a new app starts from the template, and its dev server runs in the background

two things an agent cannot discover and gets wrong by default.

FIRST: asked to create an app, it scaffolds one. there is a template —
templates/template-react on gitea — and it is the agreed starting point. it
documents itself, so this points at its README, CLAUDE.md and CONVENTIONS.md
rather than restating them; the one thing worth lifting out is README step 1,
the rename, because it costs thirty seconds at the start and is a chore
forever after.

SSH not HTTPS, verified both ways: the https remote prompts for a username and
dies in a non-interactive shell. the tailnet address is noted as the fallback
for when the public host's ssh is being rate-limited, which the deploy skill
already records as a recurring thing.

SECOND: asked to run it, it runs bun dev in the foreground, which blocks until
the tool times out and reports a working server as a failure. backgrounding is
both the only thing that works AND what the owner wants — a background job gets
officer's live panel, the same one they would see running it themselves, so
they can read the output and stop it without asking.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Officer-Session: 656f5c85-e49a-4f1f-b9f3-042a04b4d043

affordances/officer/core/starting-an-app.md

@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+---
+name: Starting an app
+description: Use when asked to create, scaffold or start a new app or project, and when asked to run one. There is a template to begin from, and a specific way the owner expects a dev server to be started.
+version: 1
+---
+
+**Do not scaffold a new app from scratch.** There is a template, it is the agreed starting point, and it
+carries decisions that took a while to settle.
+
+```bash
+git clone git@gitea.officer.dev:templates/template-react.git <name>
+```
+
+Bun · Hono · React 19 · Tailwind v4 · shadcn/ui · Postgres with Drizzle. A JSON API at `/api` and a React
+app at `/`, over one query layer.
+
+**SSH, not HTTPS.** `https://gitea.officer.dev/…` prompts for a username and fails in a non-interactive
+shell; the SSH remote is already authenticated. If SSH is being refused for a stretch — the public host is
+behind a proxy that rate-limits it — `ssh://git@100.64.0.13:10023/templates/template-react.git` is the same
+repository over the tailnet.
+
+## Then read its own documentation, and do step 1
+
+The template documents itself. **`README.md` step 1 is a rename** — everything project-specific is called
+`app`, and a case-sensitive search for `app`, `App` and `APP` finds all of it. Thirty seconds at the start,
+a chore forever after. Do it before the first commit.
+
+Its `CLAUDE.md` points at `CONVENTIONS.md` (React patterns, feature folders, manager hooks),
+`docs/DATABASE.md` and `docs/SURFACES.md`. Read those rather than inferring house style from the code —
+they exist so the same argument is not had twice.
+
+Drop the template's git history and start your own unless told otherwise: it is a starting point, not an
+upstream to track.
+
+## Running it — always as a background job
+
+```bash
+bun dev
+```
+
+**Start it in the BACKGROUND, never in the foreground.** Two reasons, and either one is sufficient:
+
+- **A dev server does not exit.** Run in the foreground it blocks the turn until the tool times out, and
+  the timeout is reported as a failure of a thing that was working perfectly.
+- **The owner wants to watch it.** A background job gets Officer's live panel — the same one they would
+  see running it themselves — so they can read the output, see the port, and stop it. Run any other way it
+  is invisible, and stopping it means asking you.
+
+`bun dev` prints steadily, so the panel fills immediately. `predev` regenerates the index first; that is
+normal and takes a moment.
+
+The general rule about background output still applies — see the background-jobs affordance. It matters
+less here only because this particular command is already talkative.
+
+**Say the URL when it comes up.** The port is in `.env` and the template's README, and the first thing
+anybody wants after "it's running" is where to look.