Onboarding Guide Writer

Write the doc a new contributor opens on day one and uses to ship their first change by lunch. The center of gravity is the golden path: the exact, copy-pasteable sequence from git clone to a trivial verified change — every command grounded in the repo's real scripts and tooling, not invented make targets. Around it sit a quick architecture map (where to look, not a spec), the workflow conventions that gate a PR, and the troubleshooting that currently lives only in tribal knowledge. Deeper material is linked, never duplicated, so the guide stays true as the code moves.

When to use this skill

• A repo has no onboarding/CONTRIBUTING doc and new contributors reverse-engineer setup from CI configs and Slack threads.
• New hires repeatedly ask the same setup questions (which Node version, what env vars, why does the build fail the first time).
• The README is marketing prose — what the product does — rather than how a developer runs and contributes to it.
• Onboarding currently means a senior engineer pairing for two hours to get someone to a passing test suite.

Instructions

1. Reconstruct the golden path from real tooling — verify every command exists. Read the manifest that exists (package.json scripts/engines, Makefile targets, pyproject.toml, go.mod, Justfile, Taskfile.yml) and the lockfile to pick the package manager. Read CI config (.github/workflows/*.yml, .gitlab-ci.yml) — CI is the ground truth for the steps that actually pass. Build the path in execution order: clone → install deps → set up env/config → run locally → run tests → make a trivial change and verify it. Quote each command verbatim from a script that exists; if a step has no backing script, say so explicitly rather than inventing one.
2. Surface the prerequisites a fresh machine actually needs. Pin the runtime version (from engines, .nvmrc, .tool-versions, go.mod, python_requires) and any system deps (a database, Docker, a specific package manager). List them before the install step — a clone that fails on a missing Postgres is the most common day-one wall.
3. Handle env and config concretely. Find .env.example / .env.sample / config.example.*. Tell the contributor to copy it (cp .env.example .env) and call out which variables must be filled to run locally versus which have working defaults. Name the ones that need a secret or a teammate to provide — that is the question that otherwise hits Slack.
4. Prove the setup with a trivial verified change. End the golden path with a concrete, reversible first change — flip a string, add a log line, fix a typo — then the exact command that confirms it (the dev server reloads, a test passes, the page shows the new text). This is what turns "I think it's set up" into "it works." Don't skip it: it's the difference between an install guide and an onboarding guide.
5. Write a brief architecture orientation — a map, not a spec. Glob the top-level layout and name where the entry points are, how the main pieces fit (request → handler → data, or CLI → command → core), and where a newcomer should look first for a given task. Then list the 3–5 things that would surprise a newcomer: the non-obvious build step, the directory that isn't what its name implies, the generated file you must never hand-edit. Keep it to a screen; point to deeper design docs for the rest.
6. Document the real workflow conventions. Extract them from evidence, not assumption: branch naming (from existing branches / contributing notes), commit and PR style (from .gitmessage, PR template, recent history), how to run lint and typecheck (the real script names), and how CI gates a PR (which checks are required, from the workflow files). A contributor needs to know what will block their merge before they open the PR, not after.
7. Capture the tribal-knowledge gotchas and troubleshooting. Write down the fixes that live in senior engineers' heads: the first build that fails until you run a generate step, the test that's flaky on certain OSes, the port that conflicts, the cache you clear when things go weird. Format as symptom → fix so a stuck contributor can scan to their error.
8. Link to deeper docs instead of duplicating them. For anything with a canonical home — full architecture docs, API reference, ADRs, deployment runbooks — link to it in one line. Duplicated detail is detail that will silently go stale; a link stays correct or visibly 404s.
9. Order for action and skim. Golden path first (it's what they need in the next five minutes), then architecture, conventions, troubleshooting, links. Lead each section with the action. Save it as CONTRIBUTING.md or docs/onboarding.md per the repo's convention, and report which commands you verified against real scripts and which you flagged as unverified.

Output

A drop-in CONTRIBUTING.md (or docs/onboarding.md), structured for action:

# Contributing
 
## Golden path: clone → first change
 
**Prerequisites:** Node 20 (`.nvmrc`), pnpm 9, Docker (for the local DB).
 
```bash
git clone git@github.com:acme/taskflow.git && cd taskflow
pnpm install                 # lockfile: pnpm-lock.yaml
cp .env.example .env         # fill DATABASE_URL — ask #eng for the dev value
docker compose up -d db      # local Postgres on :5432
pnpm db:migrate              # apply schema
pnpm dev                     # http://localhost:3000
pnpm test                    # vitest — should be all green before you start
```
 
**Your first change:** edit the heading in `src/app/page.tsx`, save —
the dev server hot-reloads and the new text shows at `localhost:3000`.
That confirms your setup end to end.
 
## How the code fits
- Entry points: `src/app/` (routes), `src/server/` (API handlers), `prisma/` (schema).
- Flow: route → handler in `src/server/` → Prisma → Postgres.
- Surprises for newcomers:
  - `pnpm db:generate` must run after editing `prisma/schema.prisma` — the client is generated, never hand-edited.
  - `src/lib/legacy/` is frozen; new code goes in `src/lib/`.
  - The first `pnpm build` after install fails unless `pnpm db:generate` has run.
 
## Workflow
- Branch: `feat/<short-desc>` or `fix/<short-desc>` off `main`.
- Commits: Conventional Commits (`.gitmessage`); PRs use the template.
- Before pushing: `pnpm lint && pnpm typecheck`.
- CI gates merge on: lint, typecheck, `vitest`, and a preview deploy.
 
## Troubleshooting
- `ECONNREFUSED 5432` → `docker compose up -d db` isn't running.
- `Prisma client not generated` → `pnpm db:generate`.
- Port 3000 in use → `pnpm dev -- --port 3001`.
 
## Deeper docs
- Architecture & design decisions → `docs/architecture.md`, `docs/adr/`
- Deploy & on-call → `docs/runbooks/`

Every command above is quoted from a real script; the report lists exactly which were verified against the repo and which (if any) were flagged unverified for the maintainer to confirm.