---
name: Onboard
slug: onboard-2
category: DevOps
description: Onboard links a project to a Pad workspace, activates the onboarding playbook, and runs the workspace setup flow. Use it when a project needs Pad authentication, workspace initialization, or first-time bootstrapping.
github: "https://github.com/PerpetualSoftware/pad/tree/main/plugin/skills/onboard"
language: Go
stars: 169
forks: 22
install: "npx degit https://github.com/PerpetualSoftware/pad/tree/main/plugin/skills/onboard ~/.claude/skills/onboard"
installs_to: ~/.claude/skills/onboard
source_path: plugin/skills/onboard/SKILL.md
collection_size: 7
category_size: 1075
collection_url: "https://dirskills.com/collections/PerpetualSoftware/pad"
added: 2026-09-08T05:34:04.755Z
last_synced: 2026-09-08T05:34:04.755Z
canonical_url: "https://dirskills.com/skills/onboard-2"
---

# Onboard

Onboard links a project to a Pad workspace, activates the onboarding playbook, and runs the workspace setup flow. Use it when a project needs Pad authentication, workspace initialization, or first-time bootstrapping.

**Install:**

```bash
npx degit https://github.com/PerpetualSoftware/pad/tree/main/plugin/skills/onboard ~/.claude/skills/onboard
```

## README

Set this project up with Pad. If `pad` is not on PATH, give the install one-liner
from https://getpad.dev/install and stop.

If no `.pad.toml` exists, first run `pad auth whoami` (fast and safe: in
non-interactive use — which is where you run — it returns immediately rather
than waiting on input, and it works regardless of workspace-link state) to
check whether this machine is already configured and authenticated:
- If it reports a real user, it's safe to self-heal: run `pad workspace init`
  (a name/`--template` are optional) to link and create the workspace
  non-interactively.
- If it reports "not configured," "session expired," or anything other than a
  real user, this machine hasn't finished setup yet. Do **not** run `pad init`
  or `pad workspace init` yourself — `pad workspace init` now fails fast,
  non-interactively, with an actionable error instead of hanging
  (BUG-2538/BUG-2577): "not been initialized yet" pointing at `pad auth
  setup`, or "not authenticated" pointing at `pad auth login`. That error
  still means only a human at an interactive terminal can finish it, so
  running it yourself just spends a tool call confirming what `pad auth
  whoami` already told you. (With both stdin AND stdout attached to a real
  terminal it instead drops into the browser auth flow, now bounded at 20
  minutes wall-clock — not a state your tool call is ever in.) `pad init` is
  not a safer probe either: verified live, it fails fast when stdin/stdout
  aren't terminals in both states — genuinely unconfigured, and (since
  BUG-2592) the session-expired sub-case of configured-but-unauthenticated —
  with the same real-terminal caveat as above, so probing it tells you
  nothing `pad auth whoami` didn't. Tell the user to run `pad
  init` themselves in an interactive terminal — in Claude Code, suggest they
  type `! pad init` to run it directly in their own terminal.
  Stop here; there's nothing more this skill can do until that completes.

Once linked, run `pad bootstrap --format json`, then **run the onboard
playbook — do not improvise your own setup script.** The playbook is
workspace-owned and user-editable (PLAN-1496's adaptation posture): a team
that has rewritten theirs must get their version from every surface,
including this shortcut. Three steps, in this order:

1. **Ensure the playbook is active.** Check the bootstrap's `playbooks`
   array for `invocation_slug=onboard, status=active`. If instead an
   onboard entry exists in a non-active status (draft/deprecated),
   REACTIVATE it in place (`pad item update PLAYB-N --field
   status=active`) — `invocation_slug` is workspace-unique, so library
   activation next to an existing entry creates a duplicate or fails on
   the slug. Only when no onboard playbook exists at all, activate from
   the library: `pad library activate "Onboard a workspace"` (activate
   takes the exact library title; `pad library list` shows it), or the
   Web UI's Playbooks → Library.

2. **Load the body and follow it — it IS the script:**

   ```bash
   pad playbook show onboard --format markdown
   ```

3. **Let its mode detection route, and frame `needs_onboarding`
   honestly.** The playbook's `mode` argument is `auto` (default),
   `build`, `audit`, or `revisit`, plus a separate `defaults` flag that
   fast-paths the interview. `auto` sends a workspace with ANY
   user-created item to `revisit` — and `needs_onboarding: false` means
   exactly that one fact, NOT that onboarding ever ran. So when it's
   false, say what exists (collections, active conventions from
   `convention_index`), and if the user says the workspace was never
   really set up, pass an explicit `mode=build` or `mode=audit` — the
   playbook honors the override — rather than expecting `auto` to pick
   the fuller pass, and rather than declaring setup complete yourself.

Create items only after the user confirms the shape — the same
confirm-before-creating rule as everywhere else.