---
title: Set up onboarding and guidelines
sidebarTitle: Onboarding & guidelines
description: >-
  Shape the first few minutes a new member spends in your community: your
  welcome, your house rules and the questions on their profile.
audience: luminary
feature: community
type: guide
availability: live
last_verified: '2026-10-13'
keywords:
  - community onboarding
  - welcome message
  - house rules
  - community guidelines
  - profile questions
  - new member welcome
url: 'https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/community/set-up-onboarding'
---

# Set up onboarding and guidelines

> Shape the first few minutes a new member spends in your community: your welcome, your house rules and the questions on their profile.

New members meet three things when they arrive: your Welcome Steps, your Guidelines and your Profile Prompts. All three live in [Community → Onboarding](https://portal.bringsoul.life/community/onboarding): _"Everything a new member meets when they arrive."_

## When to use this

- You're launching and want new members to feel received, not dropped in.
- You want clear house rules everyone agrees to before posting.
- You want profiles that make introductions between members easier.

**Step 1: Write your guidelines**

Go to [Community → Onboarding](https://portal.bringsoul.life/community/onboarding) and open the
Guidelines tab: *"What every member reads when they first arrive. Set the tone gently."* Write
your house rules (for example *"Speak from your own experience. Hold what is shared here
gently."*). A preview shows *"How members will see it."* Click Save.

**Step 2: Add welcome steps**

Open the Welcome steps tab. Click Add a step, write the words a new member reads at this point,
and click Add step. *"It lands as a draft. Publish it when you're ready for new members to read
it."*

**Step 3: Publish and order your steps**

Click Publish on each step you want members to see. Drag steps into the order you want: *"They
land in the same order every time, so keep them slow."* Use Move to draft to take one back.
Preview shows the steps as a new member reads them.

**Step 4: Shape your profile prompts**

Open the Profile prompts tab: *"The reflective questions members answer on their profile."* Your
community starts with five prompts, such as *"What brought you to this circle?"* Edit any of
them with the pencil, or type a new one under Add a prompt and click Add prompt.

**Step 5: Choose required or optional**

Click the asterisk on a prompt to make it Required (*"Members must answer this prompt during
onboarding"*) or optional. Drag prompts to reorder them. Click the eye icon to hide a prompt. It
moves to Tucked away, and existing answers are kept.

**Step 6: Set up a welcome email (optional)**

On Community Members, click Set Up Welcome Email in the *"Welcome new members automatically"*
banner to send an email whenever someone joins. The banner disappears once it's set up.

## Tips

- Keep welcome steps short. One idea per step. Three or four steps is plenty.
- Prompts are an invitation, not an interview. _"Keep them open and gentle."_ Don't ask for sensitive information you don't need.
- Prompts feed introductions. Richer profiles mean better [connection suggestions](https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/community/introduce-members).
- Mention introductions in your guidelines if you plan to use connections, so members know to expect them.
- Settings links here too. [Community → Settings](https://portal.bringsoul.life/community/settings) has Guidelines and Profile prompts cards that open these tabs.

**Note:** 
Hiding a profile prompt doesn't delete anyone's answers. Show it again any time and the answers
come back.

## What your members see

When someone joins, they see your guidelines first under _"Before you step in"_ and accept them with Enter the community. Then they read your published welcome steps in order, and fill in their profile with your prompts, or click Skip for now. Drafts are never shown to members.

## Related

- [Launch your community](https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/community/launch-your-community)
- [Introduce members to each other](https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/community/introduce-members)
- [Automations](https://help.bringsoul.life/luminaries/settings/automations)