Define Developer Experience

Objective

Define IDE setup, code quality tooling, local debugging approach, onboarding flow, and inner loop speed targets.

Decisions to Make

1. IDE Setup

• Recommended IDE: VS Code, PyCharm, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.
• Extensions/plugins: Which are required? Which are recommended?
• Workspace settings: Shared .vscode/settings.json or .idea/ config
• Debug configurations: Launch configs for backend, frontend, tests
• AI assistant config: MCP server configuration for Mimir integration

2. Code Quality Tooling

• Linter: flake8, ruff, pylint, eslint
• Formatter: black, ruff format, prettier
• Type checker: mypy, pyright
• Pre-commit hooks: Which checks run before commit?
• Configuration files: pyproject.toml, .flake8, .prettierrc
• Makefile targets: make lint, make format, make typecheck

3. Local Debugging

• Breakpoint debugging: IDE debugger, pdb, ipdb
• Log tailing: How to watch logs in real-time during development
• DB inspection: Django admin, DB browser, management commands
• Network inspection: How to inspect HTTP requests (Django Debug Toolbar)
• Test debugging: How to run and debug individual tests

4. Onboarding

• README: What must be in the root README for a new developer?
• make provision: Single command to install all prerequisites
• make run: Single command to start the full application
• Time-to-first-feature target: "New developer ships first feature within X hours"
• Onboarding checklist: Step-by-step from git clone to running tests

5. Inner Loop Speed

• Hot reload: Auto-restart on file changes (Django runserver, webpack HMR)
• Incremental builds: Only rebuild what changed
• Test watch mode: Auto-run affected tests on save
• Build performance: Target build times per operation

6. Scan Skills

Query Playbook Skills where capability_domain in:
- DEVEX_IDE
- DEVEX_QUALITY
- DEVEX_ONBOARD

Report coverage and gaps.

Deliverables

• ✅ IDE setup documented with recommended extensions and debug configs
• ✅ Code quality tooling configured (linter, formatter, pre-commit)
• ✅ Local debugging approach defined
• ✅ Onboarding flow documented with time-to-first-feature target
• ✅ Inner loop speed targets set
• ✅ Skill coverage assessed for this domain
• ✅ Decision recorded for inclusion in SAO.md (DTA-18)