Phase 3: Developer Onboarding

Alex joins the team and goes from zero to productive in 3 minutes.

Table of contents

  1. 3.1 — First Login
  2. 3.2 — Project Onboarding
    1. Step 1: Secrets Distribution
    2. Step 2: Software Installation
    3. Step 3: Repository Clone & Install
    4. Step 4: Startup Script Verification
    5. Step 5: Test Script Verification
  3. 3.3 — Onboarding Complete

3.1 — First Login

Alex logs into the RobOS VM for the first time. The Security Setup app launches automatically:

Security Setup App: Security Setup

Security Setup

Step What Happens
1. GPG Key Alex creates a GPG keypair for the encrypted password store
2. SSH Key Ed25519 key generated, public key copied to clipboard
3. GitHub SSH SSH key registered with GitHub via gh ssh-key add
4. GitHub CLI gh auth login flow completes, token stored securely
5. Pass Store Password store initialized with the new GPG key

3.2 — Project Onboarding

Alex opens Git Projects and sees the two repos Jordan configured. Clicking “Set Up” on buildbarn-forms triggers the automated onboarding sequence:

Step 1: Secrets Distribution

RobOS checks that Alex has the required secrets from ROBOS.md. Missing secrets are distributed from the Pass Manager (GPG-encrypted with Alex’s key):

  • GITHUB_TOKEN — GitHub personal access token
  • JIRA_API_TOKEN — Jira API token for status sync

Step 2: Software Installation

Dev Tools Dev Tools reads the prerequisites from ROBOS.md:

  • Node.js 20 — already installed ✓
  • protoc 25 — not found → installs automatically with streaming progress
  • GitHub CLI — already authenticated ✓

Step 3: Repository Clone & Install 

Cloning buildbarn-forms → ~/projects/buildbarn-forms
Cloning buildbarn-forms-proto → ~/projects/buildbarn-forms-proto
Running: npm install (buildbarn-forms)
Running: npm run proto:generate

Step 4: Startup Script Verification 

Running: npm run dev
✓ Storybook dev server started on http://localhost:6006

Step 5: Test Script Verification 

Running: npm test → ✓ 47 tests passing
Running: npm run test:e2e → ✓ 12 component tests passing

Total onboarding time: ~3 minutes, mostly waiting for npm install.

3.3 — Onboarding Complete

Dev Central App: Dev Central

Dev Central

Alex’s dashboard now shows:

  • Sprint Board: 10 stories in the BBF epic, BBF-1 is “ready to start”
  • Git Projects: 2 repos cloned and healthy
  • Tools: All prerequisites installed
  • Secrets: All project secrets available

Alex is ready to start coding.