OpenNoodl/dev-docs/SETUP-INSTRUCTIONS.md

OpenNoodl Dev Docs - Setup Instructions

What's Included

This folder contains everything needed to set up AI-assisted development with Cline for the OpenNoodl project.

Files to Add to Repository

Copy these to the root of your OpenNoodl repository:

OpenNoodl/
├── .clinerules           ← Copy from dev-docs/.clinerules
├── .clineignore          ← Copy from .clineignore (separate file)
└── dev-docs/             ← Copy entire folder
    ├── README.md
    ├── CLINE-INSTRUCTIONS.md
    ├── TASK-TEMPLATE.md
    ├── guidelines/
    │   ├── CODING-STANDARDS.md
    │   └── GIT-WORKFLOW.md
    ├── reference/
    │   ├── CODEBASE-MAP.md
    │   ├── NODE-PATTERNS.md
    │   └── COMMON-ISSUES.md
    └── tasks/
        └── phase-1/
            └── TASK-001-dependency-updates/
                ├── README.md
                ├── CHECKLIST.md
                ├── CHANGELOG.md
                └── NOTES.md

Setup Steps

1. Create Branch

git checkout -b setup/dev-docs

2. Copy Files

# Copy .clinerules to repo root
cp path/to/downloads/.clinerules .

# Copy .clineignore to repo root  
cp path/to/downloads/.clineignore .

# Copy dev-docs folder to repo root
cp -r path/to/downloads/dev-docs .

3. Configure Cline

1. Open VSCode with the OpenNoodl project
2. Click Cline extension settings (gear icon)
3. Find "Custom Instructions" field
4. Copy contents of dev-docs/CLINE-INSTRUCTIONS.md and paste

4. Commit

git add .clinerules .clineignore dev-docs/
git commit -m "docs: add AI-assisted development documentation"
git push -u origin setup/dev-docs

5. Start Working

1. Open a task: dev-docs/tasks/phase-1/TASK-001-dependency-updates/
2. Read the README.md
3. Follow the CHECKLIST.md
4. Track changes in CHANGELOG.md
5. Keep notes in NOTES.md

File Purposes

File	Purpose
.clinerules	Project-specific rules Cline follows automatically
.clineignore	Files/folders Cline should ignore (like .gitignore)
CLINE-INSTRUCTIONS.md	Custom instructions to paste into Cline settings
TASK-TEMPLATE.md	Template for creating new task documentation
guidelines/	Development standards (coding, git workflow)
reference/	Quick references (codebase map, patterns, troubleshooting)
tasks/	Task documentation organized by phase

Creating New Tasks

1. Copy TASK-TEMPLATE.md sections to new folder
2. Follow naming: TASK-XXX-short-name/
3. Fill in all sections of README.md
4. Create the checklist specific to the task
5. Initialize empty CHANGELOG.md and NOTES.md

Questions?

See dev-docs/reference/COMMON-ISSUES.md for troubleshooting.