Dev Setup

Get a repo from git clone to "builds + tests green" reproducibly, so no one debugs their environment mid-ticket.

Steps

1. Read the project's context.md for the toolchain, versions, and commands. Don't guess the package manager or test runner — the project declares them.
2. Pin the toolchain. Use the version manager the repo specifies (.nvmrc, .tool-versions, .python-version, etc.). Mismatched runtimes cause phantom failures.
3. Install dependencies with the project's lockfile-respecting command (npm ci, uv sync, pnpm i --frozen-lockfile, …). Don't run an installer that rewrites the lockfile — that churn is not your change.
4. Configure env. Copy .env.example → .env (or the documented path) and fill in local values. Secrets come from the documented local source, never from a prod path.
5. Build. Run the build once; fix setup issues, not code.
6. Verify the baseline. Run the test suite. Note the known-good baseline (some suites have a small set of accepted-failing tests) so later you can tell a regression from noise.

Guardrails

• If a setup step's docs mention a prod path (a prod DB, prod secrets), that's not permission to use it — set up against local/dev only.
• Don't commit machine-generated churn (rebuilt lockfile entries, editor files). Restore it with git checkout before you start real work.

Done when: the app builds and the test suite runs to its known baseline from a clean checkout.