New hires land on day one with a dozen tasks spread across HR, IT, and their team — and no single place to see what's done, what's left, and where to get help. The Onboarding Hub solves that: a gamified checklist with progress tracking, milestone badges, and contextual Glean chat on every step.
This recipe builds the hub two ways so you can pick the trade-off that fits your portal — Web SDK for fastest SSO integration, Client Chat when you need full UI control.
Pick a path
Path A embeds Glean's chat UI with the Web SDK. Path B calls Client Chat from your backend and renders the response in your own UI.
- Web SDK
- Platform Chat
Scaffold the project
npx -y tiged@2.12.8 --mode=git gleanwork/glean-cookbook/recipes/onboarding-hub/web-sdk onboarding-hubInstall dependencies
cd onboarding-hub && npm installConfigure the backend and checklist
Enter the user's work email when prompted; tenant discovery writes VITE_GLEAN_BACKEND to .env.local. Replace public/steps.json with the onboarding steps the user supplied and keep every id unique.
cd onboarding-hub && npm run configure -- --email "<work-email>" && cp public/steps.example.json public/steps.jsonRun it
Start Vite and leave it running. Report the exact Local URL printed by Vite. Never open the URL yourself and never use browser automation. Wait for the user to open it in their normal browser where they are already signed in to Glean and tell you it is ready.
cd onboarding-hub && npm run devVerify
After the user confirms the app is open in their normal signed-in browser, ask them to confirm the configured checklist renders. Have them click Ask about this and verify a cited first-day answer. Do not open or drive their browser.
Scaffold the project
npx -y tiged@2.12.8 --mode=git gleanwork/glean-cookbook/recipes/onboarding-hub/platform-chat onboarding-hubInstall dependencies
cd onboarding-hub && npm installSet credentials
The shipped command discovers the tenant and completes OAuth, with a CHAT-scoped API token fallback. Configure the supplied onboarding steps in ignored .env or a local steps file. The app runs as the signed-in user; there is no act-as.
cd onboarding-hub && npm run login -- --email "<work-email>"Verify
Allow 1–3 minutes. It starts its own server and checks the configured onboarding topics for cited answers plus unsupported-question escalation.
cd onboarding-hub && npm run verifyRun it
Leave the verified app running at http://localhost:3000 and give that URL to the user.
cd onboarding-hub && npm start- Wire real HRIS completion events instead of localStorage toggles.
- Add a manager view that shows onboarding progress across the team.
- Scope chat to onboarding-only documents, so a first-week question cannot wander into unrelated content.
What should I do on my first day?
Returns a cited answer drawn from your own onboarding documents, and the checklist reflects steps that actually appear in them rather than a hardcoded list.
How do I set up VPN?
Returns a cited answer from your own IT documentation.
What's our PTO policy?
Returns a cited answer respecting the asker's permissions — the same question from two people with different access should not return content either of them can't see.
Ask about a step your docs don't cover
Client Chat path only: the app offers its escalation affordance rather than inventing a plausible-sounding onboarding step. The Web SDK owns its unsupported-answer experience.
Each of these was run against a live Glean instance on 2026-08-07.