> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.subconscious.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Onboarding > From kickoff to pilot users on the Subconscious Inference System Onboarding turns the evaluation plan into a working customer-hosted deployment. A Subconscious FDE works with your technical champion to deploy the Subconscious Inference System, configure the API Gateway, connect pilot users, and hand off day-two operations. This page gives an overview. For implementation details, use [Methods](/on-prem/deployments/methods), [Configurations](/on-prem/deployments/configurations), and [API Gateway setup](/on-prem/api-gateway/setup). ## Summary * **Kickoff to first pilot use**: usually about **1-2 weeks**, assuming customer technical resources are available. * **Technical champion effort**: usually less than **8 hours** of focused configuration time when the environment is ready. * **Admin training**: usually less than **1 hour**. * **Broader team training**: usually less than **1 hour**. * **Communication channel**: Dedicated Slack channel. * **Onsite support**: available when it helps accelerate setup. Strict change management, private registries, custom networking, air-gapped requirements, or new GPU procurement can extend the timeline. ## Stakeholders * **Subconscious**: CEO and assigned FDE. * **Customer executive sponsor**: Owns business value, rollout priority, and commercial alignment. * **Customer technical champion**: Drives deployment planning, environment readiness, and technical coordination. * **Core admin team**: Manages API Gateway access, API keys, routes, limits, monitoring, and day-two operations. ## 1. Kickoff Kickoff aligns the people, communication channels, and success criteria before deployment work begins. * **Ceremony**: 30 min meeting or async. * **Purpose**: * Establish communication channels, expectations, and executive sponsorship. * Confirm implementation timeline and success criteria from evaluation. * **What happens**: * A dedicated Slack channel or customer-approved support channel is created. * A Subconscious FDE becomes the primary onboarding point of contact. * The customer identifies the technical champion, admin team, security reviewers, and pilot sponsor. * The team confirms success criteria, timeline, and responsibilities. ## 2. Deployment planning Deployment planning defines how the Subconscious Inference System will run in the customer's environment. * **Ceremony**: 60 min meeting plus async follow-up. * **Purpose**: * Confirm the target deployment shape. * Resolve infrastructure, cloud, networking, GPU, and Distr requirements. * **Topics to define**: * Cloud provider, region, Kubernetes environment, and namespace. * GPU sourcing and placement. * Endpoint strategy, DNS, TLS, ingress, and network policy. * Deployment method: assisted self-managed or traditional self-hosted. * Distr customer portal, artifacts, deployment agent, registry access, and secrets. * Observability, logging, alerting, and support access expectations. For the detailed decision points, see [Methods](/on-prem/deployments/methods) and [Distribution Platform](/on-prem/distribution-platform/overview). ## 3. Deploy the Subconscious Inference System This step installs the API Gateway, Inference Runtime, and supporting services your engineers will use. * **Ceremony**: 30-60 min meeting plus async follow-up. * **Purpose**: Deploy the Subconscious Inference System into the customer's cloud environment. * **What gets deployed**: * API Gateway for agent traffic, authentication, routing, and usage controls. * Inference Runtime for GPU-backed model execution. * Routing, load balancing, authentication, and usage control configuration. * Runtime admin dashboard. * Baseline observability and operational dashboards. * **Customer responsibilities**: * Provision or approve required infrastructure and GPU resources. * Approve deployment commands, agent installation, or internal GitOps changes. * **Subconscious responsibilities**: * Guide deployment and configuration. * Validate API Gateway and Inference Runtime health. * Prepare the API Gateway for setup. See [Configurations](/on-prem/deployments/configurations) for cloud, GPU placement, Helm overrides, secrets, monitoring, logging, and upgrade details. ## 4. API Gateway setup and admin training API Gateway setup turns the installed system into a usable service for pilot users. * **Ceremony**: 30-60 min meeting plus async follow-up. * **Purpose**: Configure the API Gateway and train the customer's project leads to operate it. * **What gets configured and taught**: * Admin users and pilot users. * User roles, invites, and password reset workflows. * API Gateway API keys. * Model routes to the Inference Runtime or external model endpoints. * Model access grants. * Organization-level and API-key-level limits. * Test requests through the API Gateway. * Usage, monitoring, logging, and operational workflows. * General debugging, troubleshooting, support cases, upgrades, and maintenance workflows. See [API Gateway setup](/on-prem/api-gateway/setup) for the detailed setup guide. ## 5. Coding agent integration and team training Coding agent integration helps pilot users connect their preferred tools to the deployed customer endpoint. * **Ceremony**: One 30 min live training session, with optional recording and written setup material. * **Purpose**: Help the broader engineering team point their preferred coding agents at the deployed API Gateway endpoint. * **Topics to cover**: * What the system does and how it fits into the customer environment. * API Gateway base URL, API keys, and model slugs. * OpenAI-compatible configuration for coding agents and internal tools. * Expectations for limits, acceptable use, support, and feedback. Rollout usually starts with a small pilot group, then expands after usage, reliability, and route behavior are validated. ## 6. Handoff Handoff confirms the deployment is ready for pilot use and day-two ownership. * **Ceremony**: 30 min meeting with all stakeholders for sign-off. * **Purpose**: * Confirm the deployment is ready for pilot users. * Confirm customer owners understand how to operate and escalate issues. * **Sign-off checklist**: * Customer admins can sign in and operate the API Gateway. * API keys, routes, access, limits, and test requests are working. * Pilot users can connect coding agents. * Monitoring and logging ownership is clear. * Support and escalation paths are understood. * Upgrade, rollback, and patch expectations are documented. After handoff, the relationship continues through [Customer success](/on-prem/integration-journey/customer-success).