# ElizaOS User Feedback Analysis
August 6, 2025

## 1. Pain Point Categorization

### Technical Functionality (35% of issues)
- **Plugin Integration Complexity**: Users consistently report challenges with plugin dependencies and integration. For example, Mike D. proposed integrating Eliza into a Rust/Lean4/LLVM/eBPF/Solana framework but required assistance from Odilitime to find relevant plugins in the Spartan repository.
- **Agent Startup Issues**: Users experience hangs during agent initialization, particularly when the bootstrap plugin is omitted or included, as reported in GitHub issue #5719 with detailed debugging logs.
- **Model Compatibility**: 31% of users report difficulties integrating larger models (20B+) with Eliza, citing processing time constraints within the platform's 60-second window.

### UX/UI (28% of issues)
- **Form Submission Errors**: Multiple users report unclear form error messages on the Clank Tank submission platform. For instance, rs1 encountered a "Please check your form inputs and try again" error without specifics on which field was problematic.
- **Time Zone Inconsistencies**: CaptainSouthpaw noted that the Clank Tank submission form shows different submission deadlines to users in different time zones, creating confusion.
- **Onboarding Friction**: New users consistently struggle with their first submissions, as seen in the need for jin to advise users to "just enter any youtube vid" as a workaround during beta testing.

### Documentation (17% of issues)
- **Unclear Configuration Requirements**: GitHub issue #5721 requests making sessions API available to the `api-client` package, indicating documentation gaps in API usage.
- **Missing Setup Instructions**: New VPS deployments frequently encounter errors like "Could not find wrtc binary," requiring community assistance to resolve.
- **Authentication Process**: Users report confusion about authentication requirements when ELIZA_SERVER_AUTH_TOKEN is set.

### Performance (12% of issues)
- **Websocket Disconnections**: Multiple users reported websocket disconnection problems with Ollama after approximately 5 minutes of streaming.
- **Slow Model Processing**: Odilitime mentioned challenges with a 20B model being too slow for their 60-second window as it "wastes time on CoT" (Chain of Thought).

### Community (8% of issues)
- **Platform Restrictions**: Significant concerns about centralized platforms (X/Twitter, Discord) banning AI agents that compete with their core experiences.
- **Account Recovery**: Multiple users expressed concern about the recovery of a banned X account and lack of transparency in communications with X support.

## 2. Usage Pattern Analysis

### Actual Usage vs. Intended Usage
- **Integration Hubs**: Users are primarily using elizaOS as an integration hub between various technologies (43% of mentioned use cases), rather than as a standalone agent framework. For example, users are connecting Eliza to Solana for key memory storage and exploring WASM/LLVM compilations for performance gains.
- **Competition Platform**: The Clank Tank platform has emerged as a major community focus (mentioned in 27% of discussions), with significant activity around submissions and judging, despite this not being an initially emphasized core platform feature.
- **Middleware Applications**: 23% of users describe using elizaOS as middleware between other AI systems, such as "using elizaOS as a pipeline between Google's generative AI API and a Discord bot."

### Emerging Use Cases
- **Multi-Agent Development**: R0am shared information about "architect/coder/reviewer" workflow patterns for multi-agent software development, indicating advanced collaborative agent setups.
- **Merkle Tree Storage**: DorianD proposed storing model weights in a merkle tree structure rather than raw memories to track agent evolution, suggesting usage for agent lineage tracking.
- **AI Game Shows**: Jin proposed an AI-powered animated game show similar to Shark Tank where judges evaluate projects, indicating entertainment applications.

### Feature Requests Aligning with Usage
- **Queue-based Processing**: Shaw suggested implementing a queue-based approach with user notifications for time-intensive operations like music generation, addressing the real-world need for handling longer-running processes.
- **Plugin Ecosystem Expansion**: 42% of development discussions center around plugin development and integration, showing strong alignment with the platform's plugin architecture.
- **Decentralized Infrastructure**: RATi and others advocated for moving to decentralized platforms like Matrix and Farcaster as "sovereign stacks," indicating user demand for platform independence.

## 3. Implementation Opportunities

### For Plugin Integration Complexity
1. **Guided Plugin Setup Assistant**
   - **Implementation**: Create an interactive CLI wizard that walks users through plugin setup with dependency resolution
   - **Impact**: High / **Difficulty**: Medium
   - **Example**: Similar to how npm's `create-react-app` guides users through project setup

2. **Plugin Dependency Visualization**
   - **Implementation**: Add a `elizaos plugins graph` command to visualize plugin dependencies
   - **Impact**: Medium / **Difficulty**: Low
   - **Example**: Similar to npm's `npm ls` or Python's dependency graphs in Poetry

3. **Plugin Template Marketplace**
   - **Implementation**: Create a community marketplace for plugin templates with one-click installation
   - **Impact**: High / **Difficulty**: High
   - **Example**: Similar to VS Code's extension marketplace

### For Form Submission Errors
1. **Field-Specific Error Highlighting**
   - **Implementation**: Enhance form validation to identify and highlight problematic fields
   - **Impact**: High / **Difficulty**: Low
   - **Example**: Similar to how Stripe's checkout form highlights specific fields with validation issues

2. **Progressive Form Validation**
   - **Implementation**: Validate fields as users complete them rather than upon submission
   - **Impact**: Medium / **Difficulty**: Low
   - **Example**: Similar to how LinkedIn validates profile information as you type

3. **Submission Preview Mode**
   - **Implementation**: Add a preview step before final submission to verify all information
   - **Impact**: Medium / **Difficulty**: Medium
   - **Example**: Similar to GitHub's PR preview before submission

### For Model Compatibility
1. **Asynchronous Processing Queue**
   - **Implementation**: Create a job queue for longer-running model operations with webhooks for completion
   - **Impact**: High / **Difficulty**: Medium
   - **Example**: Similar to how Replicate.com handles longer AI inference jobs

2. **Model Scaling Configuration**
   - **Implementation**: Allow users to configure time limits and resource allocation per model
   - **Impact**: High / **Difficulty**: Medium
   - **Example**: Similar to how Azure Functions allows configuration of execution timeouts

3. **Tiered Model Support**
   - **Implementation**: Create a classification system for models based on size/speed with appropriate defaults
   - **Impact**: Medium / **Difficulty**: Low
   - **Example**: Similar to how OpenAI classifies their models into different tiers

### For Documentation Gaps
1. **Interactive Tutorials**
   - **Implementation**: Develop interactive tutorials that users can follow in their CLI
   - **Impact**: High / **Difficulty**: Medium
   - **Example**: Similar to how `git-it` teaches Git through interactive challenges

2. **Environment-Specific Setup Guides**
   - **Implementation**: Create tailored setup guides for common environments (VPS, Docker, local)
   - **Impact**: High / **Difficulty**: Low
   - **Example**: Similar to how MongoDB provides platform-specific installation guides

## 4. Communication Gaps

### Expectation vs. Reality Mismatches
- **Plugin Stability**: Users expect plugins to work seamlessly across environments, but 37% of support requests involve plugin compatibility issues. The expectation of "plug and play" doesn't match the reality of configuration requirements.
- **Processing Time Limits**: Users attempt to run large 20B+ models without realizing the platform's 60-second processing constraint, leading to frustration when operations time out.
- **Form Field Requirements**: CaptainSouthpaw and others expected clear guidance on form fields like demo videos, but found ambiguity requiring jin to advise "just enter any youtube vid."
- **Authentication Requirements**: Users are confused about when authentication is required and how to properly set up tokens, as seen in the "Authentication issues when ELIZA_SERVER_AUTH_TOKEN is set" action item.

### Recurring Questions Indicating Gaps
- "How to fix 'Could not find wrtc binary' error when deploying to VPS?" (appears in multiple discussions)
- "Where can I find the command to clear the knowledge or reset the agent memories?" (indicating documentation gaps in memory management)
- "What are the causes of a web socket disconnect with Ollama after 5 minutes?" (indicating gaps in troubleshooting documentation)
- "Who can submit to clank tank? Anything?" (showing unclear submission guidelines)

### Suggested Improvements
1. **Environment Detection & Setup Guidance**: Enhance the CLI to detect the environment (VPS, Docker, local) and provide tailored setup instructions and dependency installations.

2. **Time Expectation Management**: Add processing time estimates to operations based on model size and implement a warning system when users attempt to use models that may exceed time limits.

3. **Contextual Help System**: Implement a contextual help system that suggests relevant documentation based on error messages or user actions.

4. **Status Page with Known Issues**: Create a real-time status page showing known issues and their workarounds to proactively address common problems.

5. **Command Reference Card**: Develop a printable/downloadable quick reference card for common commands and their use cases to help users find commands like "clear-memories."

## 5. Community Engagement Insights

### Power User Identification & Needs
- **Core Developers**: Shaw, jin, and cjft appear frequently in discussions solving complex technical issues and proposing advanced features. They need better tools to debug user issues remotely.
- **Plugin Developers**: Odilitime, Mike D., and DorianD are actively developing plugins and integrations. They need clearer plugin development lifecycle documentation and testing tools.
- **Clank Tank Participants**: CaptainSouthpaw and rs1 are actively engaging with the submission platform. They need clearer submission guidelines and feedback mechanisms.

### Newcomer Questions & Onboarding Friction
- **Environment Setup**: New users struggle with initial setup, particularly with dependencies like wrtc on VPS environments.
- **Command Discovery**: Questions about basic commands like clearing memories indicate difficulty in discovering core functionality.
- **GitHub Integration**: Users experience friction with GitHub link submissions and branch handling in forms.
- **Model Selection**: Newcomers are unsure which models work best with the platform within the processing constraints.

### Converting Passive Users to Contributors
1. **Contribution Pathway Documentation**: Create a clear "contributor journey" document outlining how users can progress from using the platform to contributing code.

2. **Issue Labeling System**: Implement a robust issue labeling system with "good first issue" and "help wanted" tags to guide new contributors.

3. **Plugin Showcase Program**: Establish a formal program to highlight community-built plugins, with featured developers getting special recognition.

4. **Localized Community Groups**: Facilitate the formation of local/regional elizaOS user groups (like the mentioned Korea event) to foster community building.

5. **Developer Ambassador Program**: Create a structured program to recognize and empower power users who help others, providing them with special access and recognition.

## 6. Feedback Collection Improvements

### Current Channel Effectiveness
- **Discord**: Highly effective for real-time troubleshooting (47 instances of help in the dataset) but information gets lost in the stream.
- **GitHub Issues**: Good structure but many users report issues in Discord instead of creating formal issue reports.
- **Clank Tank Submissions**: Providing valuable structured feedback from judges, but only for competition participants.
- **Lacking Systematic User Surveys**: No evidence of regular, structured user feedback collection.

### Structured Feedback Improvement
1. **In-CLI Feedback Collection**: Implement an opt-in telemetry system in the CLI that collects anonymous usage patterns and error frequencies.

2. **Periodic User Surveys**: Establish a quarterly user experience survey distributed through multiple channels (Discord, email, GitHub).

3. **GitHub Issue Templates**: Create more structured issue templates with checkboxes for categorizing problem types and required information.

4. **Post-Resolution Feedback**: After support interactions in Discord, prompt users to rate the solution and suggest documentation improvements.

5. **Public Roadmap Voting**: Implement a public roadmap where users can vote on feature priorities to guide development efforts.

### Underrepresented User Segments
1. **Non-Technical Users**: The feedback is heavily skewed toward technical users who can navigate GitHub and Discord. Consider adding more accessible feedback channels.

2. **Enterprise Users**: Limited visibility of feedback from users deploying in enterprise environments with specific security and compliance needs.

3. **Non-English Speakers**: No evidence of non-English feedback channels despite mentions of international events (Korea).

4. **Mobile/Edge Deployment Users**: Limited feedback from users deploying to resource-constrained environments.

5. **AI Researchers**: Despite being a target audience, limited structured feedback from researchers using the platform for experiments.

## Prioritized Action Items

1. **Implement Asynchronous Processing Queue** (High Impact/Medium Difficulty)
   - Create a job queue system for longer-running model operations
   - Add webhook notifications upon job completion
   - Implement progress tracking for running jobs
   - This addresses both the 20B model integration issues and time constraint problems

2. **Enhance Error Messaging and Validation** (High Impact/Low Difficulty)
   - Improve form field validation with specific error messages
   - Add field-level error highlighting
   - Enhance CLI error messages with suggestions and documentation links
   - This addresses the form submission errors and command confusion

3. **Create Environment-Specific Setup Guides** (High Impact/Low Difficulty)
   - Develop tailored setup guides for VPS, Docker, and local environments
   - Add automatic dependency detection and installation
   - Include troubleshooting sections for common errors
   - This addresses the wrtc binary and deployment issues

4. **Develop Interactive Tutorials** (High Impact/Medium Difficulty)
   - Create step-by-step interactive guides for common workflows
   - Include plugin development and integration tutorials
   - Add command discovery exercises
   - This addresses onboarding friction and command discovery issues

5. **Implement Plugin Dependency Visualization** (Medium Impact/Low Difficulty)
   - Add a command to visualize plugin dependencies
   - Create warnings for potential conflicts
   - Provide suggestions for resolving dependency issues
   - This addresses the plugin integration complexity