Onboard to an AI-native codebase
The fast start for everyone joining an AI-native codebase: apply the non-negotiable floor every human and agent obeys, inherit a repository's complete ruleset through the project baseline, work the propose-only request lifecycle, and open your first signed, Conventional-Commit pull request. This is the Tier-0 entry point every role track builds on. Cogitave's own codebase is the worked example throughout.
Modules4
Duration92 min
Levelbeginner
Prerequisites
- Basic familiarity with Git and the command line.
- No prior experience with an AI-native codebase required.
Modules in this path
- Apply a non-negotiable floor An AI-native org runs on a small floor every human and agent obeys. Study Cogitave's floor - its seven non-negotiable rules and what enforces each, from a commit-msg hook to policy-as-code - then apply a floor like it to your own first change.
- Inherit the project baseline How a new repository is born on the paved road with its whole ruleset already inherited, how to tell always-on standards from the ones a product type pulls in, and how to find an existing pattern before writing anything new.
- Work the request lifecycle Move a change through the seven-stage request lifecycle, understand why the write tools only propose, and read the Definition of Done that decides when a request is actually done rather than merely worked on.
- Open your first pull request Apply an AI-native org's floor, its inherited baseline, and the request lifecycle in one hands-on contribution - a signed, Conventional-Commit, docs-complete pull request that passes the gates and stops for human review.
Related
- Navigate the patterns catalog Find the canonical answer to "how does your org do X" in a patterns catalog, read an entry's five fixed sections without confusing the pointer for the policy, and run the discover-before-you-build loop so you start every new piece of work from a named artifact instead of a blank file.
- Reuse-first engineering Explain why AI-assisted development diverges without a counter-force, state the discover-before-generate hard rule and what enforces it, and justify a from-scratch decision the way ADR-0003 requires - as a reasoned exception, not a default.
- Use the decision guides Learn the shared shape behind an AI-native org's database-selection, infrastructure-selection, and model-selection guides - a default, a decision tree, and an ADR-gated deviation rule - and walk a real workload to a justified, recorded choice.