cargo-quickstart

Cargo Quickstart — first value in two minutes

One guided demo: size the user's addressable market for free, pull 25 of those accounts, show the cost receipt, then save the pull as a recurring play. The point is not the list — it's that in minute 3 the user owns a running system, not a one-off result.

A new account starts with 100 free credits — no card. This demo spends about 0.25 of them. Say that out loud before the first paid call ("this costs a quarter of a credit of your 100 free ones"): it converts the moment from a purchase decision into a look around, which is the whole job of a quickstart. Never let a new user think the demo is why they'd run out.

Bootstrap

Already signed in (cargo-ai whoami returns a workspace)? Skip to the next section.

npm install -g @cargo-ai/cli            # no global install? prefix every command with `npx @cargo-ai/cli`
cargo-ai login --email [email protected]  # emailed code, no browser; creates the account on first use
                                        # alternatives: --oauth (browser) · --token <api-token> (CI)
cargo-ai whoami                         # confirm the active workspace before any write

Every command prints JSON to stdout; failures exit non-zero with {"errorMessage": "..."}. Anything that creates a run or a batch is async — pass --wait-until-finished or poll the matching get. When the full skill bundle is installed, ../cargo/references/prerequisites.md adds the CLI version pin, token scopes, and the admin-only surface.

The one question

Ask exactly one question before doing anything:

"Who do you sell to?" (a persona in a few words — e.g. "Heads of RevOps at mid-market SaaS")

Everything else — provider, filters, limits — you decide. Don't ask about output format, volume, or providers; defaults below.

Speed budget — HARD RULES

The demo has a two-minute budget from answer to deliverable. On the fast path:

• No discovery detours. Do not run cargo-ai --version, cargo-ai whoami, connection connector list, or any exploratory command first. Auth problems will surface as errors on the first real call — handle them then.
• One command block per step, no narration between commands.
• Paid work is capped at ~1 credit total. The demo uses the cheapest account search in the catalog (aiArk.searchCompanies, 0.01/record → 25 records = 0.25 credits) on cargo's managed connection, so it works on a workspace with nothing wired up yet. Nothing else paid runs without asking.
• Never dead-end. Every step has a fallback (ladder below). If a rung fails, drop one rung silently and keep moving.