system-environment-setup_skill

Overview

This skill configures consistent, reproducible development and production environments for new projects. It provides ready-to-use Docker Compose setups, .env examples and loading patterns, VS Code devcontainer configuration, Makefile shortcuts, and Terraform IaC templates. Use it to standardize onboarding, local development, and infrastructure provisioning.

How this skill works

The skill supplies a Docker Compose configuration that runs a web service, PostgreSQL, Redis, and an Nginx reverse proxy with volume mounts and port mappings. It includes a .env.example and Node.js pattern to validate and load required environment variables safely. A VS Code devcontainer config enables reproducible development containers, a Makefile exposes common commands, and Terraform templates demo production infrastructure like VPC, RDS, ECS, and ALB.

When to use it

• Starting a new project and needing a reproducible dev stack
• Onboarding new developers to ensure identical local environments
• Running multi-service applications locally (microservices)
• Reproducing production behavior on a developer machine
• Bootstrapping Terraform-based cloud infrastructure for staging/production

Best practices

• Keep .env.example minimal and document required vars; never commit real secrets
• Add .env and local credential files to .gitignore and use secrets manager in CI/CD
• Use Docker Compose for local development and mount volumes for fast feedback
• Validate required environment variables at startup and fail fast if missing
• Add health checks and readiness probes for dependent services
• Use Makefile targets to standardize common developer workflows

Example use cases

• Local development: docker-compose up -d to start web, db, redis, nginx and use mounted volumes for live code changes
• Developer onboarding: provide devcontainer.json so VS Code opens a ready workspace with extensions and forwarded ports
• CI/QA: use the Makefile and docker-compose in test environments to run integration tests against containerized services
• Production provisioning: adapt Terraform templates to create VPC, RDS, ECS cluster, and ALB with secure variable management
• Secrets migration: replace .env values with a secrets manager and inject at deploy time via CI/CD