houseofmvps/ultraship/onboard

Instant Project Onboarding

One command generates everything a new developer needs to be productive in your codebase.

Process

Phase 1: Analyze

node ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/tools/onboard-generator.mjs <project-directory>

Parse the JSON output.

Phase 2: Present Onboarding Guide

Format the output as a comprehensive onboarding document:

Project Overview:

• Name, description, version
• Tech stack (with version numbers)
• Architecture type (monorepo, single app, fullstack)

Architecture Diagram: Display the Mermaid architecture diagram from the tool output. This gives new developers an instant visual understanding.

Getting Started:

1. Prerequisites (runtime, package manager, databases)
2. Clone and install steps
3. Environment setup (.env vars with descriptions)
4. Run the dev server
5. Run tests

Key Files: Table of the most important files and their roles. New developers should read these first.

API Routes: Table of all detected API routes with methods, paths, and source files.

Database:

• ORM and migration tool
• Schema file location
• Table overview
• How to run migrations

Recent Activity: Last 10 commits — gives context on what the team is currently working on.

Gotchas: Known issues and common problems new developers encounter.

Phase 3: Save Onboarding Doc

Save the onboarding guide to docs/ONBOARDING.md in the project:

# [Project Name] — Developer Onboarding
 
> Auto-generated by Ultraship on [date]
 
## Overview
...
 
## Architecture

[diagram]

 
## Getting Started
...
 
## Key Files
...
 
## API Routes
...
 
## Database
...
 
## Gotchas
...

Phase 4: Identify Knowledge Gaps

After generating the guide, identify areas that need human input:

• Undocumented environment variables
• Missing README sections
• No contributing guidelines
• No architecture decision records (ADRs)

Suggest creating these if they don't exist.

Key Principle

30-minute rule. A new developer should be able to run the project locally within 30 minutes of reading this guide. If they can't, the guide is incomplete.