Building Intelligent Onboarding Flows with Courier: A Developer's Cookbook

Overview

This cookbook provides a comprehensive guide for building sophisticated onboarding systems using Courier's notification orchestration platform. Instead of spending months building notification infrastructure from scratch, you can leverage these production-ready examples to create intelligent, multi-channel onboarding experiences that adapt to user behavior and drive activation.

What You'll Build

Following this cookbook, you'll create an onboarding system that:

• Triggers automatically based on user events (signup, team invites, project creation)
• Sends multi-step sequences that adapt based on user progress and engagement
• Routes intelligently across email, SMS, push, in-app, and Slack channels
• Personalizes experiences for different user segments (enterprise, startup, trial)
• Escalates to humans when high-value accounts need help
• Tracks everything with built-in analytics and optimization capabilities
• Works everywhere with native support for web, iOS, and Android

Quick Start

Prerequisites

# Install Courier SDK for Node.js
npm install @trycourier/courier

# For React frontend (Inbox component)
npm install @trycourier/react-provider @trycourier/react-inbox

# For mobile
npm install @trycourier/courier-react-native

# For Python projects
pip install trycourier

# For Ruby/Rails projects
gem install trycourier

Environment Setup

Create a .env file with your Courier credentials:

COURIER_AUTH_TOKEN=your_courier_api_key
COURIER_CLIENT_KEY=your_client_key_for_frontend
COURIER_WEBHOOK_SECRET=your_webhook_secret

# Optional: Integration tokens
SLACK_TOKEN=your_slack_token
SEGMENT_WRITE_KEY=your_segment_key
MS_GRAPH_TOKEN=your_microsoft_graph_token

Basic Implementation

1. Initialize Courier (setup_initialization.js)

import { CourierClient } from "@trycourier/courier";

const courier = CourierClient({
  authorizationToken: process.env.COURIER_AUTH_TOKEN
});

2. Track user events (event_driven_triggers.js)

const events = new OnboardingEvents(courier, userId, tenantId);
await events.userSignedUp(userData);

3. Display tasks in your app (onboarding_tasks_frontend.jsx)

import { Inbox } from "@trycourier/react-inbox";

function OnboardingTasks() {
  return <Inbox views={[{ id: "onboarding", label: "Setup Tasks" }]} />;
}

File Structure & Purpose

Core Setup

File	Purpose	Key Features
setup_initialization.js	SDK setup and configuration	Multi-tenant support, environment config
event_driven_triggers.js	Event tracking and automation triggers	User signup, team invites, project creation
multi_step_sequences.js	Complex automation workflows	Conditional logic, time delays, branching
smart_channel_routing.js	Multi-channel message routing	Fallback logic, priority routing, channel selection
personalized_onboarding.js	Adaptive user journeys	Role-based flows, behavior tracking

Notification Center

File	Purpose	Key Features
onboarding_tasks_backend.js	Server-side task creation	Task scheduling, progress tracking
onboarding_tasks_frontend.jsx	React UI components	Interactive checklists, progress bars

Slack & Teams Escalation

File	Purpose	Key Features
slack_escalation.js	Slack alerts for at-risk accounts	Risk scoring, automated alerts
microsoft_teams_escalation.js	Teams integration for enterprises	Adaptive cards, channel creation

Platform SDKs

File	Purpose	Key Features
mobile_onboarding.jsx	React Native implementation	Push notifications, native UI
python_sdk_onboarding.py	Python/Django integration	Async support, type hints
ruby_sdk_onboarding.rb	Ruby on Rails integration	ActiveRecord integration, Sidekiq support

Analytics

File	Purpose	Key Features
onboarding_analytics.js	Performance tracking	Engagement metrics, funnel analysis
testing_onboarding.js	Test suite	Edge cases, performance testing

Integrations

File	Purpose	Key Features
segment_integration.js	Segment CDP integration	Bidirectional sync, event mapping
webhook_handler.js	Real-time event processing	Signature verification, event routing

Configuration

File	Purpose	Key Features
user_preferences_management.js	Preference center	Channel preferences, quiet hours
multi_tenant_config.js	Customer segmentation	Branded experiences, custom flows

Implementation Guide

Step 1: Basic Setup

Start with the foundational files:

1. setup_initialization.js - Configure Courier SDK
2. event_driven_triggers.js - Set up event tracking
3. onboarding_tasks_backend.js - Create initial tasks

Step 2: Add Intelligence

Enhance with personalization:

1. personalized_onboarding.js - Add adaptive paths
2. smart_channel_routing.js - Implement channel logic
3. multi_step_sequences.js - Build automation flows

Step 3: Frontend Experience

Build the user interface:

1. onboarding_tasks_frontend.jsx - Add React components
2. mobile_onboarding.jsx - Mobile app support

Step 4: Monitor & Optimize

Track and improve:

1. onboarding_analytics.js - Measure performance
2. webhook_handler.js - Real-time tracking
3. testing_onboarding.js - Test and validate flows

Step 5: Scale & Customize

Advanced features:

1. multi_tenant_config.js - Segment customers
2. user_preferences_management.js - User control
3. slack_escalation.js or microsoft_teams_escalation.js - Human intervention

Resources

Documentation

• Courier API Reference
• Automation Designer
• Inbox Documentation
• Channel Configuration

Support

• Courier Support

Contributing

We welcome contributions! If you've built something cool with Courier's onboarding system:

1. Fork this cookbook
2. Add your example to the appropriate section
3. Include comments and documentation
4. Submit a pull request

License

This cookbook is provided as-is for educational purposes. Feel free to use and modify the code for your own projects.

---

Happy onboarding! 🚀