onboardinglisted

# Onboarding A repository is only as good for agentic development as it is for a junior developer to pick up. If an outsider can follow the code, find the standards, and see how to contribute without asking anyone, an agent can too. Onboarding the repository properly is what sets agents up for success. ## Golden rule If an outside developer would need to ask questions about the repository, it is probably not mature enough to be worked on agentically. On a new project nobody can answer those questions yet, the user included. Onboarding is then the work of deciding the answers and recording them, so the repository is mature before the code arrives rather than long after. ## Before you write Everything this skill produces is prose a person reads. Invoke the `writing` skill with the Skill tool before drafting any of it. ## Establish where the project is Before surveying anything, work out whether there is a product to describe. Look for source beyond the scaffolding, a build that runs, tests, and a pipeline. Then tell the user which of these you are working with, because every section below reads differently in each: - **An existing codebase.** The answers are in the repository. Your job is to find them, verify them, and write them down. - **A new project.** The answers do not exist yet. Your job is to help the user decide them, then write down what was decided. Most repositories sit between the two. Apply the existing-codebase reading to what is built and the new-proje