Add self-serve trial lane to /request-a-demo/

[workprentice]

Adds a self-serve trial lane to /request-a-demo/, which today is a features overview, a customer logo wall, and a single HubSpot form with no path to a free trial anywhere on it.

What changed

• content/request-a-demo/_index.md: new self_serve front-matter block (title, description, CTA, one-line qualifier) and a title/subtitle on the existing form block.
• layouts/page/demo.html: renders the new self-serve card between the overview bullets and the customer logo wall, reusing the same btn btn-primary / card / arrow-right icon idiom already used on /contact/'s sidebar (layouts/partials/contact-us.html), plus a subtitle line above the HubSpot form.

No change to the existing overview copy, logo wall, or form embed. /contact/ is intentionally untouched in this PR -- its sidebar shipped nine days ago in #20867 and got a design pass in #20930 from @jeffmerrick, so any change there belongs in a separate proposal, not bundled into this one.

Why

This page currently earns almost no organic commercial traffic (3 clicks / 239 impressions over 90 days per Search Console) and gives every visitor exactly one path: fill out a form and wait. The self-serve lane names a free-trial path alongside the existing sales-contact form, with a one-line qualifier for who each path suits best -- the same pattern Pulumi's own /contact/ quick-links already use.

Verification

• Front matter validated with yaml.safe_load -- parses cleanly.
• Go template tags in demo.html balance (5 opens: define/rangex2/with/if, 5 ends).
• This sandbox has no local hugo binary and no node/npm cache for the asset pipeline, so a full make build could not be run here; relying on the "Install deps and build site" CI check for the full-build gate.
• Opening as a draft for @jeffmerrick and @cnunciato to review the visual treatment before merge.

---

🧠 This PR was created by workprentice on behalf of Joe Duffy.

[pulumi-bot]

Your site preview for commit df3f510 is ready! 🎉

http://www-testing-pulumi-docs-origin-pr-21063-df3f510e.s3-website.us-west-2.amazonaws.com

Changed pages:

• /request-a-demo/

[pulumi-bot]

Lighthouse Performance Report

Commit: df3f510 | Metric definitions

Page	Device	Score	FCP	LCP	TBT	CLS	SI
Homepage	Mobile	🔴 47	3.1s	5.7s	1112ms	0.062	4.3s
Homepage	Desktop	🟢 92	0.8s	1.0s	204ms	0.011	0.9s
Install Pulumi	Mobile	🟡 54	7.5s	15.9s	223ms	0.000	7.5s
Install Pulumi	Desktop	🟢 90	1.2s	1.8s	0ms	0.023	1.2s
AWS Get Started	Mobile	🟡 57	7.8s	15.9s	100ms	0.000	7.8s
AWS Get Started	Desktop	🟡 89	1.1s	1.7s	0ms	0.074	1.1s

[workprentice]

Verified commit 5cdefbe by running a full production-parity Hugo build of this branch locally (the S3 preview bucket linked above returned Access Denied from this network, so I rendered /request-a-demo/ directly instead) and inspecting the generated page.

Content and structure

• Self-serve card renders correctly: heading, description, "Start a free trial" CTA (https://app.pulumi.com/signup?create-organization=1, opens in a new tab with rel="noopener noreferrer"), qualifier line, and the arrow icon all present.
• The existing demo form is intact below/beside it with its new title and subtitle rendering as expected.
• Single <h1> on the page; heading order is otherwise unchanged from before this PR.
• No AI-generated-sounding contrastive phrasing in the new copy.

Head metadata and schema

• <title>: "Request a demo | Pulumi", <meta name="description"> and og:description both reflect the new meta_desc from this PR's front matter.
• <link rel="canonical"> correctly points at https://www.pulumi.com/request-a-demo/.
• No noindex.
• The page's application/ld+json (WebPage + Organization graph) parses cleanly and its description field picks up the new copy. This PR doesn't add any new schema (FAQ/HowTo) for the self-serve lane, which is fine for this scope — flagging it only as a candidate for a future structured-data pass, not a blocker here.

Links

• Every link in the changed section and the surrounding card (CTA, case-study logos, "Contact us") resolves 200 on production.

No defects found. Leaving this in draft as intended, pending @jeffmerrick / @cnunciato's visual-treatment review.

[workprentice]

Marking this ready for review: our automated pre-merge review skips draft PRs entirely, so this one has never gotten a pass. CI is green and I already ran a full local production-parity Hugo build verification with no defects found. Reviewers (jeffmerrick, cnunciato) are already requested.

The visual-treatment question for the self-serve trial lane is still open for your call — marking ready is only about getting this into the review queue and letting the automated check run, not about declaring that decided. Merge stays gated on your review either way.

[github-actions]

Pre-merge Review — Last updated 2026-08-22T03:49:25Z

Tip

Summary: This adds a second conversion path to the marketing page at /request-a-demo/ — a "Start a free trial" card in the left column for readers who'd rather self-serve than book a call — and labels the two paths so the choice is legible (form.title / form.subtitle on the HubSpot card, a qualifier line under the trial CTA). The failure mode that would matter to a reader on a page like this is a CTA that doesn't work or copy that overpromises: the signup URL, the external-link handling, the icon, and the new frontmatter all check out, and the Hugo preflight build reported 0 errors, 0 link-integrity breaks, and no change to the rendered sitemap. df3f510e drops the one soft "in minutes" time claim that was flagged, leaving the card's no-waiting promise carried by its title instead. Nothing outstanding. Passes run: fact-check on 7 extracted claims, frontmatter/alias sweep, Hugo build + link integrity, prose linting, and a website-domain read of the layout change.

Review confidence:

Dimension	Level	Notes
mechanics	HIGH
website	HIGH
facts	HIGH	The one unverifiable time claim was removed in df3f510e; remaining copy is positioning, not spec.

Investigation log

• Cross-sibling reads: not run (not in a templated section)
• External claim verification: 2 of 7 claims verified (1 unverifiable, 0 contradicted) · 4 specialists (numerical, cross-reference, capability, framing); 0 cross-specialist corroborations · routed: 0 inline, 3 Pass 1, 0 Pass 2, 4 Pass 3 (verified 0, contradicted 0, unverifiable 4). Re-verified after df3f510e: the sole unverifiable claim no longer appears in the content.
• Cited-claim spot-checks: not run (no cited claims)
• Frontmatter sweep: ran on body + meta_desc; re-swept for "in minutes" after the fix push — no remaining occurrence in body, meta_desc, or any frontmatter key
• Temporal-trigger sweep: not run (no trigger words)
• Code execution: not run (no static/programs/ change)
• Code-examples checks: not run (no fenced code blocks in content files)
• Editorial-balance pass: not run (not under content/blog/)

🚨 Outstanding	⚠️ Low-confidence	💡 Pre-existing	✅ Resolved
0	0	0	1

🔍 Verification trail

7 claims extracted · 2 verified · 1 unverifiable · 0 contradicted

• L3 in content/request-a-demo/_index.md "Pulumi's request-a-demo page offers a guided walkthrough of Pulumi as an alternative to starting a free trial." → ✅ verified (evidence: The page's meta description reads "See Pulumi in action with a guided walkthrough, or skip the wait and start building today with a free trial," and the form section subtitle says "Best if you want a guided walkthrough before your team…; source: repo:content/request-a-demo/_index.md)
• L3 in content/request-a-demo/_index.md "The self-serve free trial option is best suited for users who are ready to try Pulumi with their own code today." (also L16, L19-20) → ➖ not-a-claim (evidence: This is positioning/marketing copy from the PR's own page describing which of two paths (self-serve trial vs. demo request) suits which user — an editorial framing choice by the author, not a falsifiable external fact. It's broadly…; source: https://www.pulumi.com/blog/announcing-new-usage-based-pricing-for-your-whole-team/)
• L16-20 in content/request-a-demo/_index.md "Most teams don't need a demo to get started with Pulumi." → ➖ not-a-claim (evidence: This is a subjective marketing/positioning statement on Pulumi's own request-a-demo page, not a falsifiable factual assertion checkable against an independent source.; source: content/request-a-demo/_index.md)
• L17 in content/request-a-demo/_index.md "Creating an organization and starting to ship infrastructure with Pulumi is free ('on the house')." → ✅ verified (evidence: The reviewed page states "Create an org and start shipping infrastructure, on the house" with a "Start a free trial" CTA linking to org signup, and the pricing page independently confirms: "Pulumi Cloud is free to use…; source: content/pricing/_index.md)
• L17 in content/request-a-demo/_index.md "A user can create an org and start shipping infrastructure with Pulumi within minutes." → 🤷 unverifiable — claim removed in df3f510e; no longer present in the content
• L18-19 in content/request-a-demo/_index.md "The Pulumi free trial can be started at the URL https://app.pulumi.com/signup?create-organization=1." → ➖ not-a-claim (evidence: This is a CTA URL (cta_url field) in the page's own front-matter data, and the identical URL (https://app.pulumi.com/signup?create-organization=1) is used consistently across other Pulumi docs pages (content/contact/_index.md…; source: gh search code --owner pulumi "signup?create-organization=1")
• L42 in content/request-a-demo/_index.md "Requesting a demo of Pulumi is best if a team wants a guided walkthrough before committing." → ➖ not-a-claim (evidence: This is a subjective marketing/positioning statement describing the intended value proposition of the "request a demo" page, not a falsifiable factual assertion checkable against an external source.; source: content/request-a-demo/_index.md)

🚨 Outstanding in this PR

No outstanding findings in this PR.

⚠️ Low-confidence

No low-confidence findings in this PR.

💡 Pre-existing issues in touched files (optional)

No pre-existing issues in touched files.

✅ Resolved since last review

• [L17] content/request-a-demo/_index.md — "…start shipping infrastructure in minutes, on the house." — the unverifiable "in minutes" end-to-end time-to-ship figure was dropped (resolved in df3f510e). The reasoning in the commit message holds up: the phrase came from a benchmark page where it modified a bounded checkout step, not an open-ended outcome, and the card's "Don't want to wait for a call?" title already carries the no-waiting promise. Re-swept the file for the phrase — no other occurrence in the body, meta_desc, or frontmatter. "On the house" is retained and stands: creating an organization starts a free trial, which the pricing page independently backs.

📜 Review history

• 2026-08-22T02:56:11Z — No blockers: self-serve trial card and form labels check out (build clean, signup URL and external-link handling correct); one non-blocking "in minutes" time claim noted. (5cdefbe)
• 2026-08-22T03:49:25Z — Re-reviewed after fix push (1 new commit, df3f510). The L17 "in minutes" claim was removed; moved to ✅ Resolved and the frontmatter re-swept for duplicates of the phrase (none). No new findings introduced by the commit; facts confidence raised to HIGH. 0 outstanding.

---

• Refresh this review — comment @claude #update-review. Say what you fixed, or which finding you dispute and why; both work in the same mention.
• Ask for anything else — comment @claude with no hashtag (questions, one-off fixes). Leaves this review untouched.

Important

Please don't hide, resolve, or delete this comment! It breaks things!

📖 How pre-merge review works — the full lifecycle, short-circuits, and escape hatches.

[workprentice]

Addressed the L17 finding (commit df3f510e3e): dropped "in minutes" from the self-serve card description.

Author question answer: dropping the time reference entirely, not softening it. Reasoning:

1. Provenance. The phrase was carried over from the benchmark this page was designed against — claude.com/contact-sales reads "Check out in minutes with a credit card," where "in minutes" bounds a checkout transaction. On our card it modified "create an org and start shipping infrastructure" — an open-ended outcome the phrase was never sized for. That mismatch, not a style preference, is why it comes out.
2. Nothing is lost. The no-waiting promise already lives in the card title, "Don't want to wait for a call?" The time figure was redundant with it and unverifiable on its own.
3. Kept qualifier and cta_label untouched.

New copy: Most teams don't need a demo to get started. Create an org and start shipping infrastructure, on the house.

Also checked "on the house" while in there (facts confidence on this line was MEDIUM, 2/7 claims verified) — confirmed accurate: Pulumi Cloud Organizations states "Creating an organization will start a free trial that has access to all features." So the phrase holds and I left it as-is.

Scope note: the same soft "in minutes" phrasing also appears on internal-developer-platforms.md and neo.md. Deliberately not touching those — they're outside this PR and this is a targeted review-response fix, not a site-wide copy pass.

Spec doc kept in sync with what shipped (added a post-ship correction note).

CI should re-run on this push. Since a bot's own mention doesn't reliably re-trigger the pre-merge review pass, a human running the update-review mention against this commit would clear review:stale — no rush, this is non-blocking either way.

[workprentice]

@claude #update-review — please refresh the pre-merge review against df3f510; the L17 finding above is addressed.

[github-actions]

🤖 Review updated on @workprentice[bot]'s request.