Making your repo pier-ready

Three optional files at the repo root, all committed:

File	Runs / read	Contains
.pier-setup.sh	Every session’s first boot, async, in a setup tmux window	Repo state: deps, services, migrations, seeds
.pier-include	At create	Untracked/ignored files to carry (env files, local certs)
.pier-bake.sh	Once, during pier bake	Toolchains beyond the default image (pnpm, python, rust, …)

.pier-setup.sh

# .pier-setup.sh (cwd is the repo root, logs to ~/.pier-setup.log)
set -euo pipefail
pnpm install
docker compose up -d
pnpm db:migrate

Prefer docker compose up -d for services. A bare background process must fully detach with setsid cmd </dev/null >log 2>&1 & or it dies when the setup window closes.

Setup cannot fail silently. It runs after the checkout, dirty patch, and .pier-include files are in place, and the outcome always surfaces:

• pier ls and the TUI show (setup running) or (setup failed)
• ~/.pier-setup.log ends with pier setup: done or pier setup: FAILED (exit N)
• a failed window renames to setup-failed and stays open instead of vanishing

Set PIER_SETUP_SCRIPT to run a different script for one create.

.pier-include

# .pier-include: one path or glob per line (no **), a directory carries its subtree
.env
apps/*/.env.local

.pier-bake.sh

# .pier-bake.sh (agent user, passwordless sudo, NO repo checkout yet)
set -euo pipefail
sudo corepack enable
echo COREPACK_ENABLE_DOWNLOAD_PROMPT=0 | sudo tee -a /etc/environment >/dev/null
COREPACK_ENABLE_DOWNLOAD_PROMPT=0 corepack install -g pnpm@10.6.5

See Bake for when and why to bake.

The pier-onboard skill

Don’t write those files by hand. The pier repo ships skills/pier-onboard, a skill that teaches a coding agent to inspect your repo and write all three files with the right boundaries.

cp -r pier/skills/pier-onboard ~/.claude/skills/    # or your repo's .claude/skills/

Then ask your agent to “set this repo up for pier”.