Forward Impact Team

Getting Started: Developers

Getting Started: Developers

Get up and running with the Forward Impact CLI tools. This guide covers browsing your career framework, generating AI agent teams, and setting up your personal knowledge base.

Install

Install the packages directly:

bun install @forwardimpact/pathway @forwardimpact/basecamp

Or from the monorepo:

git clone https://github.com/forwardimpact/monorepo.git
cd monorepo
bun install

Data directory convention

The Pathway and Map CLIs expect framework data at ./data/pathway/, not ./data/ directly. The CLI resolves the data directory by walking upward from the current working directory looking for a data/ folder, then appends /pathway.

To override, use the --data flag pointing to the pathway subdirectory directly: 

bunx fit-pathway discipline --list --data=./my-data/pathway

Browse your job definition

Use the Pathway CLI to explore the engineering framework your organization has defined. 

bunx fit-pathway discipline --list    # See available disciplines
bunx fit-pathway level --list         # See available levels
bunx fit-pathway track --list         # See available tracks

Generate a complete job definition by combining a discipline, level, and optional track: 

bunx fit-pathway job software_engineering L3 --track=platform

This produces a full view of the skills, behaviours, and expectations for that role.

Generate agent teams

Create AI agent definitions matched to your role's skill profile: 

bunx fit-pathway agent software_engineering --track=platform --output=./agents

This generates a set of .agent.md files and a skills/ directory. Each agent file defines a persona with specific capabilities. The skills directory contains SKILL.md files that agents use as operational context -- the same skill definitions humans reference, formatted for AI consumption.

Copy the output into your project's .claude/ or equivalent agent configuration directory.

Set up Basecamp

Basecamp is your personal operations center. It syncs email and calendar, builds a knowledge graph, drafts responses, and prepares meeting briefings. The full desktop experience (macOS status menu app) requires macOS; the CLI scheduler works on any platform.

Initialize a knowledge base in a directory of your choice:

bunx fit-basecamp --init ~/Documents/Personal

Check the status of your knowledge base:

bunx fit-basecamp --status

Run the scheduler in the background to keep everything up to date: 

bunx fit-basecamp --daemon

Basecamp runs as a macOS status menu app with scheduled AI tasks handling the background work.

Next steps