Help · Getting started

Setup guide

The setup guide is the checklist at the top of Home when your store is new. It says what Carpe Messaging has already done for you, what is left for you to do, and it counts the steps as you go — "3 of 7 done". On every other screen the same checklist sits behind a small Setup guide button at the bottom right, which opens it in a panel over the screen you are on.

Every step is worked out from your store, never from a button press alone. A step ticks because the thing is now true — your domain verifies, a form is live, a campaign has gone out — so the guide cannot tell you something is done when it is not.

Done for you

When you install the app, it reads your store in the background. These rows show how far it has got. They are not part of the count, because there is nothing for you to do.

• Store connected. Your Shopify store is linked to the app.
• Customers read from Shopify. The app reads every customer in your store and makes a profile for each one it can. While it works, a bar shows how many it has read out of the total Shopify reports, such as "1,240 of 3,100 customers". When Shopify only says the store has at least a number, the guide says so too. If the total could not be read, it shows how many have been read so far instead of guessing.
• Order history read. Your past orders, so your segments and profiles know who bought what. When it is done, the row says how far back it went — all your orders, or the last 60 days.
• Built-in segments made. The starting segments every store gets, ready on the Segments screen.

Each row is waiting to start, working on it (with the time of the last activity), or finished. There is no time estimate: the reading happens in short turns every minute, and an estimate would not be honest.

Finished with gaps means the step ended but could not read everything — for example, a page of customers Shopify would not answer, or an order history that took too long to prepare. The row says in plain words what is missing and what you can do about it.

Reading the people you imported appears under a finished row after you import people. The app is reading your store again to match them; the row stays ticked while it does.

Needs reconnecting appears only when your Shopify connection itself has stopped working. The row links to Settings, where you reconnect it.

Needs you

Seven steps, in the order that gets you sending soonest. On every step the button that does it is on the right, and a way to skip it, where there is one, is on the left.

1. Send from your own domain. Mail goes out from your own domain, and links in it use your own names. Until this is done, your store cannot send. A store-name.myshopify.com address cannot send email, so this needs a domain your store owns.
2. Enable Carpe Messaging forms in your theme. Your sign-up form and your Text sign-up page appear on your store only once the app's embed is enabled in your theme. The button opens your theme editor at the right place; where it cannot, the step tells you the way by hand — Online Store, Themes, Customize, App embeds. The app can only check whether it is enabled when you open it from your Shopify admin; outside the admin, the step shows when your forms were last seen on your store instead.
3. Get your SMS number. Carriers take up to a week to approve a texting number, which is why this step comes early. Get my number takes you to Settings → Text messages, which walks you through it. If you will not use text messages, choose Skip text messages and the step counts as done. You can change your mind any time with Set up text messages, here or on Settings → Text messages.
4. Import from your old platform. If you are leaving another email platform, import your profiles, consent, lists, history, templates, segments and automations from it. It can take more than a day, so start it early. Import a file is beside it if what you have is a file of profiles. The step is done once an import finishes. If you are not moving from anywhere, choose I'm not moving from another platform and the step counts as done; Set up an import brings it back.

While an import is running, the next three steps wait for it, and each one says why: your form should know who is already on your list, a welcome can start from the automations it imports, and your first campaign should reach everyone it imports.

1. Publish a sign-up form. A form that collects email addresses with consent.
2. Enable a welcome automation. Review and enable opens the automation starters with Welcome already chosen; it opens on what starts it, where you tick the places people sign up. Any live automation that starts when someone signs up, submits a form or joins a list counts. Enabling the automation is not enough by itself: the step ticks once a message in it is enabled too, because an automation whose messages are all drafts sends nothing. A welcome you enable before your domain is set up starts sending once it is.
3. Send your first campaign. Until your domain verifies, the step says you can send once your domain is set up.

Your postal address is not one of the steps: it is filled in from Shopify, and if it is ever missing, What needs you on Home says so.

Not everyone on your team can do every step. A step you cannot do says who can instead of showing a button: the domain and the theme are for a manager or owner; registering a texting number is for the store owner, and a manager or owner can skip texting; an import is for a manager or owner, who can also say you are not moving; the form, the welcome and the campaign are for a marketer, manager or owner. A viewer reads the guide and does not act on it.

When all seven are done, the guide is complete. It stays complete: if something later stops working, the guide does not reopen — the status line tells you instead.

When you're ready

Two more things worth doing, folded away under When you're ready so they do not crowd the steps above. Each one leaves the list once it is done.

• Invite your team.
• Connect your AI assistant.

Hiding it and bringing it back

Hide the setup guide, at the foot of the checklist, hides it for you alone — the panel on Home and the button on every other screen. Everyone else on your team still sees it until they hide it too.

To bring it back, go to Settings → Setup guide and choose Show it again. That page always shows the checklist, hidden or not.

The status line

One line on Home says whether your store is working right now, separately from the checklist. It is there for everyone on your team, whether they have hidden the guide or not.

When something is wrong — sending is paused, your Shopify connection needs reconnecting, your texting number has been paused or sent back, or the forms embed is no longer enabled in your theme — the line names it and links to the fix. When everything is set up and working, it says so. Before the guide is complete and while nothing is wrong, the line is not drawn, because the checklist already says what is left.