Forward Impact Team

Getting Started: Engineers

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

Install Pathway

npm install @forwardimpact/pathway

Initialize framework data

If your organization hasn't provided a framework data bundle, bootstrap starter data to explore with: 

npx fit-pathway init

This creates ./data/pathway/ with a complete starter framework. If your organization distributes a framework bundle, follow their installation instructions instead — typically a one-line curl | bash install script that places data at ~/.fit/data/pathway/.

Data directory resolution

The CLI resolves the data directory by walking upward from the current working directory looking for a data/pathway/ folder. To override, use the --data flag: 

npx 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. 

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

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

npx 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: 

npx 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 Guide

Guide is a conversational AI agent that understands your organization's engineering framework. It helps you onboard, find growth areas, and interpret engineering artifacts against your skill markers.

Install

npm install @forwardimpact/guide
npx fit-codegen --all

The fit-codegen step generates gRPC service clients that Guide needs. Without it, imports fail with a missing module error.

Prerequisites

Guide connects to the Forward Impact knowledge platform services. You need a running service stack and a service secret: 

export SERVICE_SECRET=<your-secret>

If your organization hosts the platform, they will provide the service secret and endpoint configuration. If SERVICE_SECRET is not set, the CLI prints onboarding instructions.

Usage

npx fit-guide                                        # Start interactive conversation
echo "What skills should I focus on for L3?" | npx fit-guide  # Pipe a question

Guide reasons about your organization's specific skill definitions, behaviour expectations, and markers — not generic career advice.

Set up Basecamp

Basecamp is your personal operations center. It syncs email and calendar, builds a knowledge graph, drafts responses, and prepares meeting briefings.

Note: Basecamp requires Bun 1.2+ as its runtime.

Install

bun install @forwardimpact/basecamp

Initialize a knowledge base

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

Check status

bunx fit-basecamp --status

Run the scheduler

bunx fit-basecamp --daemon

Basecamp runs as a macOS status menu app with scheduled AI tasks handling background work. The CLI scheduler works on any platform.

Next steps