How to turn off the onboarding guide?

[kleinfreund]

Summary

How do I turn off the onboarding guide?

I'm referring to item in the settings/cog menu labelled "Onboarding guide" which shows a completion percentage indicator next to it.

I don't want to see it and I don't want it present for anyone else on my team as it's distracting, especially as there's a green orb on top of the gear icon suggesting there's something to take action on which there isn't.

There's seemingly no way to turn if off via configuration and, additionally, the steps in it can't be skipped completely. Neither is there a skip all or ignore button nor can all steps be skipped. Some steps seem to require a previous step to be completed and not skipped to become skippable.

Additional information

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[dosubot[bot]]

There are a few separate pieces to the onboarding system, each controlled differently:

Sidebar checklist widget (the one with the green orb on the gear icon): You can disable it by setting this in your .storybook/main.js (or .storybook/main.ts):

export default {
  // ...
  features: {
    sidebarOnboardingChecklist: false,
  },
};

This flag was introduced in PR #33430 and should remove the checklist widget and the green notification indicator from the sidebar.

Interactive onboarding wizard (the step-by-step guided flow): This comes from @storybook/addon-onboarding. You can remove it with:

npx storybook@latest remove @storybook/addon-onboarding

"Guide" tab in settings: This is part of Storybook core and only renders in development mode [1]. Unfortunately, there is currently no configuration option to hide it [2]. It's independent of both the addon and the feature flag above.

---

So for your use case, setting features.sidebarOnboardingChecklist: false and removing @storybook/addon-onboarding should eliminate the green orb and the interactive steps. The Guide tab in settings will still be present in dev mode, but there's no way to disable that today.

Could you confirm which version of Storybook you're on? The feature flag has had compatibility issues in some older releases [3], so version info would help if the flag doesn't take effect for you.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

---

Docs are dead. Just use Dosu.

[kleinfreund]

• features.sidebarOnboardingChecklist is already false but the green orb is still there
• the onboarding addon isn't (and wasn't) even installed
• I'm on the most recent version of storybook

[dosubot[bot]]

The green orb on the gear icon is actually not related to the onboarding checklist or the onboarding addon — it's tied to the "What's New" notification system [1]. That's why features.sidebarOnboardingChecklist: false doesn't affect it.

To permanently disable the green dot, add this to your .storybook/main.js (or .storybook/main.ts) [2]:

export default {
  // ...
  core: {
    disableWhatsNewNotifications: true,
  },
};

Alternatively, you can click into Settings → What's New and toggle "Hide notifications" from the UI [3] — though the config approach ensures it's off for your whole team.

That said, if there's also a separate "Onboarding guide" item in the settings menu that bothers you (the Guide tab with the progress percentage), that's a core dev-mode feature with no configuration option to disable it today [4]. If that's the main issue, it might be worth filing a feature request specifically for a flag to hide the Guide tab.

To reply, just mention @dosu.

---

Share context across your team and agents. Try Dosu.

[fisherbyu]

Is there plans to remove the"Guide" tab?

[lizuju]

There are two flags here, and the names are easy to mix up.

The sidebar checklist / green indicator is controlled by:

features: {
  sidebarOnboardingChecklist: false,
}

But the item in the settings/cog menu is controlled separately. In the current manager code, the Guide tab is added only when:

global.CONFIG_TYPE === 'DEVELOPMENT' &&
global.FEATURES?.menuOnboardingChecklist !== false

So to hide both the sidebar checklist and the settings menu guide entry, try:

export default {
  features: {
    sidebarOnboardingChecklist: false,
    menuOnboardingChecklist: false,
  },
}

@storybook/addon-onboarding is a separate guided onboarding addon; removing it only removes that addon flow. It does not by itself remove the core manager Guide page/menu entry.

One caveat: these pieces are development-mode UI. If you are seeing something in a built/static Storybook, that would be a different path; but for the green dot / settings onboarding guide in dev, the two feature flags above are the relevant split.

[kleinfreund]

Setting features.menuOnboardingChecklist to false doesn't remove the cog menu entry. The menuOnboardingChecklist feature isn't documented on https://storybook.js.org/docs/api/main-config/main-config-features and also doesn't have a corresponding property in the type StorybookConfigRaw['features'] (so TypeScript raises an error).

Also, setting features.sidebarOnboardingChecklist to false doesn't control the green orb on the cog menu.

With the following config, I still see the green orb:

/** @import { StorybookConfig } from '@storybook/server-webpack5'; */

/** @type {StorybookConfig} */
export default {
	framework: '@storybook/server-webpack5',
	core: {
		disableTelemetry: true,
		disableWhatsNewNotifications: true,
	},
	features: {
		changeDetection: false,
		sidebarOnboardingChecklist: false,
	},
}

[lizuju]

You're right, thanks for testing it. I mixed two things too tightly in my previous reply.

The green dot on the cog is the What's New notification path, not the sidebar onboarding checklist. So features.sidebarOnboardingChecklist will not control that dot. core.disableWhatsNewNotifications is the right config for the What's New notification path, but if an unread notification is already stored in the manager/browser state you may still need to open What's New / dismiss it / hard-refresh the manager state.

For the Guide menu item: I checked the current source and there is a menuOnboardingChecklist gate around the Guide tab/menu item, but if your installed Storybook package does not type it and it does not affect runtime for you, then I would treat that as not available in the version you are actually running. In that case my earlier suggestion is not a reliable public config option for your setup.

So the corrected answer is:

• sidebarOnboardingChecklist: sidebar checklist only
• disableWhatsNewNotifications: What's New notification / green dot path
• Guide entry in the cog menu: no dependable documented config option in your current release if menuOnboardingChecklist is missing/ineffective there

At that point the clean options are either waiting for a released/typed Guide-menu flag, or patching manager internals locally. I would not rely on an untyped feature flag unless it is present in the installed package's own types/source.