Onboarding Devs Checklist

A chronological ramp-up from clone to first merged PR for new (or new-to-this-system) Rust engineers.

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

Pre-file access: GitHub org, CI, cloud console (read-only staging), error tracker, docs wiki.
Send README + onboarding doc link: Canonical docs/onboarding.md with owner name.
Assign buddy: Named peer with daily 15-minute check-in week 1.
Dev environment template: Documented rustup 1.97.0 + editor setup.
First ticket ready: Good first issue scoped to 1-2 files with clear acceptance criteria.

Phase 2 - Day 1

Clone and bootstrap: git clone, cargo test -q green per Toolchain Setup Checklist.
Run service locally: cargo run or make run; hit /health with curl.
IDE setup: rust-analyzer, rustfmt on save, clippy diagnostics enabled.
Meet the team: 30-minute architecture overview - crates, data stores, deploy cadence.
Read codebase orientation: Codebase Orientation with buddy Q&A.

Phase 3 - Week 1

Trace one request end-to-end: HTTP route to DB and back - draw personal diagram.
Read conventions: Conventions & Style Guide.
Shadow code review: Buddy walks one open PR - expectations from Code Review Guidelines.
First PR merged: Small real change (test, doc, clippy fix) - not a throwaway branch.
Log doc gaps: Every "I had to ask" becomes PR to onboarding doc same week.

Phase 4 - Ongoing (30-90 Days)

On-call shadow (if applicable): Pair on staging incident or simulated drill.
Own a small feature: Ticket sized 2-3 days with design note if needed.
Present learning: 5-minute demo on one subsystem discovered.
Contribute to rust-rules or ADR: Propose one clarification from onboarding confusion.
Feedback retro: New hire + buddy + manager - update this checklist.

FAQs

Senior hire skip checklist?

Compress timeline but still run access, architecture, and conventions.

Remote onboarding?

Same checklist - add timezone overlap and recorded architecture walkthrough.

Stack versions: This page was written for Rust 1.97.0 (edition 2024), Tokio 1.x, Axum 0.8, serde 1.0, sqlx 0.8, clap 4, and Polars 0.46+.

Phase 1 - Before They Arrive

Pre-file access: GitHub org, CI, cloud console (read-only staging), error tracker, docs wiki.

Send README + onboarding doc link: Canonical docs/onboarding.md with owner name.

Assign buddy: Named peer with daily 15-minute check-in week 1.

Dev environment template: Documented rustup 1.97.0 + editor setup.

First ticket ready: Good first issue scoped to 1-2 files with clear acceptance criteria.

Phase 2 - Day 1

Clone and bootstrap: git clone, cargo test -q green per Toolchain Setup Checklist.

Run service locally: cargo run or make run; hit /health with curl.

IDE setup: rust-analyzer, rustfmt on save, clippy diagnostics enabled.

Meet the team: 30-minute architecture overview - crates, data stores, deploy cadence.

Read codebase orientation: Codebase Orientation with buddy Q&A.

Phase 3 - Week 1

Trace one request end-to-end: HTTP route to DB and back - draw personal diagram.

Read conventions: Conventions & Style Guide.

Shadow code review: Buddy walks one open PR - expectations from Code Review Guidelines.

First PR merged: Small real change (test, doc, clippy fix) - not a throwaway branch.

Log doc gaps: Every "I had to ask" becomes PR to onboarding doc same week.

Phase 4 - Ongoing (30-90 Days)

On-call shadow (if applicable): Pair on staging incident or simulated drill.

Own a small feature: Ticket sized 2-3 days with design note if needed.

Present learning: 5-minute demo on one subsystem discovered.

Contribute to rust-rules or ADR: Propose one clarification from onboarding confusion.

Feedback retro: New hire + buddy + manager - update this checklist.

Onboarding Devs Checklist

Buscar en la documentación

Onboarding Devs Checklist