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

System Philosophy & Design Principles

— What invariants does the system maintain? What were the key design choices and why?

Architecture Overview

— Component map with Mermaid diagram. What owns what, communication patterns.

Key Abstractions & Interfaces

— The load-bearing abstractions everything depends on

Decision Log

— Major architectural decisions with context, alternatives considered, trade-offs

Dependency Rationale

— Why each major dependency was chosen, what it replaced

Data Flow & State

— How data moves through the system (traced from actual code, not guessed)

Failure Modes & Error Handling

— What breaks, how errors propagate, recovery patterns

Performance Characteristics

— Bottlenecks, scaling limits, hot paths

Security Model

— Auth, authorization, trust boundaries, data sensitivity

Testing Strategy

— What's tested, what isn't, testing philosophy

Operational Concerns

— Deployment, monitoring, feature flags, configuration

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 What This Project Does — 2-3 sentence elevator pitch Prerequisites — Tools, versions, accounts needed Environment Setup — Step-by-step with exact commands, expected output at each step Project Structure — Annotated directory tree (what lives where and why) Your First Task — End-to-end walkthrough of adding a simple feature Development Workflow — Branch strategy, commit conventions, PR process Running Tests — How to run tests, what to test, how to add a test Debugging Guide — Common issues and how to diagnose them Key Concepts — Domain-specific terminology explained with code examples Code Patterns — "If you want to add X, follow this pattern" templates Common Pitfalls — Mistakes every new contributor makes and how to avoid them Where to Get Help — Communication channels, documentation, key contacts Glossary — Terms used in the codebase that aren't obvious 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.