Onboard a repo

Quickstart

Onboard one repository, see what it changed, and understand what happens on its next pull request. Ten minutes, and nothing is blocked at the end of it.

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redlinegate@0.1.3 is the version on npm's latest tag. Every command on this page installs it.

1. See the plan before anything is written

Run this from inside the repository you want to onboard. It writes nothing, contacts no host, and needs no credential — so it is safe on a repository you do not own.

terminal
$ npx redlinegate@latest init --dry-run

It prints the profile it detected, every file it would write, and every host setting it would apply. If the profile is wrong, pass --profile — one name, or several separated by commas (web,infra) when the repository is more than one. See Profiles & stacks.

2. Onboard

terminal
$ npx redlinegate@latest init

With no flags, at a terminal, this asks before it writes: which standards apply, where the repository lives, what runs your pull request checks, which assistants should read the rules, what to install and how hard the gate should bite. Whatever it detected is preselected, so pressing enter through it takes step 1's plan. The last question offers Dry run again before Apply. In CI, in a pipe, or with any flag present it asks nothing.

Choose Apply and you get a pull request containing:

  • The standard, rendered for whichever AI tools this repository uses — your own content above every REDLINE:BEGIN marker is never touched.
  • A thin caller workflow that runs the merge gate.
  • A pull request template carrying the readiness checklist and an empty exemption block — written only where your host would resolve none. A template you already have is reported, not edited.
  • .redline.json, recording what was chosen so a re-run reconciles rather than reinstalls.
ℹ

Nothing blocks yet. A fresh repository starts at the observe rung: findings are produced, commented and recorded, and no merge is stopped. The exception is the security floor — dependency review and the secret scan block from day one, at every rung.

3. Check it actually took

terminal
$ npx redlinegate@latest verify

One line per check, read back from the host rather than from your config: ok, FAIL, or ?? for something that could not be checked. A ?? is never a pass — Troubleshooting has what each answer obliges you to do.

4. Try it on your own change

terminal
$ npx redlinegate@latest review --staged

Reviewing before you push applies only the rules matching the files you changed. It enforces nothing and is not recorded — it is there to shorten the loop, not to add a gate.