Developer Onboarding

What to do on your first day with a project (or when onboarding someone new).

Access & Accounts

• GitHub organization/repo access granted
• Added to the project board(s)
• Access to deployment environments (staging, production)
• Access to monitoring/logging tools (Seq, Grafana, etc.)
• Access to communication channels (Slack, Discord, etc.)
• Secrets/credentials shared securely (never via chat or email)

Local Environment

• Clone the repository
• Read the README.md and CLAUDE.md
• Read the dev-playbook — especially process/ and conventions/
• Install required runtimes and tools:
  • .NET SDK (check version in global.json)
  • Node.js (check version in .nvmrc or package.json)
  • Python (check version in pyproject.toml)
  • Docker Desktop
• Copy .env.example to .env and fill in values
• Start infrastructure: docker compose up -d
• Install dependencies: dotnet restore / npm ci / pip install
• Run the app locally and verify it starts
• Run the tests and verify they pass
• Install git hooks (see conventions/git-hooks.md)

Understand the Project

• Read the architecture docs in the playbook (architecture/)
• Understand the project structure (where code lives, how layers connect)
• Review the project board — what's in progress, what's coming
• Read the last 10 commit messages to understand recent work
• Read 2-3 recent closed PRs to understand the review process

First Contribution

• Pick a small issue from the board (labeled good first issue if available)
• Follow the full workflow:
  1. Move issue to "In Progress"
  2. Create a feature branch
  3. Make the change
  4. Write tests
  5. Open a PR with proper template
  6. Get review, address feedback
  7. Merge and close the issue

Knowledge Gaps

Don't be afraid to ask. Document answers for the next person:

• I understand the authentication flow
• I understand how multi-tenancy works (if applicable)
• I know how to deploy to staging
• I know where to find logs when something breaks
• I know who to ask when I'm stuck