Setting up your community: the big picture

Status: Available The full setup sequence in order, so you know what to do first and what comes next.

A brand-new community does not show your real site yet. Until you finish the required setup, everyone who visits sees a full-screen Setup Required page instead of your landing page or content. This guide walks the whole sequence in order so you know what to do and where each step lives.

You're not flipping a switch to go live. Your community becomes live once it passes a readiness checklist. Work through the steps below and you'll clear it.

The setup sequence

1. Set your branding

Give your community a name and a logo. The name must be 3 to 30 characters, and a logo is required. You can also set your tagline, colors, and favicon here.

Do this in Community Settings > Branding & Identity (/admin/content/cs_branding). For the full walkthrough, see Set your branding & theme.

2. Write your welcome message and community guidelines

Set a welcome heading and welcome subtext (what new members see when they arrive), and write your community guidelines. Guidelines can't be left empty: an empty value blocks go-live, and it also blocks every new member from finishing onboarding, since accepting the guidelines is a required step for them. Fill them in even if they're short.

Do this in Community Settings > Community Content (/admin/content/cs_content). See Welcome message & community guidelines.

3. Publish at least one group

Your community needs at least one published group so members have somewhere to land. Create it in Groups (/admin/content/group) and set its Status to Published.

4. Create at least one access option

Every community needs at least one published access path — a way members get in. That's a paid plan or product, or free content members can reach directly (a free group, a free course, or a public blog). A fully free community just publishes a free group; it doesn't need a plan or product, and there are no $0 plans or products.

Set this up in Plans (/admin/content/plan) or Products (/admin/content/product). To understand the model first, read How access & monetization works.

5. Connect Stripe (only if you charge)

You only need Stripe if you sell something. If everything you offer is free, skip this step entirely — free content never touches Stripe.

6. Check the go-live checklist

Once the steps above are in place, confirm you've cleared everything on the readiness checklist. See Your go-live checklist for the exact items the system checks before your community goes live.

Where each step lives

Related

• Your go-live checklist
• Set your branding & theme
• Welcome message & community guidelines
• How access & monetization works