Constructdocs
section · guides

Onboard a new engineer

Drive day-1 setup through the week-1 checkpoint via the engineering-onboarding workflow. Scaffolds onboarding brief, access checklist, and milestone handoff artifacts in one CLI call.

1 min read·guides / cookbook / onboard-a-new-engineer

The engineering-onboarding workflow template runs the new-engineer onboarding ritual end-to-end: the brief, the access checklist, the week-1 milestones, and the handoff at the end. One CLI invocation; every artifact lands under docs/onboarding/\<engineer>/ and is owned by a tracker-backed plan from the moment it's created.

Run it

construct workflow new engineering-onboarding \
  --input engineer_name="Riley Chen" \
  --input team_name="platform" \
  --input manager_name="Sam Park" \
  --input start_date="2026-06-10"

The CLI prompts for any missing inputs. Each prompt carries a default; press Enter to accept.

What it creates

PathSource templatePurpose
docs/onboarding/\<engineer>/brief.mdtemplates/docs/onboarding.mdDay-1 brief: team, manager, start date, scope of work
docs/onboarding/\<engineer>/access-runbook.mdtemplates/docs/runbook.mdAccess checklist (repos, services, secrets, on-call rotation)
docs/onboarding/\<engineer>/week-1-handoff.mdtemplates/docs/handoff.mdFirst checkpoint: what shipped, what's blocked, who to ask

Every artifact has a stamped intake_id and a cx_doc_id so doctor's traceability check sees it from day one.

Inspect or modify the template

construct workflow show engineering-onboarding
construct workflow list

The YAML lives at templates/workflows/engineering-onboarding.yml. Add or rename input fields, change the artifact list, or swap template paths — construct workflow reads it at invocation, no rebuild needed.

Pair with

  • Track research findings — when onboarding involves bringing the engineer up to speed on a specific area of the codebase or a recent architectural decision.
  • Cross-team handoff — when the new engineer is taking ownership of work in flight from another team.