diff --git a/frontend/src/app/data-providers/cloud-data-provider.tsx b/frontend/src/app/data-providers/cloud-data-provider.tsx
index e3aecdc1b8..4ce52f0171 100644
--- a/frontend/src/app/data-providers/cloud-data-provider.tsx
+++ b/frontend/src/app/data-providers/cloud-data-provider.tsx
@@ -1010,6 +1010,27 @@ export const createProjectContext = ({
 				limit: opts?.limit,
 			});
 		},
+		// Polls the project image registry. Used by the onboarding frontend
+		// step to hold back the "Waiting for an Actor" caption until the user
+		// has pushed their first image to Rivet Compute.
+		currentProjectFirstImagePresentQueryOptions() {
+			return queryOptions({
+				queryKey: [
+					organization,
+					project,
+					"images",
+					"first-present",
+				] as QueryKey,
+				queryFn: async () => {
+					const response = await client.docker.listImages(project, {
+						limit: 1,
+						org: organization,
+					});
+					return response.images.length > 0;
+				},
+				refetchInterval: 5000,
+			});
+		},
 		upsertCurrentProjectManagedPoolMutationOptions() {
 			return mutationOptions({
 				mutationKey: [organization, project, "managed-pool", "upsert"],
diff --git a/frontend/src/app/getting-started.tsx b/frontend/src/app/getting-started.tsx
index 3c3ed60104..f10ef90ee8 100644
--- a/frontend/src/app/getting-started.tsx
+++ b/frontend/src/app/getting-started.tsx
@@ -1487,6 +1487,24 @@ function useServerfullEndpoint() {
 	return data?.url || engineEnv().VITE_APP_API_URL;
 }
 
+// Cloud + Rivet compute: poll the project image registry. Until the user
+// pushes their first image, no runner config exists and no actor can be
+// scheduled, so the caller hides the "Waiting for an Actor" affordance and
+// shows a deployment-pending caption instead. In non-cloud builds
+// `useCloudNamespaceDataProvider` returns undefined and this is a no-op.
+function useWaitingForFirstImage(provider: string | undefined): boolean {
+	const nsDataProvider = useCloudNamespaceDataProvider();
+	const enabled =
+		features.compute && provider === "rivet" && nsDataProvider != null;
+	const { data: hasImage } = useQuery({
+		...(nsDataProvider
+			? nsDataProvider.currentProjectFirstImagePresentQueryOptions()
+			: { queryKey: ["frontend-setup", "first-image-noop"] as const, queryFn: () => false }),
+		enabled,
+	});
+	return enabled && hasImage !== true;
+}
+
 function FrontendSetup() {
 	const dataProvider = useDataProvider();
 
@@ -1521,6 +1539,7 @@ function FrontendSetup() {
 	const { data: nsData } = useQuery(
 		nsDataProvider.currentProjectNamespaceQueryOptions({ namespace: namespaceParam }),
 	);
+	const waitingForFirstImage = useWaitingForFirstImage(provider);
 
 	const deploymentUrl = useMemo(() => {
 		if (provider === "rivet" && nsData?.access?.engineNamespaceName) {
@@ -1571,7 +1590,9 @@ function FrontendSetup() {
 						<Ping variant="pending" className="relative" />
 					</div>
 					<p data-testid={TEST_IDS.Onboarding.WaitingForActor}>
-						Waiting for an Actor to be created...
+						{waitingForFirstImage
+							? "Waiting for your first deployment..."
+							: "Waiting for an Actor to be created..."}
 					</p>
 				</div>
 
diff --git a/frontend/src/lib/data.ts b/frontend/src/lib/data.ts
index 99b93a7bcc..d0024db21b 100644
--- a/frontend/src/lib/data.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/lib/data.ts
@@ -52,10 +52,23 @@ export function deriveOnboardingState(opts: {
 		.find((p) => p !== undefined);
 
 	const hasRunnerNames = (runnerNames?.pages[0]?.names.length ?? 0) > 0;
-	const hasRunnerConfigs =
-		Object.keys(runnerConfigs?.pages[0]?.runnerConfigs ?? {}).length > 0;
+	// A runner-config datacenter counts as "user-onboarded" only when
+	// `metadata.provider` is set. Both onboarding signals write it: the
+	// serverless `upsertRunnerConfig` call here in the frontend, and the
+	// engine-ee compute-pool actor once GCP Cloud Run services come up. A
+	// bare runner config without provider metadata (e.g. compute pre-enabled
+	// out-of-band, or partial backend state) doesn't count, so the user
+	// keeps seeing the provider/backend onboarding step instead of being
+	// pushed straight to "Waiting for an Actor".
+	const hasConfiguredDatacenter = (runnerConfigs?.pages ?? []).some((page) =>
+		Object.values(page.runnerConfigs).some((config) =>
+			Object.values(config.datacenters).some(
+				(dc) => deriveProviderFromMetadata(dc.metadata) !== undefined,
+			),
+		),
+	);
 	const hasActors = actorCount > 0;
-	const hasBackendConfigured = hasRunnerNames || hasRunnerConfigs;
+	const hasBackendConfigured = hasRunnerNames || hasConfiguredDatacenter;
 
 	return {
 		displayOnboarding: !hasBackendConfigured && !hasActors,