Skip to main content
The onboarding agent is a guided chat that creates your first nao Cloud project. Open it from the Start using your data card in the sidebar (Set up), or go to app.getnao.io/onboarding. It starts with one question: Would you like to import a project or simply connect your warehouse? Pick Import project or Connect warehouse, or describe your situation in your own words. The agent asks short follow-up questions as cards with option buttons, and an Onboarding progress bar above the chat tracks the steps of the path you chose.
The onboarding agent only helps with setup. For anything else, open a regular chat. Onboarding chats are free and don’t use your nao credits. They are kept in your sidebar, so you can leave and come back: progress survives a page refresh.

​
Connect warehouse

Use this path when you have a warehouse but no nao project yet. nao builds the project for you in the cloud. Progress steps: Connect warehouse -> Initialize -> Verify -> Sync metadata -> Prepare context.
  1. Pick your warehouse. Supported: Amazon Athena, Amazon Redshift, BigQuery, ClickHouse, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft SQL Server / Azure SQL, MotherDuck, MySQL, Postgres, Snowflake, StarRocks, and Trino.
    The onboarding progress bar and the Which database are you using? question with one button per supported warehouse
  2. Enter your credentials. Click Enter credentials and fill in the connection details for your warehouse (for example GCP Project ID and Service Account JSON for BigQuery). Click Connect: nao checks the connection before you continue. Credentials are submitted securely and are never shared with the agent.
  3. Choose the tables to sync. Once the connection is verified, click Next: nao lists the schemas and tables it found. Under Tables to sync, keep Everything (all current and future tables) or pick specific schemas and tables, with a search box to find them. Select at least one table to continue.
    The Choose BigQuery data dialog with Everything or Specific selection, a search box, and a schema and table tree
  4. Add business context (optional). While nao runs nao init and nao debug in the background, an Add business context card helps the agent understand your company. It has two tabs:
    • About your business: your Company website, and Tell us more about your business: what your company does and what nao should understand about it.
    • Sources: documentation to sync alongside your warehouse:
      • Notion: an integration token and the URLs of the pages or databases to sync, one per line.
      • Confluence: your Confluence Cloud site URL, account email, Atlassian API token, and the URLs of the pages to sync.
      • GitHub: connect your GitHub account and choose a repository, such as your dbt project.
      • Files: upload .md or .txt documents (up to 10 files, 5 MB each, 25 MB in total).
    nao checks each source before you continue. Click Sync with context, or Skip & sync to go on without it.
    The About your business tab with the company website and business description fields
    The Sources tab with Notion connected, and Confluence, GitHub and Files available
  5. Let nao sync. nao runs nao sync on the tables you selected and on your business context sources. A progress card shows each stage, and you can open View nao sync logs to see the raw output. If an optional source fails, setup continues and the card lists it under Some optional business context was not synced.
    The onboarding progress bar at Sync metadata and the Syncing schema and previews card at 64%
  6. Start chatting. nao writes a first RULES.md from your synced metadata and business context, creates the project (named after you, for example “Claire’s project”), and shows Start chatting.
The project’s context is stored in a private GitHub repository managed by nao. You can rename the project in Settings -> Project Settings.
Using DuckDB? nao Cloud can’t reach a DuckDB file on your machine. The agent offers two options: load your DuckDB file into MotherDuck and connect that, or set up a project locally.

​
Import project

Choose Import project, then answer Where is the nao project you want to import?

​
I don’t have a project yet

Build the project on your machine, then deploy it to nao Cloud. Progress steps: Install -> Initialize -> Verify & sync -> Deploy. The agent asks How would you like to create your new nao project?
  • Let my local agent do it: copy the prompt shown in the chat into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, or another coding agent. It installs the nao skills and nao-core, then runs nao init, nao sync and nao debug.
  • Show me the step-by-step guide: the agent walks you through installing nao-core (with uv or pip), then nao init, nao debug and nao sync, one command at a time.
Then deploy from the CLI.

​
Import a local project

You already have a folder with a nao_config.yaml. Progress steps: Locate project -> Verify -> Sync -> Deploy. The agent asks you to cd into the project folder, run nao debug and nao sync, then deploy from the CLI.

​
Import from GitHub

Your nao project lives in a GitHub repository (a folder containing nao_config.yaml). Progress steps: Connect GitHub -> Import repository.
  1. On the Add an existing project card, click Connect and authorize GitHub in the popup.
  2. On the Choose a repository card, click Browse and pick the repository and branch.
nao clones the repository and creates the project. You can pull the latest commit anytime from Settings -> Git.
The repository picker only lists repos the nao GitHub app can access. If yours isn’t listed, add it to the app’s installation on GitHub.

​
Deploy from the CLI

The local paths end with a Ready to deploy your project card.
  1. Click Generate deploy key. nao creates an organization API key and shows the full deploy command. Only organization admins can generate the key: other members are asked to get it from an admin.
  2. Run the command from your project folder:
The onboarding agent detects the new project once the deploy finishes. You can also create organization API keys later from Settings -> Organization Settings -> Organization API Keys. See the nao deploy reference for flags, .naoignore, and create-vs-update behavior.
To deploy automatically on every push to main, use the deploy-context skill or see Git Repository Setup.

​
After setup

When your organization’s first project is created:
  • Your 14-day free trial starts.
  • Once the project has a working database connection, $20 of nao credits are added to your organization, so your team can ask questions without an LLM API key.
  • The Jaffle Shop example chats are no longer available. Open your project and start asking questions on your own data.
Next, invite your team.