GenCr@ft Studio newcomer onboarding

GenCr@ft is building Aethel, a multiplayer voxel RPG creative platform. Start from one workspace, run the onboarding script, and land in repositories where you can make a first contribution.

Get started Open gcs-plt-tools
Target for a new contributor

Under one hour, fewer than five shell commands, one bounded workspace, and a local folder with the right repositories for the first task.

Before you start

You need two things before running the quickstart. The onboarding script checks everything else and guides you through any missing tools.

  1. A GitHub account and GenCr-ft org membership. The script clones repositories from the GenCr-ft org. If you have not been added yet, ask your team lead or request access at github.com/orgs/GenCr-ft/discussions.
  2. A terminal with bash and curl. Linux, macOS, and WSL2 on Windows all qualify. The script detects your package manager and helps you install any missing tools.

Quickstart

One command. It installs prerequisites, signs you in to GitHub (one-time device code), clones the tools, and sets up your workspace. If nobody assigned one yet, start with aethel. See what the one command does for the full step-by-step.

Linux, macOS, or WSL

# Interactive — pick your workspace when prompted:
curl -fsSL https://gencr-ft.github.io/onboard.sh | bash

# Or name the workspace up front (non-interactive):
curl -fsSL https://gencr-ft.github.io/onboard.sh | bash -s -- --workspace aethel

Windows (PowerShell with WSL2)

# In your WSL2 Ubuntu shell, run the same one-liner:
curl -fsSL https://gencr-ft.github.io/onboard.sh | bash -s -- --workspace aethel

What the one command does

You only ever run the curl line above. Under the hood it runs in two phases: a small, secretless bootstrap that installs the shared tooling, then a hand-off to the gft onboard CLI that sets up your chosen workspace. Here is the exact sequence.

Phase 1 — Bootstrap

Run by curl -fsSL https://gencr-ft.github.io/onboard.sh | bash

  1. Installs any missing prerequisites (git, curl, gh, python3).
  2. Signs you in to GitHub with a one-time device code (skipped if you are already authenticated) — no secrets are stored by the script.
  3. Clones the studio’s shared tooling (gcs-plt-tools, gcs-plt-gemop, gcs-core-governance) into ~/.gft-studio at a pinned release tag.
  4. Installs the global gft CLI onto your PATH.
  5. Hands off to Phase 2: exec gft onboard --workspace <id>.

Phase 2 — gft onboard

The CLI that sets up your workspace

  1. Per-user machine setup: configures your global Git identity, generates an SSH key, and puts ~/.local/bin on your PATH.
  2. Clones your workspace’s repositories into <current-folder>/<workspace>/ — next to where you ran the command, never a fixed home.
  3. Generates <workspace>.code-workspace listing those repositories.
  4. Installs VS Code if it is missing (from the official Microsoft source) plus the workspace’s pinned recommended extensions.
  5. Deploys a per-workspace .claude/ (agents and skills) for AI assistance.
  6. Runs a workspace health check so you know the setup is sound.

Re-running the command is safe — every step is idempotent, so nothing already in place is re-cloned or overwritten. You can opt out of individual steps with --no-machine-setup, --no-editor, or --no-extensions. When it finishes, open your workspace with code <workspace>.code-workspace and run gft doctor to confirm everything is healthy.

Local Walking Skeleton Integration

Once your workspace is synced, you can boot the complete authoritative game backend locally in under two minutes.

Run the canonical entrypoint script from the root directory of your workspace:

./run-walking-skeleton.sh

This script performs pre-flight checks, generates RS256 cryptographic keys, starts local Postgres & Redis instances via Docker, builds the authoritative packages (voxel engine), and boots the auth and game server simulation engines.

To connect the Godot client, run ../Godot_v4.5-stable_linux.x86_64 --path gcp-aethel-client and login using dev@aethel.local / Password1!.

Choose A Workspace

Use one of these exact workspace ids with --workspace.

aethel

Game client, authoritative server, PCG, authentication, persistence, and Aethel backlog work.

gft-platform

Platform CLI and architecture, studio governance, handbooks, security, legal, project management, and this website.

onboarding

CI, onboarding automation, governance linters, shared GitHub Actions, and infrastructure.

agent-ecosystem

Gem operations, agent blueprints, skills, prompts, communication protocols, and automation.

Where This Sends You

The one command runs in two phases: it first installs prerequisites and the studio's shared tooling — including the gft CLI — into ~/.gft-studio, then hands off to gft onboard, which clones the repositories for your selected workspace into a folder next to where you ran it and sets up your editor and AI assistants.