating an API key and showing, I'd still like to better understand though how this helps users get started. In your other issue you mention that getting an API with no context leads to confusion. How do these issues flow together?

[ade555]

Hi @michaelmagan,

Creating an API key and a default project (with reasonable defaults) will generally reduce the amount of time developers spend trying to figure things out. In my case, I spent about 10 minutes before finally setting up Tambo locally because I wasn’t sure what the best choices were when creating an API key.

Removing this cognitive load will allow developers to spend more time actually using the product rather than configuring settings. When they eventually want to customize those settings, they’ll have already experienced Tambo. That’s much better than having to navigate multiple configuration decisions before they can even test it and decide whether they want to continue using it.

It’s common for developers to look for alternatives if the initial experience of trying a product feels stressful or overly complicated.

Doing this together with updating the dashboard with docs links at strategic places, like I explained in my other issue, should improve the first-time experience of developers.