Skip to main content

Quick Start for Developers

This guide gets you from zero to a working ai-meta setup in 10 minutes.

1. Clone and Initialize​

git clone [email protected]:noetl/ai-meta.git
cd ai-meta
git submodule update --init --recursive

This gives you all 12 NoETL repos checked out at their pinned SHAs.

2. Verify the State​

git submodule status --recursive

Every line should show a clean SHA with the submodule path. No + prefix (that means uncommitted changes).

3. Read the Current Memory​

cat memory/current.md

This tells you what the team is working on right now — active priorities, recent decisions, and pointers to the latest compactions.

For recent uncompacted work, check the inbox:

ls memory/inbox/

4. Set Up Your AI Agent​

Claude Code​

Nothing to configure. CLAUDE.md is auto-loaded. Rules are auto-loaded from .claude/rules/ (symlinked to agents/rules/). Skills (/memory-add, /memory-compact, /sync-note, /bump-pointer) are available immediately.

GitHub Copilot​

Instructions auto-load from .github/copilot-instructions.md.

Cursor​

Instructions auto-load from .cursorrules.

Any Other Agent​

Point it to AGENTS.md first, then agents/rules/ for rules and agents/profiles/ for the behavioral profile.

5. Make Your First Memory Entry​

Record a decision, investigation result, or work session:

./scripts/memory_add.sh "my-first-entry" "Explored the gateway auth flow and found X" "gateway,auth"

This creates a timestamped file in memory/inbox/. The author is auto-detected from your git config.

Commit it:

git add memory/inbox
git commit -m "memory(add): my-first-entry"
git push

6. Make a Cross-Repo Change​

When your work touches multiple repos:

# 1. Work inside the submodule
cd repos/noetl
git checkout -b fix/something
# ... make changes, test ...
git commit -am "fix: something"
git push -u origin fix/something
# Open PR, get it reviewed, merge it

# 2. Back in ai-meta, bump the pointer
cd ../..
git submodule update --remote repos/noetl
git add repos/noetl
git commit -m "chore(sync): bump noetl to $(cd repos/noetl && git rev-parse --short HEAD)"
git push

7. Write a Sync Note​

For multi-repo changes, create a sync note:

cp sync/TEMPLATE.md sync/issues/$(date +%Y-%m-%d)-my-topic.md
# Edit the file: fill in repos, PRs, SHAs, follow-ups
git add sync/issues/
git commit -m "chore(sync): add sync note for my-topic"
git push

Or if using Claude Code, just run /sync-note "my-topic".

8. End of Day​

Capture what you learned:

./scripts/memory_add.sh "end-of-day" "Summary of decisions and next steps" "tag1,tag2"
git add memory/inbox
git commit -m "memory(add): end-of-day"
git push

If the inbox has accumulated many entries, compact them:

./scripts/memory_compact.sh
git add memory
git commit -m "memory(compact): $(date +%Y-%m-%d)"
git push

Available Skills (Claude Code Slash Commands)​

CommandWhat It Does
/memory-add "title" "summary" "tags"Create and commit a memory entry
/memory-compactCompact inbox entries into a summary
/sync-note "topic"Create a sync note from the template
/bump-pointer "repo"Update a submodule pointer after upstream merge

Rules to Follow​

All rules are in agents/rules/. The essentials:

  • Public repo — never commit secrets, tokens, or credentials
  • No product code — only instructions, memory, sync notes, pointer bumps
  • Append-only memory — never delete or overwrite inbox entries
  • Never rewrite history on main
  • Atomic pointer bumps — one logical change per commit
  • Use commit conventions: memory(add):, memory(compact):, memory(curate):, chore(sync):, docs(agents):

Next Steps​