Onboarding

Flightdeck includes several features to help new users get productive quickly.

First Launch

When you first open Flightdeck with no existing projects, the Home Dashboard shows an empty state with a prominent Create Project button and a brief explanation of what Flightdeck does. This guides you directly to creating your first project.

Creating Your First Project

1. Click Create Project (or use the Projects panel)
2. Enter a project name and task description — describe what you want built in plain language
3. Select the working directory (the repo to work in)
4. Choose a model for the Project Lead (defaults to Claude Opus 4.6)
5. Optionally pre-select agent roles to include in the initial crew
6. Click Start

Within a minute or two, the lead will analyze your task, create a task DAG, assemble a crew, and begin delegating work. The dashboard updates in real-time — you'll see agents appear, tasks progress, and messages flow.

Example task: "Refactor the auth module to use JWT tokens, add comprehensive tests, and update the API documentation"

The lead would create a developer (implementation), a code reviewer (quality), and a tech writer (docs), set up dependencies so the reviewer waits for the developer, and coordinate the whole flow.

Contextual Coach

Flightdeck includes a Contextual Coach — a system of behavior-triggered tips that appear as small toasts when you reach specific moments:

Trigger	Tip
First approval action	Hints about batch approval for multiple items
Multiple manual approvals	Suggests adjusting the Trust Dial to reduce interruptions
First agent crash	Explains that recovery is automatic
First ⌘K use	Mentions natural language command support

Tips appear once per trigger and are tracked in localStorage so they don't repeat.

Key Concepts for New Users

The Trust Dial

The single most important setting to understand. It controls how much autonomy agents have:

• Supervised — Agents request confirmation for significant actions. Best for learning how Flightdeck works.
• Balanced — Key decisions need your approval; routine work proceeds automatically. Good for most use cases.
• Autonomous (default) — Agents work independently. Only critical failures surface to you.

Toggle it from the AttentionBar at the top of the dashboard. You can set it globally or per-project.

→ Oversight Guide

Dashboard Navigation

The sidebar provides access to all views. Key pages:

Page	What it shows
Home	All projects at a glance — action items, decisions, progress
Session	Live chat with the Project Lead, crew sidebar, decision panel
Overview	Project-level status, attention items, decisions, activity
Tasks	Task DAG in graph, kanban, or gantt view
Timeline	Swim-lane visualization of agent activity over time
Crew	Agent roster with profiles, status, and controls
Knowledge	Browse and manage the project's knowledge base
Analytics	Token usage, cost trends, session comparison

Command Palette

Press ⌘K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) to open the command palette. From there you can navigate anywhere, search for agents or tasks, and execute commands. You can also type natural language like "show running tasks" or "pause all agents."

Sending Messages

Input	Action
Enter	Queue message — delivered when the agent is ready
Ctrl+Enter / Cmd+Enter	Interrupt — breaks into the agent's current work immediately
Shift+Enter	Insert a line break without sending

Persistent Projects

Projects persist across sessions. If a lead agent exits (or the server restarts), the project remembers its tasks, decisions, agent memories, and file locks. Click Resume on an inactive project to start a new lead session with full context from prior work.

Configuration

Flightdeck works out of the box with zero configuration. For customization:

• Settings UI — Toggle providers, set model defaults, configure notifications, create custom roles
• Config file — flightdeck.config.yaml for YAML-based configuration (hot-reloaded)
• Environment variables — PORT, HOST, CLI_PROVIDER, API keys

→ Quick Start · Configuration Reference