Onboard

Skill pvnarp/agent-skills/skills/onboard

Generates project onboarding guides by analyzing the codebase. Produces architecture overview, key file map, common workflows, and "where to look" reference. Use when someone new joins the project or when you need a codebase overview.From its SKILL.md

Install

npx -y skills add pvnarp/agent-skills --skill onboard

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

One thing to look at

1 stars1 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.

SKILL.md

2.4 KB, 574 tokens by cl100k_base, as published. Nobody here has run it

Project Onboarding

Analyze the codebase and produce a guide that answers: "I just cloned this repo. What do I need to know?"

Step 1: Project Overview

Determine from the codebase:

What is this? (product, library, service, CLI tool, etc.)
Who uses it? (end users, other developers, internal teams)
What language/framework? (detect from files, config, dependencies)
How is it structured? (monorepo, single app, microservices)

Step 2: Key File Map

Identify the most important files/directories:

ENTRY POINTS:
  [file] - [what starts here]

CONFIGURATION:
  [file] - [what it configures]

CORE LOGIC:
  [directory/file] - [what it does]

DATA LAYER:
  [directory/file] - [storage, schemas, migrations]

TESTS:
  [directory] - [test structure]

BUILD / DEPLOY:
  [file] - [how it builds/deploys]

Step 3: Architecture Snapshot

[Component A] → [Component B] → [Component C]
                      ↓
               [Data Store]

What are the major components?
How do they communicate?
Where does data flow?
What are the external dependencies?

Step 4: Common Workflows

"I want to add a new feature"

Where to create files
What patterns to follow (look at existing examples)
How to test
How to submit for review

"I want to fix a bug"

How to reproduce (run locally, logs)
Where to look (key modules, common sources of bugs)
How to verify the fix

"I want to understand a feature"

Start at [entry point]
Follow the call chain through [key files]
Data is stored in [data layer]

Step 5: Gotchas

Things that aren't obvious from reading the code:

Non-obvious environment requirements
Implicit dependencies between modules
Known quirks or workarounds
"Don't touch this because..." warnings
Patterns that look wrong but are intentional

Output Format

# [Project Name] - Onboarding Guide

## What Is This
[1-2 sentences]

## Quick Start
[Exact commands to clone, install, run, test]

## Architecture
[Diagram + brief explanation]

## Key Files
[Table of important files and what they do]

## Common Tasks
[Step-by-step for typical workflows]

## Gotchas
[Non-obvious things to know]

What ships with it

Read from the repository

Just SKILL.md. No reference files, no scripts.

Gives 0 of the 12 instructions most architecture codebase skills give in 574 tokens

Counted across 811 of the 1,134 authors here whose files we hold, read 2026-08-07

Ask the user which candidate to explorein 45 of 811, across 15 files
Apply the deletion test to suspected shallow modulesin 43 of 811, across 15 files
Read any relevant architecture decision records firstin 31 of 811, across 8 files
Use exact glossary terms in every suggestionin 30 of 811, across 10 files
Accept dependencies instead of creating themin 24 of 811, across 5 files
Include before and after visualisations for each candidatein 24 of 811, across 5 files
Read the domain glossary before exploringin 24 of 811, across 6 files
Return results instead of producing side effectsin 23 of 811, across 4 files
Explore the codebase for shallow modules and frictionin 23 of 811, across 3 files
Introduce seams only where things varyin 22 of 811, across 3 files
Reduce the number of methodsin 21 of 811, across 2 files
Design deep modules with small interfacesin 21 of 811, across 3 files

Said here and by no other author read

determine the project type and users
identify key files and directories
document common development workflows
list non-obvious project gotchas
output a guide using the specified format

Grouped from the skills themselves: near-identical wordings counted once, and counted by distinct author, so one author publishing three of these counts once. Length counted with cl100k_base; the agent that loads this file may tokenize it differently.