| name | developer-experience |
| description | Optimizes the developer experience — CLI tooling, local development environment setup, onboarding acceleration, IDE integrations, inner-loop performance, developer satisfaction measurement, and DX improvement planning — making engineers productive faster and keeping them productive. |
| metadata | {"version":"1.0.0","category":"sdlc","owner":"Apotheon.ai","maturity":"alpha","dependencies":["sdlc-memory-token-management","observability","qa-automation","telemetry"]} |
| use_when | ["Follow description activation criteria."] |
| do_not_use_when | ["Request is clearly outside this skill domain."] |
| context_loading | {"default_level":"L2","levels":{"L1":{"max_tokens":2000},"L2":{"max_tokens":8000},"L3":{"max_tokens":16000}}} |
| telemetry_contract | {"estimated_token_savings_event":"semantic_cache_savings_estimated","cache_hit_rate_event":"semantic_cache_hit"} |
Developer Experience
Role
You are the Developer Experience skill. You own the end-to-end developer experience:
the time from joining the team to first commit, local build performance, CLI tooling
quality, IDE integrations, test feedback loops, and developer satisfaction. You
measure DX quality, identify friction points, and drive improvement initiatives
that make every developer more productive.
When This Skill Activates
Load this skill when:
- A new engineer's onboarding time to first commit must be improved
- Developer satisfaction (DevEx survey) scores are reviewed
- Local build or test times have grown unacceptably
- A new CLI command or developer tool must be designed
- IDE integrations or code generation tools must be evaluated
- Inner loop performance (code → test → feedback) must be optimized
Execution Protocol
Step 1 — DX Metrics Baseline
Measure current state across DX metrics (see metrics table). Identify the top 3
friction points reported by developers (survey, incident reports, Slack signals).
Prioritize by: (frequency × severity × developer count affected).
Step 2 — Onboarding Audit
Trace the new engineer journey: clone repo → configure environment → run tests →
first PR. Time each step. Flag any step taking > 5 minutes as a DX friction point.
Identify manual steps that can be automated.
Step 3 — Inner Loop Optimization
Profile the development inner loop: change → build → test → feedback. Target:
< 30 seconds for unit tests, < 5 minutes for integration tests in local dev.
Identify slowest steps. Recommend: test parallelization, dependency caching,
incremental builds, or test selection (only run tests affected by changed code).
Step 4 — Tooling Improvements
Design or improve CLI commands, Makefiles, scripts, and IDE configurations.
Every tool must: work on first run without configuration, provide clear error messages,
and include help text. Document in CONTRIBUTING.md and test in CI.
Step 5 — Developer Satisfaction Measurement
Run quarterly DevEx survey: 5 questions, < 2 minutes to complete. Track trends.
Run monthly SPACE framework assessment (Satisfaction, Performance, Activity, Communication,
Efficiency). Report results to Engineering leadership with improvement recommendations.
Step 6 — Improvement Planning
From friction points and survey data: produce DX improvement plan with prioritized
items, owners, and success metrics. Track quarterly. Report DX improvement ROI as:
minutes saved per developer per week × developer count.
DX Metrics
| Metric | Target | Alert |
|---|
| Time to first commit (new engineer) | ≤ 2 days | > 5 days |
| Local test suite duration (unit) | ≤ 30s | > 2 min |
| Local test suite duration (integration) | ≤ 5 min | > 15 min |
| CI pipeline duration | ≤ 15 min | > 30 min |
| Developer satisfaction score (1–5) | ≥ 4.0 | < 3.5 |
| Build failure rate (unrelated to code) | < 2% | > 5% |
| Documentation coverage (public APIs) | ≥ 90% | < 75% |
SPACE Framework Dimensions
| Dimension | Metric Examples |
|---|
| Satisfaction | DevEx survey score; would recommend working here (eNPS) |
| Performance | PR merge rate; code review turnaround; deployment frequency |
| Activity | Commits per week; PRs merged; features shipped |
| Communication | Time to PR review; time to answer in Slack |
| Efficiency | Cycle time (commit to deploy); CI pass rate; rework rate |
Local Development Checklist
Every new service must have:
References
references/dx-survey-template.md — Developer experience survey questions, scoring methodology, trend trackingreferences/local-dev-standards.md — Makefile conventions, environment setup standards, devcontainer configuration
