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codebase-onboarding

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Analyze a codebase and generate onboarding documentation for engineers, tech leads, and contractors. Fast fact-gathering and repeatable onboarding outputs. Use when onboarding a new engineer, writing architecture-overview docs for a new project, or producing tech-lead briefings for unfamiliar repos.

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How to use this skill

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I want to install this Agent Skill for this project in Codex.

Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills/blob/HEAD/engineering/skills/codebase-onboarding/SKILL.md

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Codebase Onboarding

Tier: POWERFUL
Category: Engineering
Domain: Documentation / Developer Experience

Overview

Analyze a codebase and generate onboarding documentation for engineers, tech leads, and contractors. This skill is optimized for fast fact-gathering and repeatable onboarding outputs.

Core Capabilities

  • Architecture and stack discovery from repository signals
  • Key file and config inventory for new contributors
  • Local setup and common-task guidance generation
  • Audience-aware documentation framing
  • Debugging and contribution checklist scaffolding

When to Use

  • Onboarding a new team member or contractor
  • Rebuilding stale project docs after large refactors
  • Preparing internal handoff documentation
  • Creating a standardized onboarding packet for services

Quick Start

# 1) Gather codebase facts
python3 scripts/codebase_analyzer.py /path/to/repo

# 2) Export machine-readable output
python3 scripts/codebase_analyzer.py /path/to/repo --json

# 3) Use the template to draft onboarding docs
# See references/onboarding-template.md

Recommended Workflow

  1. Run scripts/codebase_analyzer.py against the target repository.
  2. Capture key signals: file counts, detected languages, config files, top-level structure.
  3. Fill the onboarding template in references/onboarding-template.md.
  4. Tailor output depth by audience:
    • Junior: setup + guardrails
    • Senior: architecture + operational concerns
    • Contractor: scoped ownership + integration boundaries

Onboarding Document Template

Detailed template and section examples live in:

  • references/onboarding-template.md
  • references/output-format-templates.md

Common Pitfalls

  • Writing docs without validating setup commands on a clean environment
  • Mixing architecture deep-dives into contractor-oriented docs
  • Omitting troubleshooting and verification steps
  • Letting onboarding docs drift from current repo state

Best Practices

  1. Keep setup instructions executable and time-bounded.
  2. Document the "why" for key architectural decisions.
  3. Update docs in the same PR as behavior changes.
  4. Treat onboarding docs as living operational assets, not one-time deliverables.