Developer Onboarding

Developer onboarding and environment setup.

Getting Started

Welcome to the development team! This guide will help you get up to speed with our codebase, workflows, and team culture. Make sure you’ve checked out our General Onboarding beforehand. Follow the steps below to ensure a smooth onboarding experience.

Prerequisites

Complete these prerequisites before Call 1.

1. GitLab Access Setup

We use GitLab as our primary development and project management platform.

See GitLab Guide for application overview and setup instructions.

Request Repository Access: Share your GitLab username via Element to receive (guest/reporter/developer) access to our codebase
Verify Access: Confirm you can view our project repositories

2. Local Development Environment

Follow Setup Guide: Complete our Environment Setup Guide
Verify Success: Confirm the site loads at localhost:1313 when you run hugo server

3. Documentation Review & Contribution

Explore docs.bwrgy.org: Familiarize yourself with our documentation site
Identify improvements: Look for bugs, missing coding standards, incomplete workflows, or sections needing substantial content
Prepare suggestions: Document your observations and meaningful improvements for discussion in Call 1
Review process: Check our Contributing Guide to understand how to create issues and submit contributions

4. Choose Your Development Path

Take some time to decide on a path that you want to start with that best aligns with your skills and interests. Consider these questions when choosing your path:

What excites you more: building features or designing systems?
Do you prefer hands-on coding or architectural planning?
Are you interested in user-facing features or backend infrastructure?

Aspect	Programmer Path	Engineer Path
Focus	Implementation & Features	Architecture & Design
Responsibilities	Coding, customization, maintenance, debugging	System design, security, integration, scalability
Scope	Specific features, bug fixes, UI/UX improvements	Overall architecture, performance optimization, complex integrations
Required Skills	PHP, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, WordPress themes/plugins	Deep WordPress core knowledge, security best practices, system architecture
Problem Solving	Feature implementation, code debugging, functional issues	Complex technical challenges, performance bottlenecks, security vulnerabilities
Approach	Practical, feature-focused development	Strategic, holistic system thinking
Example Tasks	Custom shortcode development, theme modifications, plugin features	Infrastructure planning, database optimization, security audits

Note: Complete all the above 4 steps before Call 1.

Onboarding Calls

Call 1: Project Introduction & First Assignment

Agenda

Codebase walkthrough, architecture explanation, development workflow, and tools demonstration
Discussion of your contribution path
Discussion of your documentation improvement suggestion
First Assignment: Get assigned to your first issue
Q&A

Goals

Understand team dynamics and communication styles
Get familiar with our development processes
Gain confidence with the codebase structure

Deliverable: Submit your Merge Request (MR) for the assigned issue 72 hours before Call 2.

Call 2: Code Review & Next Steps

Agenda

Comprehensive code review of your first contribution (MR)
Feedback discussion and learning points
Next Assignment: Receive a more complex task aligned with your chosen path
Performance and approach evaluation
Goal setting for upcoming sprints

Goals

Validate code quality and adherence to standards
Identify areas for skill development
Plan your growth trajectory within the team

Questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out via Element.