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Inspiration

One challenge many developers face when joining a new repository is figuring out where to start. New contributors often spend hours reading documentation, exploring files, and trying to understand how different parts of a project connect together.

I wanted to build something that could reduce onboarding time and help contributors become productive faster. The idea was inspired by GitLab Orbit and its ability to provide repository context that can be used to help developers understand unfamiliar codebases.

What it does

Orbit First Commit Coach is an onboarding assistant that helps developers understand repositories and identify safe first contributions.

Given repository context such as project descriptions, file structures, merge requests, team notes, and known issues, the system generates a structured onboarding report containing:

Repository Overview
Key Files and Directories
Risk Map
Recommended Learning Path
Safe First Contribution Recommendation
Contribution Safety Analysis

The goal is to help developers quickly understand a project and confidently make their first contribution.

How I built it

The project was built as a lightweight prototype using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

The interface allows repository context to be provided and analyzed. The system then generates a structured onboarding report designed to simulate how an Orbit-powered onboarding assistant could help new contributors understand a repository.

The project also includes onboarding skill definitions, screenshots, documentation, and a GitLab repository for the hackathon submission.

Challenges I ran into

One challenge was designing a workflow that was genuinely useful for developers while remaining simple enough to demonstrate in a hackathon prototype.

Another challenge was understanding the GitLab Duo Agent Platform and exploring how GitLab Orbit could be used to provide repository context for onboarding workflows.

What I learned

Through this project I learned more about developer onboarding, repository analysis, GitLab Orbit concepts, GitLab Duo, AI-assisted developer workflows, and how contextual information can make AI systems significantly more useful.