Onboarding Devs Checklist

A chronological ramp-up from clone to first merged PR for new (or new-to-this-system) Python engineers - ordered before arrival, day 1, week 1, and ongoing.

How to Use This Checklist

• Walk items in timeline order - earlier items unblock later ones.
• The buddy owns ticking boxes with the new dev, not for them.
• Hit required floor before day 2; ceiling items polish week 1.
• Any item exceeding allotted time is a tooling or docs bug - fix for the next hire.

Phase 1 - Before They Arrive

1. Pre-file access: GitHub org, CI, cloud console (read-only staging), error tracker, docs wiki - access is the top day-one blocker.
2. Send README + onboarding doc link: Canonical doc in repo docs/onboarding.md with owner name.
3. Assign buddy: Named peer (not manager) with daily 15-minute check-in week 1.
4. Hardware or cloud dev environment: Laptop image or Codespaces template with Python 3.14 + uv documented.
5. First ticket ready: "Good first issue" scoped to 1-2 files with clear acceptance criteria.

Phase 2 - Day 1

6. Clone and bootstrap: git clone, uv sync, uv run pytest -q green per Environment Setup Checklist.
7. Run app locally: uv run uvicorn app.main:app --reload or make run - hit /health in browser or curl.
8. IDE extensions: Python, Ruff, mypy/pyright per team standard; format on save enabled.
9. Meet the team: Architecture 30-minute overview - monolith vs services, main data stores, deploy cadence.
10. Read codebase orientation: Codebase Orientation with buddy Q&A.

Phase 3 - Week 1

11. Trace one request end-to-end: Follow HTTP route to DB and back - draw personal diagram.
12. Read conventions: Conventions & Style Guide - ruff rules, commit format.
13. Shadow code review: Buddy walks one open PR - what reviewers expect (Code Review Guidelines).
14. First PR merged: Small real change (doc fix, test addition, typo in error message) - not a throwaway branch.
15. Log doc gaps: Every "I had to ask" becomes PR to onboarding doc same week.

Phase 4 - Ongoing (30-90 Days)

16. On-call shadow (if applicable): Pair on staging incident or simulated fire drill.
17. Own a small feature: Ticket sized 2-3 days with design note if needed.
18. Present learning: 5-minute demo or doc on one subsystem discovered.
19. Contribute to python-rules or ADR: Propose one rule clarification from confusion during onboarding.
20. Feedback retro: New hire + buddy + manager - what to add/remove from this checklist.

Applying the Checklist in Order

• Phase 1-2 (1-10): Access and green local tests before expecting code contributions.
• Phase 3 (11-15): First merged PR proves the pipeline works for this human, not just CI.
• Phase 4 (16-20): Ownership and feedback close the loop for the next hire.

FAQs

Related

• Environment Setup Checklist - tooling
• Codebase Orientation - structure
• Team Best Practices - team norms
• Git Configuration - git setup

Stack versions: This page was written for Python 3.14.0 (stable 3.14, maintenance 3.13), FastAPI 0.115+, Django 5.2, Flask 3.1, Pydantic 2, PyTorch 2.6+, pandas 2.2+, Polars 1.x, ruff 0.9+, and uv 0.6+.