Onboard

Set up your environment for agentic TypeScript development and get oriented to how AEP thinks. Phase 0 points you to the mental-model tour; Phases 1–5 install AEP, verify tools, and configure AEP's project guardrails. Run once on first setup — returning users re-verifying their environment can skip Phase 0 and start at Phase 1.

Phase 0 — Orient Yourself (first-timers only)

Returning user? If you've run /aep-onboard before and are just re-verifying your environment, skip to Phase 1.

AEP is not a command runner — it's a workflow that separates thinking (what to build, decided with the AI on the control plane) from doing (agents building to precise specs on the execution plane), communicating only through structured artifacts (product-context.yaml, signal files in .dev-workflow/signals/) rather than shared code context. Installing the tools without that model leaves you staring at a blank terminal unsure which skill to run first.

Read the installed orientation guide — the self-contained 10-minute first-hour tour: the three mental models (control vs execution plane, the Jeff Patton story map, the two-session main/workspace model), what every skill does, and the four concrete paths (new product / existing project / single feature / hands-free).

Done when: you've read orientation.md and can name which of the four paths in "Next Steps — Pick Your Path" (below) matches your situation. Then continue to Phase 1.

Phase 1 — Install the Plugin