onboard

Overview

This skill generates a contextual onboarding document tailored to a specific role or area. It loads project state, scans relevant directories, and produces a comprehensive guide for new contributors or agents.

When to use /onboard:

• A new team member (human or agent) is joining the project
• You need context on a specific area before starting work
• You want a quick reference for conventions, architecture, and current state

When NOT to use /onboard:

• You need to audit an existing brownfield project's format compliance → use /adopt
• You need to detect project stage and missing artifacts → use /project-stage-detect
• You are the project owner reviewing overall status → use /sprint-status

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Phase 1: Parse Arguments and Load Project Context

Read the argument to determine the target role or area. If no argument is provided, use question to ask:

• Prompt: "No role specified. Who is this onboarding document for?"
• Options:
  • Programmer — Code architecture, patterns, conventions, current implementation state
  • Designer — Design documents, GDDs, systems, balance data
  • Narrative — Story docs, world-building, lore, character profiles
  • QA — Test coverage, test plans, known bugs, QA conventions
  • Production — Sprint plans, milestones, velocity, blockers
  • Artist — Art bible, asset specs, asset audit results, visual standards

If the user provides a role that doesn't match the options above, accept it and proceed. Map it to the closest category for scanning purposes.

Load project context:

1. Read AGENTS.md for project overview, technology stack, and standards. If the file does not exist or is empty, stop and report: "Cannot generate onboarding document: AGENTS.md is missing or unreadable. This file is required for project context."

2. If a specific role is specified, read the corresponding agent definition from .agents/agents/[role].md. If the file does not exist, inform the user: "No agent definition found for [role]. Proceeding with generic onboarding." and continue without role-specific context.

3. Read docs/framework/technical-preferences.md for engine and language configuration. If the file contains [TO BE CONFIGURED] for the engine, note that the engine is not yet configured in the onboarding document.

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Phase 2: Scan Relevant Area

Based on the role or area, scan the appropriate directories. If a directory does not exist or is empty, note it in the onboarding document as "No [area] artifacts found yet."

Scanning rules:

• Programmers: Scan src/ for source files (*.gd, *.cs, *.cpp, *.h, *.rs, *.py, *.js, *.ts). Identify architecture patterns (folder structure, naming conventions), key modules, and entry points. Check for docs/architecture/ and read ADRs if present.

• Designers: Scan design/ for GDDs (*.md in design/gdd/), balance data, and system definitions. Count documents and note which systems have GDDs vs. which are missing.

• Narrative: Scan design/narrative/ for world-building docs, character profiles, story outlines. If the directory does not exist, check design/ for any narrative-related files.

• QA: Scan tests/ for test files, test plans, and coverage reports. Check production/qa/ for bug reports and triage data. Note test framework and patterns.

• Production: Scan production/ for sprint plans (production/sprints/), milestones (production/milestones/), session logs, and blockers. Read the most recent sprint plan if it exists.

• Artists: Scan assets/ for art files, check for art bible in design/art-bible.md, and look for asset specs in design/asset-specs/. Check design/art/ if it exists.

Read recent changes (if git is available):

• Run git log --oneline -20 to understand current momentum
• Identify the most active areas and recent focus

If git is not available or the repository has no commits, skip this step and note: "No git history available."

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Phase 3: Generate Onboarding Document

Assemble the onboarding document using this structure. Fill each section with information gathered from Phases 1 and 2. If information is missing, state "Not yet defined" or "No artifacts found" rather than leaving the section blank.

# Onboarding: [Role/Area]

## Project Summary
[2-3 sentence summary of what this game is and its current state. Pull from AGENTS.md and design/gdd/game-concept.md if it exists.]

## Your Role
[What this role does on this project, key responsibilities, who you report to. Pull from the agent definition if available.]

## Project Architecture
[Relevant architectural overview for this role. For programmers: describe folder structure, key modules, dependencies. For designers: describe systems and their interactions. For others: describe how their work fits into the pipeline.]

### Key Directories
| Directory | Contents | Your Interaction |
|-----------|----------|-----------------|
| [dir] | [what's in it] | [how this role uses it] |

### Key Files
| File | Purpose | Read Priority |
|------|---------|--------------|
| [file] | [what it does] | [High/Medium/Low] |

## Current Standards and Conventions
[Summary of conventions relevant to this role from AGENTS.md and agent definition. Include coding standards, naming conventions, documentation requirements, test requirements.]

## Current State of Your Area
[What has been built, what is in progress, what is planned next. Pull from scan results and recent git commits.]

## Current Sprint Context
[What the team is working on now and what is expected of this role. Pull from production/sprints/ if available. If no sprint is active, state "No active sprint."]

## Key Dependencies
[What other roles/systems this role interacts with most. For programmers: which systems they modify. For designers: which programmers implement their designs. For QA: which areas need testing.]

## Common Pitfalls
[Things that trip up new contributors in this area. Pull from AGENTS.md coordination rules, coding standards, and any TODO/FIXME comments in scanned files.]

## First Tasks
[Suggested first tasks to get oriented and productive]

1. **Read these documents first**: [list 3-5 key documents]
2. **Review this code/content**: [point to specific files or directories]
3. **Start with this small task**: [suggest a low-risk first task, e.g., "Fix a typo in a GDD" or "Add a unit test for an existing function"]

## Questions to Ask
[Questions the new contributor should ask to get fully oriented. Examples: "What is the definition of done for a story?", "Who reviews my work?", "What is the deploy process?"]

---

Phase 4: Review and Save Document

Present the onboarding document to the user in full. Do not truncate or summarize — show the complete document.

Ask: "May I write this to production/onboarding/onboard-[role]-[date].md?"

If yes:

1. Create the production/onboarding/ directory if it does not exist
2. Write the file with the date in YYYY-MM-DD format
3. Confirm: "Onboarding document written to [path]."

If no:

• Ask: "Would you like me to revise the document, or skip saving it?"
• If revise, ask what to change and regenerate the relevant sections
• If skip, proceed to Phase 5 without writing

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Phase 5: Next Steps

Verdict: COMPLETE — onboarding document generated.

Suggest next steps based on the role:

• Programmers: "Run /sprint-status to see current work, then /dev-story [story-id] to pick up a task."
• Designers: "Run /design-system [system-name] to author a new GDD, or /design-review [gdd-path] to review an existing one."
• QA: "Run /qa-plan to create a test plan, or /smoke-check to run the smoke test suite."
• Production: "Run /sprint-plan to create or update the current sprint, or /milestone-review to assess progress."
• Artists: "Run /art-bible to review or create the visual identity spec, or /asset-spec [system] to generate asset specifications."
• Narrative: "Run /design-system narrative to author narrative GDDs, or review existing docs in design/narrative/."

General: "Run /help if you need guidance on what to work on next."

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Edge Cases

• No argument provided: Use question to ask for the role (see Phase 1).
• AGENTS.md missing or unreadable: Stop and report the error. Do not proceed without project context.
• Role not found in .agents/agents/: Proceed with generic onboarding, note the missing agent definition in the document.
• Engine not configured: Note in the document that the engine is not yet set up and recommend /setup-engine.
• Empty project (no source files, no design docs, no production artifacts): Generate a minimal onboarding document noting that the project is in early setup phase. Recommend /start to begin the workflow.
• Git not available or no commits: Skip the git history section, note "No git history available."
• User provides an unrecognized role: Accept it, map to the closest category for scanning, and note in the document that no agent definition was found.
• User declines to save the document: Skip the write, proceed to next steps. Do not force the save.
• Multiple roles specified (e.g., "programmer and QA"): Generate separate onboarding documents for each role, or ask the user to pick one.

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Collaborative Protocol

1. Ask first — never assume the user wants to save the document without asking
2. Show the full document — do not truncate or summarize before asking to save
3. Adapt to the role — tailor the scan and document content to the specific role's needs
4. Handle missing data gracefully — note what's missing rather than leaving sections blank
5. Suggest actionable next steps — point to specific commands the user can run next