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Write docs a new developer can follow on day one
Give it the codebase. Get an architecture read, a README with decisions, a quickstart and a first-run test.
Write docs a new developer can follow on day one is a free AI workflow for the job "Write down how work gets done". It guides your AI through several skills in order, passing each step's output to the next.
Free · No account · Made by AI Blocks · Thinking: high
What it does
Most codebases have a README that was true on day one and a set of decisions that live in one person's head. A new developer spends their first week asking that person, who is also the person with the least time. This workflow writes the docs a newcomer actually needs, then proves they work. It reads the codebase and describes how it is built: the parts, how they talk, where things live. It interviews you for the decisions behind the structure and records them in the README, so nobody reverses one by accident. It writes an onboarding guide to the code and a quickstart that gets to a running app. Then it follows the quickstart on a clean setup, as a newcomer would, and reports every step that breaks or assumes knowledge, so you fix them before the new developer starts.
You give it
- The codebase, in a folder the AI can open
- Fifteen minutes to answer questions about the decisions behind it
- Who the new developer is and what they already know
- Your current README and docs, if any (optional)
- A buyer brief (optional)
You get
- An architecture read: the parts, how they talk and where things live
- A README that records the decisions and their reasons
- An onboarding guide to the code and a quickstart to a running app
- A first-run test report with every step that broke
Use it when
- Someone starts in two weeks and the README is two years old.
- You are the only person who knows why the code is shaped this way.
- Your last new developer took a month to run the app.
Steps
- Codebase architecture reviewer: Point it at your code. Get an HTML report of design improvements, then work through the one you pick.
- README and decision interviewer: Answer a few quick questions at a time. Get a README and short decision records that hold your plans.
- Codebase onboarding guide writer: Point it at a codebase. Get two guides that take a new engineer from first day to deep knowledge.
- Developer quickstart writer: Describe your product. Get a quickstart, tutorial and sample app plan that gets a developer to Hello World fast.
- README first-run tester: Point it at a project. Get each README step marked working or broken, with proof, and the edits that fix it.
How to use it
- Download the handoff pack. It's a zip with HANDOFF.md and every skill file this workflow uses.
- Give the folder to Claude (in Claude Code, or as files in a Claude Project) and say "Follow HANDOFF.md".
- Open the codebase in Claude Code and start. It reads the architecture and asks you about the decisions.
- Read the guide and the quickstart. Fix anything that is wrong about your setup.
- Read the first-run report and fix every broken step before the new developer starts.