Repository: PostHog/requests-for-comments-public
Author: cleo-pleurodon
## PostHog Code is (soft)launching on April 29, 2026
Team lead: @k11kirky
Product Marketer (PMM): @cleo-pleurodon
Product Manager (PM): @annikaschmid
Blitzscale: @jamesefhawkins & @charlescook-ph
Billing lead: TBD
## Important context
- **April 27** (the monday of launch week) will be the **kill-switch decision day**
- If we decide to to delay, we will launch **_after_** the whole-company offsite in May
- If you know someone who fits our ICP and should have access before open beta, instructions are [here](https://posthog.slack.com/docs/TSS5W8YQZ/F0AGPK5D0PM) to invite them
- We will focus promotion on current PostHog users (non-users can sign up but they will sign up for PH in the process)
- We will likely still have some gates in the first couple of weeks, e.g. inviting 500 users / day via invite codes, so we don’t overwhelm our services
- **`#team-code` will manage support for the beta period**
- We’re not charging for signals or background agents. See pricing RFC [here](https://github.com/PostHog/requests-for-comments-internal/pull/974/changes#diff-5710cf4676dd3a7a77ac45d203638e0566e8a008f32635fd20ad2f727dc94b80) and billing list of work [here](https://posthog.slack.com/docs/TSS5W8YQZ/F0AG2S47E56)
- We will start with two seat-based monthly subscription pricing tiers for now **Free** and **$200/month** (with usage limits)
## Our Goals
- Onboard 500 - 1000+ users, build a solid waitlist
- Get loads of user feedback and iterate on that feedback
- Tell PostHog users what we're building, but hold back the big marketing splash until we have good metrics and retention of users
- **Best case scenario** - a bunch of people try it and we have good retention (this is a good signal for a bigger $$$ launch)
- **Worst case scenario** - very few people want to try it, users onboard and don't perform meaningful actions in the product, people churn without giving us feedback
### PostHog Code Dashboards
- [User feedback](https://us.posthog.com/project/2/dashboard/1312087)
- [PostHog Code usage data](https://us.posthog.com/project/2/dashboard/1031799)
## Metrics we care about
See the **PostHog Code usage dashboard** [here](https://us.posthog.com/project/2/dashboard/1031799)
- **Conversion rate** from beta invite to active Code user
- **Automation ratio** (background agent PRs vs manual coding)
- **Retention** after first 30/60/90 days
- **Signal engagement** (% of signal reports acted upon)
- **Coding costs distribution** (track token costs for both manual coding and background agents (median, P95, range). Validating whether users spend $20/day, $10,000/day, or somewhere in between)
- **Net revenue impact** (Code revenue - foregone data revenue - token costs)
- **Time to value** (first signal, first task, first merged PR)
### Stuff we won't do for beta launch but will do for GA
- Overhaul the UI (this is a nice to have, @adamleithp might be able to do something pre-beta launch but it's not a blocker)
- Ask `#team-youtube` to produce the big exciting [video series](https://github.com/PostHog/requests-for-comments-internal/issues/1034#issuecomment-4092438552)
- Invest in influencer marketing (we might select a few folks we already work with to spread the word)
- Ask `#team-demand-gen` to run paid ads
- Ask `#team-sales` to actively cross-sell it
- Create sales enablement and add to GTM academy
- Ask `#team-growth` to add Code to the onboarding flow
- Do a big launch on Product Hunt (we won't do this for GA either, but we'll update our page to mention Code)
- Ask `#team-irl-events` to organize a big launch party (we might do some small events as follow on for beta. See current plan below)
- Go _crazy_ on social media – we're mostly focused on getting PostHog users to validate PMF
- Billboards and other expensive out-of-home marketing
## Launch plan
### Pre-launch
- [ ] Complete the [Minimum Lovable Product to do list ](https://posthog.slack.com/docs/TSS5W8YQZ/F0AN5DFCAT0)
- [x] Create a taskforce for setting a release date and coordinating launch
- [x] Create Slack [channel](https://posthog.slack.com/archives/C0ADR896HJ9) with all owners
- [x] Daily and monthly usage limits @joshsny
- [x] Invite system @k11kirky
~- [ ] Decide beta reward – @k11kirky @cleo-pleurodon~ usage is already super generous on the paid tier. We're thinking $50-$100 free tokens when you sign up (which should cover between 10-20 tasks) users will see an upgrade prompt when they hit that limit.
- [ ] Create a dedicated channel to centralize support @joshsny (we'll try discord for community/feedback, but will probably still need a source of truth to tag in support folks if volume gets to be too much)
- [x] Product analytic events and LLMA implemented & verified @annikaschmid
- [x] Finalize pricing @annikaschmid
- [x] Draft content and brief website team @cleo-pleurodon
~- [ ] [Artwork](https://github.com/PostHog/posthog.com/issues/15906) for the self-driving development concept @lottiecoxon~ we will reserve this for GA
- [x] Ship the website [product page](https://posthog.com/code) @corywatilo
- [x] Make homepage and nav updates @corywatilo
- [ ] Add [PostHog Code docs](https://posthog.slack.com/archives/C09GTQY5RLZ/p1775068217946119) to the website @PostHog/team-docs-wizard
- [ ] Add PostHog Code section to the changelog @PostHog/team-docs-wizard
- [ ] Define [product intent](https://posthog.com/handbook/growth/growth-engineering/product-intents) and [activation criteria](https://posthog.com/handbook/growth/growth-engineering/per-product-activation) @annikaschmid & @k11kirky
- [x] Add new email onboarding content and adjust marketing flows @cleo-pleurodon
- [ ] Artwork for email onboarding flow @lottiecoxon @cleo-pleurodon
- [ ] Find a case-study customer @annikaschmid and @cleo-pleurodon
- [ ] Write the case study @cleo-pleurodon
- [ ] Find at least one internal case study to highlight (how we use PostHog Code to do X) @cleo-pleurodon
- [ ] Write / record the internal case study
- [ ] A few demo videos and screen recordings for marketing
- [ ] Collect list of [real user FAQs](https://posthog.slack.com/archives/C0AQ4NZBWKS) to update on the website @annikaschmid @joshsny
- [ ] Prep assets and messaging for PostHog folks to share on social media (coordinated swarm)
- [ ] Write the launch blog post @cleo-pleurodon
- [ ] Publish the twig post-mortem in the newsletter @cleo-pleurodon @ivanagas (will direct users to the Code product page + waitlist)
- [x] write a [loose script ](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mtPKxDMGOzr8o-70spADgkTqdbqjuw53oL3JXKRNs2Q/edit?usp=sharing)for the video team to capture the key points we want to communicate @cleo-pleurodon
- [ ] Produce changelog style [launch video](https://github.com/PostHog/company-internal/issues/2892) @PostHog/team-youtube
- [ ] Updated product onboarding flow @charlesvien
### Nice to haves
~- [ ] Onboarding questionnaire (we should be collecting more info at signup - team size, role, product maturity, product type...)~ won't do for beta
- [x] Rich PostHog MCP UI @rafaeelaudibert
- [x] External MCP support @cvolzer3
- [x] Wizard integration @daniloc
- [ ] Live experiment repo (users can see PostHog Code working on a product in real time)
- [ ] Meaningful data to share from alpha phase
- [ ] Code-specific changelog embedded in the product
- [x] /usage command (similarly to PostHog AI chat) where people can see the usage of their current billing period
and/or usage page somewhere in the menu @charlesvien
### Do more weird
All of the above is normal launch stuff. We'll also do something weird. See [below](https://github.com/PostHog/requests-for-comments-public/issues/513#issuecomment-4162855870) for messaging angles.
### Billing changes
**To do before launch:**
Ongoing: @pawel-cebula and @charlesvien working on the billing logic & UI [[1](https://posthog.slack.com/team/U0A0S8QT8R4)] [[2](https://posthog.slack.com/team/U08GLLCLS4R)]
Ongoing: Light pricing validation ahead of launch
[@Annika Schmid](https://posthog.slack.com/team/U0406CB7EJE) to look into cost patterns of existing users, to see if the daily/monthly & free tier caps make sense
[@Annika Schmid](https://posthog.slack.com/team/U0406CB7EJE) to check with some early users how they feel towards a paid subscription
**On launch day:**
- [ ] Turn on flag for billing UI
- [ ] If relevant: Reset every user’s usage to 0, so they don’t hit limits on day 0
- [ ] Migrate all PostHog org’s to the new free PostHog Code plans
**Marketing of pricing:**
- Given that pricing is subject to change, we don’t want to market it or use it in launch comms (e.g. “unlimited coding for $200!“). We’ll show pricing on [posthog.com/code](http://posthog.com/code), and on the relevant subscription & usage pages
**PostHog Code subscriptions & startup credits:**
Mid-term, startup credits won’t be eligible to be used for PostHog Code subscriptions. The goal is for startup credit exclusions to be possible when we launch background agents, overages etc
### Launch Week
Below has been determined out of scope for the 29th. We're not looking to be flashy in the public sphere – rather, we want high quality feedback from PostHog users
~Publish announcement on blog
Cross-post on LinkedIn and X
Also publish the blogpost on X as a native article
Anchor social media around a personal post from James (also a pre-launch task as this will take some time to get right)
Rally PostHog peeps to amplify launch stuff on socials
Publish the video on YouTube + amplify with socials~
### Follow-on
Below has been determined out of scope for the 29th. We'll do for GA
~Add PostHog Code updates to the changelog emails
Ask `#team-growth` to add an ad inside the app to let people know about the product launch
Ask `#team-editorial` to write a comparison article
Ask `#team-editorial` to do an AEO/SEO pass on the product page
Promote hardcore to the startup cohort (we might give them extra free usage)
[PostHog Code merch](https://github.com/PostHog/posthog.com/issues/16332) @lottiecoxon might be a nice bonus for beta users when we go to GA
Migration guide ([switching to PostHog](https://posthog.com/docs/new-to-posthog/switch-guide/switching-to-posthog) from Cursor, Claude Code, Codex...) Love how [Hex does this](https://hex.tech/product/switching-to-hex/#common-objections) @PostHog/content~