onboard

name	onboard
description	Set up or verify this repo's R-based replication environment. Use when Claude needs to check R, compiler tools, required packages, data files, or fast backend readiness before running the paper.
argument-hint

Environment Onboarding

Read these sources in order:

1. AGENTS.md
2. docs/agent-context/replication-onboarding.md
3. docs/manifests/data-files.csv
4. docs/manifests/data-sources.csv
5. docs/validation/validated_runs.csv
6. tools/bootstrap_system.sh (installs R, build tools, system libraries)
7. tools/bootstrap_packages.R
8. tools/bootstrap_data.R
9. tools/bootstrap_latex.R
10. tools/doctor.R
11. tools/rebuild_fast_backends.* (platform wrappers that compile the C++ backends)

Use When

• a new machine needs to be prepared for the repo
• R, build tools, packages, or data readiness is unclear
• the fast C++ backends may be missing or broken
• a run fails before estimation because the environment is incomplete

Do Not Use When

• the task is to explain the paper or trace a table or figure
• the environment is already ready and the task is to run or debug a pipeline step
• the task is a code edit unrelated to environment setup

Inputs

• repo root access
• current platform and shell context
• optional user preference for install versus check-only behavior

Outputs

• resolved Rscript path
• package readiness summary
• canonical data bootstrap status
• required-data readiness summary, including tracked IA clone data
• fast-backend readiness summary
• exact next blocking dependency, if any

Workflow

Steps must be executed in order. Each step depends on the previous one completing successfully. Do not skip ahead — for example, do not attempt Rscript commands before step 2 confirms R is installed.

Audit-only shortcut: If the user only wants to verify readiness (not install), skip to step 8 and run tools/doctor.R --check-only.

1. Print Scanning your environment... before starting.
2. Check whether Rscript is on PATH by running which Rscript && Rscript --version (Unix) or the PowerShell resolver. If R is not found, install it automatically — do NOT stop and tell the user to install it manually. On Linux/macOS, run bash tools/bootstrap_system.sh which detects the platform and installs R, build tools, and system libraries via the native package manager (apt on Ubuntu/Debian, dnf on Fedora, brew on macOS). On Windows, run powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File tools/bootstrap_system.ps1 which installs R and Rtools via winget. The user only needs to approve prompts. After the script completes, run hash -r (bash) to refresh PATH, then verify Rscript --version works before proceeding. On macOS, if the script exits with status 1 mentioning Xcode Command Line Tools, wait for the user to accept the GUI dialog, then re-run the script.
3. Use tools/bootstrap_packages.R or the platform wrapper to install missing packages. The script prints per-package progress with [N/total] format — read stdout directly for progress. Do NOT spawn monitor agents or background watchers. Wait for the script to complete. On Linux, the script auto-detects Posit Package Manager (PPM) for pre-compiled binaries. If packages fail: the script writes a diagnostic log to tools/bootstrap_packages.log. Read this log, diagnose the root cause (usually missing system -dev libraries), install the missing system deps via bash tools/bootstrap_system.sh or targeted sudo apt install, then re-run bootstrap_packages.R. Common failure patterns:
   • cmake: command not found → sudo apt install cmake
   • fftw3.h: No such file → sudo apt install libfftw3-dev
   • nlopt.h: No such file → sudo apt install libnlopt-dev
   • uv.h: No such file → sudo apt install libuv1-dev Do NOT report failures to the user without first attempting to fix them. Diagnose, fix, re-run.
4. Use docs/manifests/data-files.csv and docs/manifests/data-sources.csv to determine whether missing required files are covered by the canonical public bundle.
5. If bundle-managed required files are missing, run tools/bootstrap_data.R or the platform wrapper instead of telling the user to place files manually.
6. Treat ia/data/w_all.rds as required tracked clone data; if it is missing, report an incomplete checkout rather than optional external data.
7. If the task is full setup (not audit-only), run tools/bootstrap_latex.R to ensure LaTeX is available for PDF compilation. If the user indicates they don't need PDF output, skip this step. The script installs TinyTeX automatically if no system LaTeX is found, and pre-installs all required LaTeX packages.
8. Run tools/doctor.R or tools/doctor.ps1 to verify packages, data, toolchain visibility, and fast backend readiness.
9. Rebuild the fast backends when the doctor reports a backend problem or when this is the first setup on a new machine.
10. Use docs/validation/validated_runs.csv to distinguish maintainer-validated boundaries from commands that are merely documented.
11. Summarize whether the repo is ready for the main paper pipeline, the IA smoke boundary, and final PDF builds.

Example Prompts

• "Set this repo up on a new Windows machine."
• "Set this repo up from a fresh clone. Install packages, download the canonical public data bundle, validate readiness, and rebuild the fast backends if needed."
• "Why does this repo fail before estimation starts?"
• "Check whether my machine is ready to run the paper."

Critical Principle

Never tell the user to install something manually if it can be installed automatically. The onboarding flow must exhaust all automated options before asking the user to act. The user approving a sudo prompt is acceptable; the user copy-pasting install commands is not.

Failure Boundaries

• if R is missing: run bash tools/bootstrap_system.sh to install it automatically (do NOT tell the user to install it)
• if R is missing AND bootstrap_system.sh fails: report the exact error from the script output, not generic advice
• if the compiler toolchain is missing on Linux: bootstrap_system.sh installs build-essential, gfortran, and all -dev libraries automatically
• if no writable R library is available: bootstrap_packages.R creates one automatically
• stop if required data files are missing rather than guessing substitutes
• stop if tracked required clone data such as ia/data/w_all.rds is missing
• on Windows: if winget is not available AND R cannot be found, inform the user to download from CRAN as a last resort
• do not hardcode machine-local paths into repo files