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First run to first payment — 10 minutes

One fresh account, one continuous pass, about ten minutes. It walks a brand-new person from signing in to paying: the new onboarding questions, the starter sidebar, the free plan, the trial offer, and a real card. This is the fast gate for the two things 5.0.0 changed, not a thorough pass — it takes one route through onboarding and stops.

If you have time for depth afterwards, the full versions are Onboarding paths & starter seeding and Free-first trial & claim.

Stop at the first failed box and report it. Everything after a failure is unreliable anyway.

Before you start — do these four things​

  1. Get the staging app. Download and install https://storage.googleapis.com/focusflow-desktop-staging-thefabulous-forge-staging/staging/latest-mac.dmg (Windows: …/staging/latest-win.exe). Open Settings → About and confirm the version is 5.0.1 or higher. Below that, the trial offer does not exist yet and steps 6–10 will be silent — correctly, but you will have wasted the run.

  2. Get yourself a first-run account — by resetting the one you have. The app only offers the trial once per account, so a previously-used account will skip straight past it and the run will fail for the wrong reason. You do not need a new Google account:

    1. If you have ever set a plan through QA → Entitlements on this account, set it back to Basic first — choose Basic in the Plan dropdown and press Apply. A QA-set plan leaves behind a placeholder subscription that deletion cannot cancel, and the delete will fail with an error until you do this.
    2. Go to Settings → Account → Delete account, click Delete account, type DELETE ACCOUNT when it asks, and confirm with Permanently delete account.
    3. Quit the app completely and reopen it. This step matters: signing back in without restarting leaves the app thinking onboarding is already done, and you will land straight in the workspace with no questions.
    4. Remove the app from your Google account at myaccount.google.com/connections: find the HabitatZero entry and remove its access. Skipping this does not break the run, but Google will silently re-grant the permissions it already has, so you will not see the consent screen or the calendar permission prompt — the parts of step 1 and step 3 that matter most on a first run.
    5. Sign in again with the same Google address. You now get the full first run.

  3. Check one QA setting. Open Settings → QA → Entitlements. The Checkout flow control must read In-app fullscreen (the default). If it reads Browser checkout, change it back — otherwise payment opens in a browser and step 8 will not match what is written here.

  4. Have the test card to hand: number 4242 4242 4242 4242, any expiry date in the future, any three digits for CVC, any postcode. This is Stripe test mode — no real money moves.

Now work down the run in order, ticking as you go. Stop at the first box that fails and report it; everything after a failure is unreliable anyway.

The run​

1. Launch the app and sign in. Click Continue with Google and complete sign-in in the browser window that opens.

  • The small text above the heading reads Welcome
  • After approving in the browser, the app moves on by itself

2. Answer the two questions. Click For school on the first, then Auto-capture meeting notes on the second.

  • The first question reads "What will you use HabitatZero for?"
  • The counter reads Step 1 of 3 (the questions are step one of the whole flow), with Question 1 of 2 then Question 2 of 2 beneath it (on an answer that skips the calendar screen the following screen reads Step 2 of 2 — the total drops because that path has one screen fewer)
  • Each answer moves you on by itself; you do not have to press Next

3. The calendar screen appears. Click Connect Google Calendar and approve access in the browser.

  • The screen's wording names what you chose: "To auto-capture your meeting notes, connect your calendar…"
  • Its step label reads Step 2 of 3, following on from Step 1 of 3 on the questions
  • After approving, the app moves on by itself — you do not have to come back and click anything

4. Grant the permissions. Allow Microphone and System Audio when asked.

  • The screen lists three rows — Microphone, System Audio, Dictation — under Step 3 of 3 (it reads Step 2 of 2 if your answer skipped the calendar screen)
  • Each one you allow gets a black checkmark, and the caption below moves along ("One down…", "Almost there.", "All set.")
  • Continue turns enabled once Microphone and System Audio are allowed. Dictation is optional here

Then click Continue and watch what happens next without clicking anything. The workspace draws, and then the full-screen offer appears on top of it by itself.

  • The offer appears after the workspace has finished drawing — not during onboarding, and not over a half-drawn window
  • It offers a free month

5. Close the offer with the X in its corner.

  • Closing it leaves a usable app; nothing is blocked

6. Now look at the workspace it was covering.

  • You are on the Notes tab — that is what "auto-capture meeting notes" asks for
  • The sidebar lists five documents, with Study Planner and Assignment Tracker at the top, because you answered "For school"
  • At the bottom of the sidebar, below the documents, a card reads Basic Plan
  • Inside that card is a button reading Start your trial for $0
  • There is no trial countdown and no "days left" anywhere on it

7. Reopen the offer: click Start your trial for $0 on the Basic Plan card.

  • The offer opens again, still offering the same free month. Closing it earlier never took it away

8. Click the offer's main button to accept, and then stop and read the payment screen before typing anything.

  • The payment screen says $0 today
  • It names the date of the first charge — write that date down
  • That date is the same as the "your plan begins" date shown on the timeline beside it. Two different dates here is a failure worth reporting loudly

9. Pay with 4242 4242 4242 4242, any future expiry, any CVC, then confirm.

  • A success state appears within a few seconds
  • The Basic Plan card disappears from the sidebar. It hides rather than changing to "Premium", because a trial with a card on file already counts as premium — an empty space here is the pass
  • Open Settings → Plans and Billing: it shows Premium, without you reloading or restarting

10. Quit the app completely and reopen it. Sign-in should be remembered.

  • No offer of any kind appears — no full-screen offer, no popup, and no Basic Plan card in the sidebar

If you have longer — the other routes​

The run above takes one path through onboarding. These cover the rest. Each needs its own account reset (the four steps above), so budget about five minutes each.

A. The two answers that need no Google account. Reset, then answer For work and Define my top 3 priorities. Repeat with Speak to my computer.

  • Neither ever shows a "Connect Google Calendar" screen
  • Both reach the permissions screen and then the workspace
  • Priorities lands on Planning; speaking lands on Voice Memos
  • Connecting a calendar is still possible afterwards from the Meetings tab

B. A failed calendar connection is not a dead end. The main run above accepts the calendar; this is the other half. Reset, answer Auto-capture meeting notes, click Connect Google Calendar, and refuse it in the browser.

  • Skip for now appears only after the refusal, never before it
  • Skipping continues to permissions and then the workspace — signing out is not the only way on
  • Quit and reopen: the calendar screen does not come back

C. Onboarding does not repeat. On any account that finished the run, quit and reopen the app.

  • No questions, no permission screens
  • No new starter documents appear — you still have the five from the first run

D. Dictation permission. On the permissions screen, use Open Settings, enable the app under Accessibility in System Settings, and come back.

  • The Dictation row shows as granted when you return