From 2d69b2806b74c2301c2e2dc344efd67140a0165d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: A <258483684+la14-1@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sun, 8 Mar 2026 04:07:25 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] fix: improve cloud descriptions for non-technical users
 (#2328)

Cherry-picks UX improvements from #2321: simplifies cloud descriptions
to plain language, adds account/payment requirements upfront so users
know what they need before starting.

Fixes #2323

Agent: ux-engineer

Co-authored-by: B <6723574+louisgv@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 manifest.json                            | 12 ++++++------
 packages/cli/src/commands/interactive.ts |  2 +-
 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/manifest.json b/manifest.json
index ba6cbf82..c25a34a6 100644
--- a/manifest.json
+++ b/manifest.json
@@ -249,7 +249,7 @@
   "clouds": {
     "local": {
       "name": "Local Machine",
-      "description": "Run agents on your own machine — no cloud needed",
+      "description": "Your computer — no account or payment needed",
       "url": "https://github.com/OpenRouterTeam/spawn",
       "type": "local",
       "auth": "none",
@@ -260,7 +260,7 @@
     },
     "hetzner": {
       "name": "Hetzner Cloud",
-      "description": "Affordable European cloud servers from ~€3/mo",
+      "description": "European cloud servers from ~€3/mo (account required)",
       "url": "https://www.hetzner.com/cloud/",
       "type": "api",
       "auth": "HCLOUD_TOKEN",
@@ -276,7 +276,7 @@
     },
     "aws": {
       "name": "AWS Lightsail",
-      "description": "Simple AWS instances starting at $3.50/mo",
+      "description": "Amazon cloud servers from $3.50/mo (AWS account required)",
       "url": "https://aws.amazon.com/lightsail/",
       "type": "cli",
       "auth": "AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID+AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY",
@@ -293,7 +293,7 @@
     },
     "digitalocean": {
       "name": "DigitalOcean",
-      "description": "Developer-friendly Droplets from $4/mo",
+      "description": "Cloud servers from $4/mo (account + payment method required)",
       "url": "https://www.digitalocean.com/",
       "type": "api",
       "auth": "DO_API_TOKEN",
@@ -309,7 +309,7 @@
     },
     "gcp": {
       "name": "GCP Compute Engine",
-      "description": "Google Cloud VMs with $300 free trial credit",
+      "description": "Google cloud servers — $300 free trial (Google account required)",
       "url": "https://cloud.google.com/compute",
       "type": "cli",
       "auth": "gcloud auth login",
@@ -326,7 +326,7 @@
     },
     "sprite": {
       "name": "Sprite",
-      "description": "Managed cloud VMs — one command to deploy",
+      "description": "Managed cloud servers — one command to deploy",
       "url": "https://sprites.dev",
       "type": "cli",
       "auth": "sprite login",
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/commands/interactive.ts b/packages/cli/src/commands/interactive.ts
index 0268270c..05f82ab1 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/commands/interactive.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/commands/interactive.ts
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ async function selectCloud(
   hintOverrides: Record<string, string>,
 ): Promise<string> {
   const cloudChoice = await p.autocomplete({
-    message: "Select a cloud provider (type to filter)",
+    message: "Where should your agent run? (type to filter)",
     options: mapToSelectOptions(cloudList, manifest.clouds, hintOverrides),
     placeholder: "Start typing to search...",
   });