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Welcome to Encore OS engineering. This page is the entry point — read it top-to-bottom on day one, then come back to specific links as you need them.
Encore OS is a multi-tenant healthcare ERP for behavioral health and recovery housing operations. Platform version 0.9.0-alpha. 12 cores: PF + 11 domain cores. Your work will live in one or two of them; the architecture keeps you from accidentally breaking the others.

Day one (45 minutes)

1

Get the repo running

Follow Setup Quick Start end-to-end. You’ll clone, install (npm cilegacy-peer-deps is preset), configure .env, start Supabase locally, and run npm run dev. Don’t skip the Supabase step; nothing works without it.
2

Read the constitution

/governance/canonical/constitution is non-negotiable guardrails. Skim §1 (Architecture), §3 (Security), §5 (Database), §7 (Testing). When in doubt about anything, the constitution wins.
3

Skim AGENTS

/governance/canonical/agents is the always-loaded quick reference. It documents patterns, the regulatory decision tree, and the list of things AI agents (and humans) must never do. You’ll re-read this dozens of times.
4

Learn the boundary rules

Core Boundary Rules — what’s allowed across the 12 cores. The single most common review comment is “core X is importing from core Y; route through PF.” Internalize this on day one.
5

Run the tests

Testing setup and run is the canonical test reference. Run npm run test:baseline once to see the full pyramid (unit + integration + RLS smoke + E2E smoke) execute. If it fails locally, fix it before writing any code — the environment is wrong.

Daily commands

The cheat-sheet you’ll actually use: Development Quick Reference.

How specs become code

Encore OS is spec-driven. Every shippable change traces to a spec. The pipeline:
Each gate has a skill that helps you advance. The fastest way to know what’s next is eos-spec next --spec <ID>. See SPEC_COMMAND_CHEATSHEET for the full taxonomy and SPEC_WORKFLOW for the canonical workflow doc. You won’t always touch every stage — many specs are inherited mid-pipeline. But you do need to know what the current status means before you commit.

How AI fits in

This codebase is co-authored with AI assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, Lovable, GitHub Copilot). The rules they follow are the rules you follow. The hierarchy:

Where things live

Common reviewer pushbacks

Where to go from here

If you get stuck and can’t find the answer, ping #engineering with your spec ID and what you’ve tried. Pretty much everything is documented; finding it is half the skill.