Rig Onboard

Rig onboarding

You are onboarding the current working project (the "target") into Rig. Your job is to detect what the project is, agree a project profile with the user, copy in the pieces they want, and leave them with a working, documented setup. Be interactive but efficient — detect aggressively, ask only what you cannot infer.

0. Locate the kit (RIG_DIR)

The kit lives in a directory (RIG_DIR) separate from the target project — you copy files out of it. Resolve RIG_DIR in this order:

1. An explicit local path in the invocation args.
2. This skill's own location (.../rig/skills/rig-onboard/) → RIG_DIR is two

levels up (the repo root that contains skills/, agents/, ci/).

1. ~/dev/rig, then ~/rig.
2. Remote (the zero-setup path). If none of the above exist — which is the

case when the user just pointed you at a GitHub URL for this skill — clone the kit to a temp dir and use that as RIG_DIR:

``bash RIG_DIR="$(mktemp -d)/rig" git clone --depth 1 "$RIG_DIR" ``

Derive ` from the URL you were given: strip any /blob//… or raw.githubusercontent.com/… suffix back to the repo root (e.g. https://github.com/agent-rig/rig). Cloning is strongly preferred over fetching files one-by-one — the kit is ~40 small text files and a shallow clone grabs them all at once. If git` isn't available, fall back to fetching individual raw files as you need them.

Then confirm the resolved RIG_DIR with the user before copying anything. Never copy a file onto itself — if the target project is the kit, stop and say so.

1. Detect the stack (no questions yet)

Read, don't ask. Gather:

• Runtime / package manager: presence of bun.lockb/bunfig.toml → bun;

pnpm-lock.yaml → pnpm; yarn.lock → yarn; package-lock.json → npm; else inspect package.json. Note the monorepo tool (turbo.json, nx.json, workspaces) and package layout (packages/*, apps/*).

• Test command: read package.json scripts (test, test:integration,

test:e2e). Detect whether tests boot a database (docker in test setup, testcontainers, a test-setup.ts preload, a Postgres dep).

• VCS: git remote get-url origin → project.repo; `git symbolic-ref

refs/remotes/origin/HEAD or the default branch → vcs.defaultBranch + vcs.baseRef. Check branch protection / merge queue only if gh` is available.

• Tracker: is a Linear MCP server connected? Do existing branch names /

recent PR titles carry a ticket prefix (e.g. ABC-123)? If neither, default tracker.provider: "none".

• Review bot: scan recent PRs (if gh available) for a bot reviewer

("codex", "claude"). Otherwise review.bot: "none".

• Agent(s) / delivery target: which coding agent does this project use? Map

from repo markers to delivery targets (may be more than one):

• .claude/ or CLAUDE.md → claude-code (native: .claude/skills/,

.claude/agents/).

• AGENTS.md, .agents/, .cursor/, .github/copilot-instructions.md,

GEMINI.md, or .windsurf/ → agents-md (universal: skills land in .agents/skills// — the standard cross-agent "Agent Skills" layout that Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Copilot, and Rovo Dev auto-discover natively, so no per-skill index file is needed; agents/scripts/review patterns stay under .rig/, the same home as the config profile, since nothing else standardizes those; plus a minimal ## Rig pointer block injected into AGENTS.md). If none detected, default to claude-code; if unsure, ask.

• Existing .claude/ or .agents/skills/: note any skills/agents already

present so you can warn before overwriting. Also check for a legacy .rig/skills/*.md flat-file layout from a pre-.agents/skills/ onboarding — see "Re-running" below.

Summarize what you found in a short table before moving on.

2. Fill the profile (ask only the gaps)

Present the detected values and ask the user to confirm or correct. Only surface questions you genuinely couldn't infer. The knobs are defined in RIG_DIR/rig.schema.json and documented in RIG_DIR/docs/config.md; the important ones to settle:

• test.command (+ integration/e2e/requiresDatabase)
• sourceScope (default path skills operate on)
• vcs.baseRef, vcs.defaultBranch, vcs.protectedBranchMergeQueue
• tracker.provider and, if not "none": team, project, ticketPrefix,

githubIntegration

• review.patternsFile, review.bot (+ botRetrigger if a bot)

Do not ask about agents overrides unless the user already has agents with clashing names — the defaults are the kit's own rig- agents.

3. Pick the pieces

Show the menu (from RIG_DIR/README.md) and let the user choose. Recommend a default set based on detection:

• Always useful: rig-debug, rig-tidy, rig-spike, rig-review + agents

rig-debugger, rig-reviewer, rig-architect.

• If a tracker is configured: rig-issue, rig-sprint, rig-epic (the

multi-item integration-branch arc; also works tracker-less via its state file).

• If the project uses PRs / worktrees: rig-worktree, rig-task (the

end-to-end ticket→PR orchestrator; rig-sprint calls it) + agents rig-qa, rig-coder. (rig-review — always useful above — carries both the find gate and the fix loop.)

• CI: offer the workflow templates separately (Step 5) — they're heavier and

need secrets.

4. Write the profile and deliver the skills (per target)

First write the shared, agent-agnostic profile: .rig/config.json in the target from the agreed values (include "$schema" pointing at the kit schema).

Then deliver for each target from Step 1. The mechanical path is RIG_DIR/install.sh --target — you may just run it; or do the copies yourself as below. Either way, never overwrite an existing skill/agent/catalog without diff-and-confirm.

• claude-code: copy chosen RIG_DIR/skills// →

/.claude/skills//; RIG_DIR/agents/*.md → /.claude/agents/; RIG_DIR/scripts/* → /.claude/scripts/ (chmod +x); and starter REVIEWER.md / label-mapping.md → /.claude/ only if absent.

• agents-md: skills are delivered as full directories — copy each chosen

RIG_DIR/skills// → /.agents/skills// (same shape as the claude-code copy, just a different root). This is the location the target agent already scans on its own, so no per-skill index or "read and follow" pointer is written — the agent auto-discovers each skill from its SKILL.md frontmatter description. Everything the standard doesn't cover keeps living under .rig/ (the same dir as the shared config profile, so there's still one rig home for non-skill pieces): agents → /.rig/agents/; scripts → /.rig/scripts/; starter docs (REVIEWER.md, label-mapping.md) → /.rig/ (if absent). Then inject/refresh an idempotent ## Rig section into /AGENTS.md (between ` / markers — replace any existing block, don't duplicate). Keep this block short: a pointer to .rig/config.json for project settings, and a note that subagent-less agents should adopt the .rig/agents/ personas inline — it no longer enumerates skills. Set review.patternsFile in the profile to .rig/REVIEWER.md` for this target.

5. Offer CI (optional, gated on consent)

If the user wants CI, follow RIG_DIR/ci/README.md: copy the chosen workflow files into /.github/workflows/, substitute the parameters from the profile, and print the full list of GitHub secrets/vars each workflow requires so the user can add them. Do not invent secret values. The AI review-bot bundle additionally needs a GitHub App token — do the copy-and-wire yourself, then hand the human docs/auto-fix-app.md (the click-by-click App + secrets setup you can't do for them). See ci/README.md#review-bot-bundle.

6. Verify and summarize

• Sanity-check: .rig/config.json parses; every copied skill's config

references resolve; scripts are executable.

• If the target is a git repo you did not create, do not commit — leave the

changes staged/unstaged for the user to review, and tell them what changed.

• Print a summary: profile written, skills/agents/scripts installed, CI

workflows added (+ required secrets), and 3 suggested first commands to try (e.g. /rig-debug, /rig-review, /rig-tidy).

Re-running

Onboarding is idempotent-ish: re-running detects the existing .rig/config.json, offers to update it, and only copies pieces that are missing or that the user explicitly asks to refresh. Use it to pull kit updates.

Projects onboarded before this change may still have the old flat .rig/skills/.md files and a ## Rig block that lists them by name. Re-running onboarding delivers skills into .agents/skills// and replaces the ## Rig block (it's idempotent between the markers), but it will not delete the old .rig/skills/*.md files on its own — copy_no_clobber and the rest of the install path only ever add files, never remove them. Point this out in your Step 1 summary and Step 6 wrap-up, and — because you're interactive and a human is present to confirm — offer to delete the now-dead .rig/skills/ directory for them. Don't delete it silently, and don't do this from install.sh (non-interactive, no consent to delete).

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: agent-rig
• Source: agent-rig/rig
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.