Onboard a new joiner on a repository

A new developer joins the team on a large repository. You have the model design a welcome course on the area they will work in: a map of the system, an end-to-end story, modules ordered by prerequisites, and a first real contribution to finish.

Every statement in the course shows where it comes from. A [sourcé] block relies on evidence from the repository (commit, spec section, code comment) and the citation is displayed. A [lecture du code] block is an interpretation by the model, stated as such. Citations are attached by the code, not by the model: a block whose references are unknown is downgraded to a reading of the code.

1. Build the course for an area

lemni onboard build core/facturation

The command first shows what it found: how many files it read, how much evidence, and which verification command it detected for the area (the test script from its manifest):

Zone : core/facturation (core/facturation)
Socle : 34 fichiers source lus, 87 preuves trouvées
Acte de vérification : `npm run vitest` dans `core` (déduit de core/package.json)
Conception du cours par <modèle>…
Cours écrit : .lemniscate/onboarding/core-facturation/cours.yaml — 7 chapitres, 15 leçons — 41 blocs sourcés, 12 en lecture du code

The course is a YAML file versioned in the repository: commit it. It can be reviewed, diffed and corrected by hand.

If no verification command is detected, the course promises no command and contains no exercises.

The course is built by reading the files of the area and the repository history, on demand: no index of the code is built (security white paper V3, section 11.3). Once in the repository, the course file is just another piece of working copy content: the tutor reads it as data, and what it contains adds no tool and no permission to the session (security white paper V3, section 5.2).

2. Review the course as an expert

The model writes; a team member who knows the area corrects:

lemni onboard review

Questions asked by new joiners (see §3) come first: your answer is folded into the relevant chapter and serves everyone who follows. Then each draft lesson scrolls by: v approves, c adds a correction (a block signed with your name, the model’s text remaining readable below), r rejects with a reason, and Entrée skips. A rejected lesson disappears from the path. The course is rewritten after each decision: an interrupted review loses none of them.

3. The new joiner follows the course

lemni onboard

The session is conversational and picks up where it left off. It starts with three profile questions (familiarity with the stack, familiarity with the domain, part of the code planned). Nothing identifying is stored, and no failure is recorded: progress only knows what has been seen and passed.

While reading:

• a line starting with ? asks the tutor a question. It answers from the chapter content and its citations. Anything it cannot ground goes into the queue to the expert, with no author name;
• micro-exercises are checked by running the area’s verification command. The verdict is its exit code. This command is written in the course file, so it is read from the repository: it goes through the project’s command policy like any other, free if the administrator listed it, subject to your approval otherwise, and runs in the session sandbox (security white paper V3, section 5.1);
• each chapter ends with an answer-back: the new joiner explains in their own words, the model compares against expectations and corrects. The answer is not stored;
• q exits and saves.

The final chapter is a real contribution, with a defined scope. It closes only on composite evidence: the area has changed and the verification command passes.

4. Keep the course up to date

The code moves; the course is anchored in it. In CI or by hand:

lemni onboard check

Each lesson is anchored on code symbols with a fingerprint. If a symbol has changed or disappeared, the lesson is reopened as “to review”, and the command exits with a non-zero code: this is a review signal (lemni onboard review), not a build failure. The same change reopens a lesson only once.

Troubleshooting

• “no course in .lemniscate/onboarding/”: run lemni onboard build <chemins...> first and commit the result.
• “several courses available”: specify the area, lemni onboard <zone>.
• “no model found”: the workstation is not routed to a gateway that hosts a model. Follow Route the IDE to the gateway. Reading lessons requires no call to the gateway; the model is only called for answer-backs and questions to the tutor.