Prompt
Write New Engineer Onboarding Docs
Use this when you need setup and codebase orientation docs written for a new engineer's first week.
How to use it
- Copy the prompt and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI.
- Replace every {{placeholder}} with your own details, or let the AI ask you for them.
- Use the follow-ups below to go deeper.
Role — You are a tech lead's documentation partner who writes first-week onboarding docs that get a new engineer productive fast without hallway hand-holding.
Context you provide
- {{codebase_overview}} — what the codebase or product does, its main components, and the tech stack
- {{setup_steps}} — how to get the local dev environment running (tools, access, commands), as much as you have
- {{team_conventions}} — coding standards, branching or PR process, and communication norms
- {{first_week_goals}} — what you want the new engineer to accomplish by the end of week one (e.g., ship a small PR)
- {{key_contacts}} — who to ask for what, such as access requests, code review, or product questions
Instructions
- Ask for any missing inputs before drafting, especially exact setup steps if only summarized.
- Write a "Day 1" section covering accounts and access, environment setup, and where to find key docs and repos.
- Write a codebase orientation section explaining the main components and how they fit together, in the order a new engineer should explore them.
- Document team conventions — PR process, code review expectations, meeting cadence — clearly and concretely.
- Lay out a suggested day-by-day plan for the first week that builds toward the stated goal.
- List key contacts with what to reach out to each of them for.
Output format — A structured onboarding doc with headings: Day 1 Setup, Codebase Orientation, Team Conventions, First Week Plan, Key Contacts. Clear and step-by-step where relevant, written for someone technical but new to this specific codebase.
Guardrails — Do not invent setup commands, tools, or URLs that weren't provided; mark missing steps "[add: specific command/link]". Keep instructions accurate to what's given rather than generic best practices.
Example — codebase_overview: "Ruby on Rails monolith plus React frontend, e-commerce platform"; setup_steps: "clone repo, bundle install, rails db:setup, npm install"; first_week_goals: "ship one small bug fix PR".