This onboarding guide helps project contributors get started with the local environment, daily workflow, and CI flow; see the RFCs for design rationale and technical trade-offs.
- Node.js supports 22.19+ and 24+. CI covers 22.19, 24, and 26; see the [Node engine floor RFC](rfc/implemented/process/2026-07-06-node-engine-floor.md).
The install also runs the root `postinstall` script, which installs lefthook from the repo dev dependency through `scripts/install-lefthook.mjs`; the wrapper script uses lefthook's reviewed `--force` mode so linked worktrees with an existing `core.hooksPath` do not fail normal `pnpm run …` commands.
That first typecheck runs the package/vendor build graph and the root no-emit `tsconfig.json` graph for examples, tests, and scripts. The root graph uses the same source `paths` map but relies on project references so vendored code is checked under its own tsconfig settings.
`pnpm run hygiene` includes `publint`, which validates package entrypoints against the built `lib/*.js` files, and `verify-node-next-types`, which validates built declarations against a temporary NodeNext consumer. A fresh worktree has no bundled JS or declarations until `pnpm run build` runs.
`DEEPSEEK_BASE_URL` is optional and defaults to the public API. Never commit real credentials. The real-API e2e suites self-skip when `DEEPSEEK_API_KEY` is not set.
-`pre-push` runs `pnpm run check:pre-push`, whose scheduler runs runtime-closure verification, unit tests, duplication detection, snapshot tests, build, module-graph freshness, and the member gates of `pnpm run hygiene` and `pnpm run doc-sync` concurrently.
The vendor manifest guard checks that changes under `vendor/*/src` are staged with the matching `vendor/README.md` manifest update. See `vendor/README.md` before editing vendored code.
These hooks do not exactly mirror CI. Notably, `pre-push` runs unit tests without coverage, while CI runs `pnpm run test:coverage`; CI also runs echo-agent and built-bin smoke tests and exercises the compatibility matrix on Node 22.19, 24, and 26.
The keyless [CI workflow](../.github/workflows/ci.yml) groups independent gates into broad lanes and runs a smaller compatibility signal across supported Node versions. Artifact consumers wait for one build within their lane. The separate real-API workflow runs `pnpm run test:e2e` with its configured worker bound. See [scripts/run-gates.ts](../scripts/run-gates.ts) and the workflow files for the current gate and job inventory.
When changing package public behavior, update the relevant README or JSDoc in the same change. `pnpm run doc-sync` catches checked TypeScript snippets, generated doc freshness, markdown wrap/link drift, type equivalence, translation pairing, Mermaid syntax, and doc budgets, but broader prose/API sync still needs review.
The coding-agent demo uses pi-tui interactively, falls back to readline for pipes, and needs `DEEPSEEK_API_KEY` in the environment or repo-root `.env`:
Use one of three comment tags to flag known issues in the code, ordered by urgency:
-`FIXME` — an issue that should block a new release. A release should not ship with an open `FIXME` unless reviewers explicitly agree the change can be merged anyway.
-`TODO` — an issue that should be fixed soon, once we have the resources.
-`XXX` — an issue that we may fix someday; lowest priority, no commitment.
Pick the tag that matches the urgency so anyone scanning the code can tell a release blocker from a someday-maybe.
The [core data structures](core-data-structures/core.md) docs paste real type definitions so a reader sees the exact shape. To keep a paste from drifting when source changes, fence it as ` ```ts type-equiv ` (instead of ` ```ts `) and register it in `scripts/type-equiv.manifest.json` with the source file and symbol it mirrors:
`pnpm run verify-type-equiv` (part of `doc-sync`) then extracts that symbol's declaration from source via the TypeScript parser and asserts the block matches it (whitespace- and comment-insensitive, so a doc block may show a clean definition and the prose can carry the semantics). It also enforces a 1:1 correspondence: every `ts type-equiv` block has exactly one manifest entry and vice-versa, so a block can't go silently unchecked and a stale entry can't linger. `doc-typecheck` skips `ts type-equiv` blocks (they aren't standalone-compilable) and excludes them from its opt-out ratio. When you change a documented type, the gate fails until you update the paste; when you add or remove a block, update the manifest in the same change.
Read `docs/architecture.md` before changing anything under `packages/`. The codebase is built around Cordis plugins, event-sourced sessions, typed service seams, and explicit extension points.