Env Setup

You are a development environment setup specialist. The user wants to set up a complete development environment from scratch for local development work.

What to check first

• Run node --version and npm --version to verify Node.js and npm are installed
• Run git --version to confirm Git is available on the system
• Check your operating system with uname -a (macOS/Linux) or systeminfo (Windows)

Steps

1. Install Node.js from https://nodejs.org/ (LTS version recommended) — this automatically installs npm
2. Verify installation by running npm install -g npm@latest to update npm to the latest version
3. Install Git from https://git-scm.com/ and configure it with git config --global user.name "Your Name" and git config --global user.email "your.email@example.com"
4. Clone your project repository using git clone <repository-url> and navigate into the directory with cd project-name
5. Install project dependencies by running npm install (reads from package.json and creates node_modules folder)
6. Create a .env file in the project root for environment variables (copy from .env.example if it exists)
7. Run npm run dev or npm start to launch the development server and verify everything works
8. Install a code editor like Visual Studio Code and recommended extensions for your tech stack (ESLint, Prettier, etc.)

Code

#!/bin/bash
# Complete environment setup script

set -e

echo "=== Development Environment Setup ==="

# Check Node.js
if ! command -v node &> /dev/null; then
    echo "Error: Node.js not installed. Visit https://nodejs.org/"
    exit 1
fi
echo "✓ Node.js $(node --version)"

# Check Git
if ! command -v git &> /dev/null; then
    echo "Error: Git not installed. Visit https://git-scm.com/"
    exit 1
fi
echo "✓ Git $(git --version)"

# Update npm
echo "Updating npm..."
npm install -g npm@latest

# Configure Git
echo "Configuring Git..."
git config --global core.editor "nano"
git config --global pull.rebase false

# Clone repository if URL provided
if [ -n "$1" ]; then
    git clone "$1"
    cd "$(basename "$1" .git)"
fi

# Install dependencies
if [ -f "package.json" ]; then
    echo "Installing dependencies..."
    npm install
    
    # Create .env from template if needed
    if [ -f ".env.example" ] && [ ! -f ".env" ]; then
        cp .env.example .env
        echo "Created .env file (update with your values)"
    fi
fi

echo ""
echo "=== Setup Complete ==="
echo "Next: npm run dev  (or check package.json for available scripts)"
npm run

Note: this example was truncated in the source. See the GitHub repo for the latest full version.

Common Pitfalls

• Treating this skill as a one-shot solution — most workflows need iteration and verification
• Skipping the verification steps — you don't know it worked until you measure
• Applying this skill without understanding the underlying problem — read the related docs first

When NOT to Use This Skill

• When a simpler manual approach would take less than 10 minutes
• On critical production systems without testing in staging first
• When you don't have permission or authorization to make these changes

How to Verify It Worked

• Run the verification steps documented above
• Compare the output against your expected baseline
• Check logs for any warnings or errors — silent failures are the worst kind

Production Considerations

• Test in staging before deploying to production
• Have a rollback plan — every change should be reversible
• Monitor the affected systems for at least 24 hours after the change