This epic captures all the issues that aim to improve the experience for first time CI users. It contains the relevant issues on the first step on our customer journey as a part of the CI/CD workflow in the [Mural board](https://app.mural.co/t/gitlab2474/m/gitlab2474/1614090179037/3bb55dbc6e3f8f501d6d824eb68b2f74268a238c) ## Background Since the Pipeline editor first introduced, we saw increased adoption and high interest from our existing users, this Increasing the overall CI adoption is critical to GitLab. Users tend to adopt other GitLab stages once they adopt Verify, so we need to prioritize the CI 1st time experience. 📈 ## Problem CI 1st time experience provides no guidance on what is GitLab CI, how it works and how to set it up. We dont provide an easy way for users to navigate into the pipeline editor and even if they do the pipeline editor does not support new users, users are been asked to create the file manually A blank file is intimidating for those who don't know how CI works and how to write the yaml configuration. Most 1st time users find the experience for setting up CI difficult, ### CI/CD 1st experience vision * When a first-time CI user clicks on CI/CD in the main nav or clicks on "Set up CI" from the repo page, they are taken directly to the Pipeline Editor page. * The Pipeline Editor will be the landing page for CI, that way we don't need to put an empty state between experiencing the product and its value and the developer. You see how it works right away. All you need to do is make a commit to run the pipeline. * The Pipeline Editor will provide additional guidance regarding CI/CD configuration. See https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/4499 * All other CI pages will have empty states [image](/groups/gitlab-org/-/uploads/226b5902cf3dee4651bce8d16427435b/image.png)), and the CTA would take you to the Pipeline Editor. * ☝ For users with an existing CI configuration, the landing page when clicking on CI/CD in the nav should remain the Pipelines page since it'll be the most used page at that point. Currently, the Pipelines page is the landing page for CI/CD in the navigation. * We should provide an easy way for users to navigate directly to the pipeline editor whenever they view their pipeline file