The moment you install Arbyn, a short setup wizard walks you through connecting your support inbox and shaping how your assistant sounds and shows up, before you ever see your dashboard. It takes about two minutes, and you can skip almost anything and finish it later.
What it does
The wizard has four steps: Welcome, Connect inbox, Agent identity, and Review. By the time you install Arbyn, it has already read your product catalog, policies, and shipping zones, so the wizard's only real job is connecting your support inbox and giving your assistant a name, a look, and a tone. Nothing here is a placeholder. If a step cannot confirm something yet (your inbox forwarding is still being tested, for example), it says so honestly rather than assuming success.
Where to find it
You will not need to look for it. It appears automatically the first time you open Arbyn after installing, and again on your next visit if you close the app before finishing it. Your progress is saved after every step, so you always pick up exactly where you left off.
Setup (step by step)
Welcome. A short introduction to what Arbyn does, with two tabs you can switch between, Resolves support and Drives sales, each showing a labeled sample of what a real conversation looks like. This is illustrative, not your store's actual data. When you're ready, click Get started.
Connect inbox. Pick your email provider (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, Zoho, Fastmail, ProtonMail, or another provider) and enter your support email address. Arbyn shows you a dedicated forwarding address and, once you pick a provider, a step-by-step guide for setting up forwarding in that exact inbox. Click Verify forwarding to send a real test email. If your forwarding rule is already in place, it comes straight back and the step marks itself verified automatically, usually within a minute or two. If you'd rather do this later, click Skip for now, connect later and nothing about your inbox is saved yet.
Agent identity. Give your assistant a name (used in email sign-offs and at the top of the chat widget), optionally upload a square avatar image, and pick a starting tone from five options: Friendly & Professional, Concise, Empathetic, Formal, or Casual. This is only a starting point. There's also a toggle for showing the chat widget on your storefront. If the widget isn't switched on in your theme yet, you'll see a one-click Enable in theme editor link right there. Click Continue, or Skip for now, use defaults to keep Arbyn as the name, no avatar, and Friendly & Professional.
Review. A summary of exactly what you set: your inbox status, your agent's name, tone, and widget setting, and the free plan you're starting on (150 AI conversations a month, every feature included). Click Finish setup to hand off to Shopify's own plan-approval screen. A free plan is available, so there's nothing to pay to get started.
How it works
Nothing is written to your store until you actually take an action. Typing an email address and clicking away from the field saves it immediately (so you never lose it by accident), but clicking Skip on either the inbox or the agent-identity step writes nothing at all for that step and leaves your store on Arbyn's defaults.
Verification on the Connect inbox step uses two paths that both land in the same place. The primary path sends a real test email to the support address you typed, and if your forwarding rule is set up correctly, it arrives back at your Arbyn inbox and the step flips to verified on its own, no clicking required. If nothing arrives after a while, the panel tells you plainly and offers to resend. As a fallback, you can also just send any email from your support address to the Arbyn inbox address shown on screen, Arbyn will detect that too and mark the step verified. You are never required to finish verification to continue: if you click Continue before it's confirmed, Arbyn keeps listening in the background and your Command Center will flag it once it's done (or if it never happens).
The Agent identity step is deliberately light. Everything you set there (name, avatar, tone, whether the widget shows) is the exact same data shown later on Settings → Agent identity, so nothing is duplicated or reset when you go looking for it afterward. The tone you pick is only a starting point: Arbyn keeps calibrating to your store's real voice from the conversations it drafts, on top of whatever tone you chose here.
The Review step's Finish setup button does two things at once: it marks your account's setup complete on Arbyn's side, and it opens Shopify's plan-approval screen so you can pick a plan. Nothing about the plan you choose changes what Arbyn can do. Both the free Starter plan and the paid Agent plan include every feature Arbyn has; the only difference is your monthly conversation allowance.
Good to know
Skipping is always safe. Skipping the inbox step clears anything you had typed there rather than leaving a half-finished entry behind, and skipping the agent-identity step simply keeps Arbyn's defaults. Either one can be finished properly later from Settings.
You are never chat-blind while email is unverified. The chat widget on your storefront works independently of your email inbox. You do not need to connect or verify email to have Arbyn answer customers in chat.
Your progress is saved, not lost, if you close the wizard early. Reopening Arbyn takes you right back to the step you were on.
The chat widget toggle needs one more switch. Turning on "show the chat widget" in the wizard is one of two gates; your theme's own app embed also needs to be switched on for the widget to actually appear on your storefront. The wizard links you straight to that setting when it detects the embed isn't on yet.
Finishing takes you to Shopify, not straight to your dashboard. That's expected: Shopify handles plan approval, and you land on your Command Center right after.
FAQ
Do I have to connect my support inbox before I can use Arbyn at all? No. You can skip it entirely and come back to it anytime from Settings → Email. Your chat widget works the moment it's enabled, independent of your email setup.
What if verification never confirms during setup? You can still click Continue and finish the wizard. Verification keeps trying in the background, and your Command Center will tell you if it needs your attention.
Can I change the name, avatar, or tone I picked later? Yes, anytime, from Settings → Agent identity. It's the exact same fields you saw in the wizard.
Does the plan I approve at the end lock in any features? No. Every feature is available on all three plans. The only difference between them is how many conversations are included each month.
What happens to conversations that come in while I'm still setting up? Once your inbox is connected (even before it's verified) or your chat widget is live, Arbyn starts handling conversations right away, drafting every reply for your review until you choose to turn on auto-send.