---
name: Onboarding checklist
slug: onboarding-checklist
category: pattern
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: A persistent list of setup tasks with completion state and a
  progress meter, kept available so the reader can return to unfinished steps.
aliases:
  - name: getting started checklist
    source: community
  - name: setup checklist
    source: community
  - name: task list
    source: govuk
  - name: complete multiple tasks
    source: govuk
  - name: quick start guide
    source: community
tags:
  - gamification
  - onboarding
  - progress
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - step-indicator
    - onboarding-tour
  variantOf: []
  partOf: []
  seeAlso:
    - first-run-experience
    - goal-gradient
    - zero-state
implementations: []
sources:
  - title: "GOV.UK Design System: Complete multiple tasks"
    url: https://design-system.service.gov.uk/patterns/complete-multiple-tasks/
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: a setup list you can leave and come back to
---

The checklist turns setup into something a person can put down. A wizard holds the
reader captive until the last step; a checklist states the same steps, marks the
ones already done, and lets them leave and come back without losing their place.
That is the whole distinction, and it is why the pattern belongs to products
people configure over days rather than minutes.

Three things make it work. The tasks have to be genuinely independent, or at least
the dependencies have to be shown, since a list that silently requires an order is
a wizard wearing a checklist's clothes. Completion has to be detected rather than
claimed: a task that ticks itself when the reader actually connects the repository
is trustworthy in a way a manual "mark as done" never is. And the progress reading
has to be visible from wherever the reader normally works, which usually means a
card on the home screen rather than a page they have to remember to visit.

The pattern's failure mode is the dead checklist: every item done and the card
still sitting there, or an item nobody can complete because it needs an
administrator. Give it an ending. When the last task is finished, say so, offer
the thing the setup was for, and let the card be dismissed for good.

Keep the list short, five or six items at most, and order it so the first task is
the one that proves the product works. The point is not to enumerate the settings
but to get someone to their first real result.