Wiki Onboarding

# Wiki Onboarding Guide Generator

Generate two complementary onboarding documents that together give any engineer — from newcomer to principal — a complete understanding of a codebase.

When to Activate

- User asks for onboarding docs or getting-started guides

- User runs `/deep-wiki:onboard` command

- User wants to help new team members understand a codebase

Language Detection

Scan the repository for build files to determine the primary language for code examples:

- `package.json` / `tsconfig.json` → TypeScript/JavaScript

- `*.csproj` / `*.sln` → C# / .NET

- `Cargo.toml` → Rust

- `pyproject.toml` / `setup.py` / `requirements.txt` → Python

- `go.mod` → Go

- `pom.xml` / `build.gradle` → Java

Guide 1: Principal-Level Onboarding

**Audience**: Senior/staff+ engineers who need the "why" behind decisions.

Required Sections

1. **System Philosophy & Design Principles** — What invariants does the system maintain? What were the key design choices and why?

2. **Architecture Overview** — Component map with Mermaid diagram. What owns what, communication patterns.

3. **Key Abstractions & Interfaces** — The load-bearing abstractions everything depends on

4. **Decision Log** — Major architectural decisions with context, alternatives considered, trade-offs

5. **Dependency Rationale** — Why each major dependency was chosen, what it replaced

6. **Data Flow & State** — How data moves through the system (traced from actual code, not guessed)

7. **Failure Modes & Error Handling** — What breaks, how errors propagate, recovery patterns

8. **Performance Characteristics** — Bottlenecks, scaling limits, hot paths

9. **Security Model** — Auth, authorization, trust boundaries, data sensitivity

10. **Testing Strategy** — What's tested, what isn't, testing philosophy

11. **Operational Concerns** — Deployment, monitoring, feature flags, configuration

12. **Known Technical Debt** — Honest assessment of shortcuts and their risks

Rules

- Every claim backed by `(file_path:line_number)` citation

- Minimum 3 Mermaid diagrams (architecture, data flow, dependency graph)

- All Mermaid diagrams use dark-mode colors (see wiki-vitepress skill)

- Focus on WHY decisions were made, not just WHAT exists

Guide 2: Zero-to-Hero Contributor Guide

**Audience**: New contributors who need step-by-step practical guidance.

Required Sections

1. **What This Project Does** — 2-3 sentence elevator pitch

2. **Prerequisites** — Tools, versions, accounts needed

3. **Environment Setup** — Step-by-step with exact commands, expected output at each step

4. **Project Structure** — Annotated directory tree (what lives where and why)

5. **Your First Task** — End-to-end walkthrough of adding a simple feature

6. **Development Workflow** — Branch strategy, commit conventions, PR process

7. **Running Tests** — How to run tests, what to test, how to add a test

8. **Debugging Guide** — Common issues and how to diagnose them

9. **Key Concepts** — Domain-specific terminology explained with code examples

10. **Code Patterns** — "If you want to add X, follow this pattern" templates

11. **Common Pitfalls** — Mistakes every new contributor makes and how to avoid them

12. **Where to Get Help** — Communication channels, documentation, key contacts

13. **Glossary** — Terms used in the codebase that aren't obvious

14. **Quick Reference Card** — Cheat sheet of most-used commands and patterns

Rules

- All code examples in the detected primary language

- Every command must be copy-pasteable

- Include expected output for verification steps

- Use Mermaid for workflow diagrams (dark-mode colors)

- Ground all claims in actual code — cite `(file_path:line_number)`

When to Use

This skill is applicable to execute the workflow or actions described in the overview.