Guided first-run demo for Cargo — one persona question to 25 real leads with a cost receipt in under two minutes, ending by saving the pull as a recurring play. Triggers: "show me what Cargo can do", "give me a demo", "take me on a tour", "quickstart", "getting started with Cargo", "I just installed

Cargo Quickstart — first value in two minutes One guided demo: pull ~25 fresh leads matching a buyer persona the user picks, show the cost receipt, then save the pull as a recurring play. The point is not the list — it's that in minute 3 the user owns a running system, not a one off result. A new account starts with 100 free credits — no card. This demo spends about 0.5 of them. Say that out loud before the first paid call ("this costs about half a credit of your 100 free ones"): it converts the moment from a purchase decision into a look around , which is the whole job of a quickstart. Never let a new user think the demo is why they'd run out. Bootstrap Already signed in ( cargo ai whoami returns a workspace)? Skip to the next section. Every command prints JSON to stdout; failures exit non zero with {"errorMessage": "..."} . Anything that creates a run or a batch is async — pass wait until finished or poll the matching get . When the full skill bundle is installed, [ ../cargo/references/prerequisites.md ](../cargo/references/prerequisites.md) adds the CLI version pin, token scopes, and the admin only surface. The one question Ask exactly one question before doing anything: "Who do you sell to?" (a persona in a few words — e.g. "Heads of RevOps at mid market SaaS") Everything else — provider, filters, limits — you decide. Don't ask about output format, volume, or providers; defaults below. Speed budget — HARD RULES The demo has a two minute budget from answer to deliverable. On the fast path: No discovery detours. Do not run cargo ai version , cargo ai whoami , connection connector list , or any exploratory command first. Auth problems will surface as errors on the first real call — handle them then. One command block per step , no narration between commands. Paid work is capped at ~1 credit total. The demo uses the cheapest sourcing action in the catalog ( salesNavigator.searchLeads , 0.02/record → 25 records ≈ 0.5 credits). Nothing else paid runs without asking. Never dead end. Every step has a fallback (ladder below). If a rung fails, drop one rung silently and keep moving. Fast path Translate the persona into a searchLeads filter (quote the exact title phrase in keywords ; a bare keyword matches loosely and pollutes the page) and run: Show the table (name · title · company · recently hired), not the raw JSON. recently hired: true rows are the demo's headline — lead with them ("6 of these 25 just started the job — the exact moment to reach out"). Fallback ladder (on auth/error, drop a rung — don't stop) 1. salesNavigator.searchLeads (0.02/record) — primary. 2. theirStack.searchJobs (0.5) — reframe as "companies hiring your persona right now" (job postings for the persona's title). Same wow, different angle. 3. waterfall.searchProspects (3/record) — exceeds the ~1 credit demo cap, so this rung asks first : "The two cheap sources aren't connected; I can pull 5 matches via waterfall for ~15 credits instead — run it, or connect Sales Navigator first (free)?" Run only on an explicit yes, with limit capped at 5. 4. Nothing connected at all → run the free path: cargo ai connection integration list head , show what could be wired, and offer to connect one (browser auth) — the demo resumes after. The receipt (mandatory, verbatim discipline) The demo is itself the pilot from [ ../cargo gtm/references/cost discipline.md ](../cargo gtm/references/cost discipline.md). Close it with a receipt: Credits spent + balance remaining ( cargo ai billing subscription get — remaining = subscriptionAvailableCreditsCount − subscriptionCreditsUsedCount ). For a brand new account, frame it against the 100 free starting credits rather than as a bare number — "0.5 spent, 99.5 of your 100 free credits left" lands very differently from "99.5 credits remaining". Hit rate: "25 of 25 returned" (or what actually came back, and which rows look off). Minute 3 — save it as a play Immediately offer to make the pull recurring — this is the step that shows what Cargo is : "Want this to run by itself? I can save this exact search as a play that runs weekly and writes new matches into a model — new <persona leads land without you asking." On yes, follow [ ../cargo gtm/recipes/save as play.md ](../cargo gtm/recipes/save as play.md) with the demo's action + filter as the workflow body and a weekly cron. After the demo — route onward Propose 2–3 next steps grounded in the rows just pulled, per the next step spec in [ ../cargo gtm/SKILL.md ](../cargo gtm/SKILL.md) (§4): e.g. "enrich these 25 with firmographics (~0.5 cr each)", "find + verify emails for the best 10 (~1.4 cr each)", or something else entirely. From here, real GTM work belongs to [ cargo gtm ](../cargo gtm/SKILL.md) — read it before anything beyond the demo.

cargo-quickstart