Onboarding (managed)
In plain terms: This page walks you through getting started when Eigen hosts Eigen Mesh for you. Sign up, complete the welcome tour, and start capturing thoughts — no servers or API keys required. You get free starter credits on signup; subscribe for €3.99/mo when you want to keep going.
Use this path when Eigen operates your instance (managed hosting). You do not need to configure servers or obtain LLM API keys unless you explicitly switch to bring-your-own-key (BYOK) billing (advanced).
For operator setup on your own infrastructure, see Self-hosted setup.
1. Create an account
From the marketing site, choose Get early access — managed. That opens sign-up with a managed-hosting label (/signup?plan=managed).
You can sign up with:
- Email and password (minimum 8 characters), or
- Google / GitHub — only if the operator has enabled social login on that deployment.
After sign-up you land on Capture (/capture). New accounts receive 100 free Eigen credits — enough for about 100–150 thoughts (capture requires at least 50 credits in the wallet).
The ?plan=managed query parameter is informational only. It does not change product behavior or billing mode; it only shows which hosting option you selected on the marketing page.
2. Welcome tour (first visit)
On your first visit to Capture, a Welcome to Eigen Mesh overlay appears until you finish or skip it. You can reopen it later from Settings → Onboarding → Restart onboarding.
The tour has four steps:
| Step | Topic | What you learn |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Welcome | What Eigen Mesh does — capture thoughts, organize automatically, use across AI tools |
| 2 | Capture | Drop thoughts in raw form — type or use Dictate (server-side speech-to-text). No filing, tagging, or structure required at capture time |
| 3 | Install | Add Eigen Mesh to your home screen as a PWA (optional but recommended on mobile) |
| 4 | Notifications | Enable web push for capture reminders and optional grounding check-ins (optional) |
You can Skip at any time from the overlay.
Behind the scenes, Eigen also seeds a default cognitive ontology for your account on first load. There is no separate ontology interview. Optional grounding check-in cards may appear on Capture after you dismiss the tour — they help Eigen learn your preferences but are not required to capture.
3. Billing: free credits, then subscription
Managed hosting uses an Eigen wallet of platform credits for your free trial, then a cheap monthly subscription to continue.
Starter credits: Signup grants 100 free credits once (~100–150 thoughts). Capture, chat, dictation, and AI processing draw from that balance using the operator's shared gateway credentials — you do not paste API keys during onboarding.
When free credits run out: Subscribe for €3.99/mo (less than a coffee) via Settings → LLM to keep using managed hosting. Cancel anytime.
Activity can still show what ran in a session for transparency; billing for managed users is the subscription (or free credits), not a per-call top-up bill.
Subscription checkout in the product app may still be rolling out. Until it ships, the marketing site uses Get early access rather than a live subscribe button.
4. Optional: bring your own key (BYOK)
Advanced option if you prefer to bill your own gateway directly:
- Open Settings → LLM → BYOK.
- Configure EUrouter or OpenRouter (base URL, API key, and model or rule IDs as required by that provider).
- On the Billing method section, switch to Bring your own key (BYOK) and save.
Store API keys only in Settings — never share them in chat or email. Keys are encrypted for your account.
BYOK is not required for managed users. Most people stay on free credits, then the €3.99/mo plan.
5. Start capturing
On Capture, type or dictate a thought, and submit. Ingest runs automatically; progress appears in the capture UI and full detail in Activity.
Explore Memory (/memory) for graph, timeline, and notes views. Use Chat (/chat) for in-app memory Q&A.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause |
|---|---|
| Capture fails with insufficient credits | Free credits exhausted — subscribe via Settings → LLM, or switch to BYOK |
| Capture fails with LLM not configured | BYOK keys missing — check Settings → LLM |
| Subscribe / billing option missing | Subscription checkout not enabled on this deployment yet — contact support or use BYOK / self-host |
| BYOK option disabled in billing method | No provider saved on Settings → LLM → BYOK yet |
For more issues, see Troubleshooting.
Next steps
- Connect Cursor or Claude — use your memories in AI tools
- How memory works — capture, search, and grounded answers
- What is Eigen Mesh? — plain-language product overview