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Run npx skillmds@latest add databricks/onboard-team-area in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

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databricks (@databricks) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Onboard Team Area by databricks — Agent Skill

Name: Onboard Team Area
Author: databricks

Onboard Team Area

Onboard a new team or reserve a new code area in the Databricks CLI: add the team to .github/OWNERTEAMS, reserve experimental/<area>/ and acceptance/experimental/<area>/, and map both paths in .github/OWNERS so the maintainer-approval gate routes the area's PRs to the team. Use when the user says 'onboard a team', 'add an OWNERS team', 'reserve an experimental area', 'add a new team to the CLI', or wants a new owned directory wired into review.

databricks c7bc916 3.6 KB Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

Onboard a team / area into the CLI

How ownership works here: .github/OWNERS is CODEOWNERS-style and last-match-wins. .github/OWNERTEAMS maps team:<name> to an explicit @member list and is the source of truth, because the CI token cannot resolve GitHub org-team membership. The maintainer-approval workflow is a required check that blocks merge until every owned group a PR touches has at least one approval from one of its owners.

Worked example: PR #5605 ("Add ai-training OWNERS team and reserve experimental/air") is exactly the steps below: +1 line in OWNERTEAMS, two .gitkeep files, +2 lines in OWNERS.

Inputs (ask if missing)

Team alias, e.g. ai-training, and the @member list.
Area/dir name, e.g. air.
Experimental or stable? This decides where code lands (see the last section).

Step 1 — Add the team to `.github/OWNERTEAMS`

Append one line, keeping the existing column alignment:

team:<name>  @member1 @member2 ...

If the team has a GitHub team page, add its URL to the header comment block. Skip the URL if the team page does not exist yet; the validator only warns about a missing URL, it does not block.

Step 2 — Reserve the directories

Create empty .gitkeep placeholders so the owned paths exist before any code lands:

experimental/<area>/.gitkeep
acceptance/experimental/<area>/.gitkeep

Step 3 — Map the paths in `.github/OWNERS`

Add rules under an # <Area> comment. Because last-match-wins, specific rules go after the * maintainer catch-all:

/experimental/<area>/             team:<name>
/acceptance/experimental/<area>/  team:<name>

Step 4 — Validate and open the PR

# OWNERS parser + approval-logic tests
node --test .github/scripts/owners.test.js .github/workflows/maintainer-approval.test.js
# OWNERS/OWNERTEAMS consistency: undefined teams, zero-owner rules, missing paths
node .github/scripts/owners.js validate
# Repo quick checks (no Go/Python/YAML changed, so the formatters have nothing to do)
./task checks

No .nextchanges/ entry; this is ownership/config only. Write the PR using the .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md sections (Why / Changes / Tests).

Experimental vs stable, and graduation

Experimental — code under experimental/<area>/, tests under acceptance/experimental/<area>/. Register it under the hidden parent in cmd/experimental/experimental.go, or top-level in cmd/cmd.go with Hidden: true (as ssh does). Experimental commands still ship enabled in every release; Hidden only removes them from --help, it does not gate or compile them out. No .nextchanges/ entries while experimental. To hand a build to testers, push a bugbash-<topic> branch (auto-builds a snapshot) and share the internal/bugbash/exec.sh one-liner.
Graduating to stable — git mv the feature-complete commands to cmd/<area>/ + libs/<area>/, register them top-level in cmd/cmd.go, keep the old experimental paths as deprecated cobra aliases (sub.Hidden = true, sub.Deprecated = '...'), add OWNERS rules for the new stable paths, and add a .nextchanges/ entry. See experimental/aitools graduating to top-level aitools (PR #4917) as the worked example.

---name: onboard-team-areadescription: Onboard a new team or reserve a new code area in the Databricks CLI: add the team to .github/OWNERTEAMS, reserve experimental/<area>/ and acceptance/experimental/<area>/, and map both paths in .github/OWNERS so the maintainer-approval gate routes the area's PRs to the team. Use when the user says 'onboard a team', 'add an OWNERS team', 'reserve an experimental area', 'add a new team to the CLI', or wants a new owned directory wired into review.---# Onboard a team / area into the CLIHow ownership works here: `.github/OWNERS` is CODEOWNERS-style and last-match-wins. `.github/OWNERTEAMS` maps `team:<name>` to an explicit `@member` list and is the source of truth, because the CI token cannot resolve GitHub org-team membership. The `maintainer-approval` workflow is a required check that blocks merge until every owned group a PR touches has at least one approval from one of its owners.Worked example: PR #5605 ("Add ai-training OWNERS team and reserve experimental/air") is exactly the steps below: +1 line in OWNERTEAMS, two `.gitkeep` files, +2 lines in OWNERS.## Inputs (ask if missing)- Team alias, e.g. `ai-training`, and the `@member` list.- Area/dir name, e.g. `air`.- Experimental or stable? This decides where code lands (see the last section).## Step 1 — Add the team to `.github/OWNERTEAMS`Append one line, keeping the existing column alignment:```team:<name> @member1 @member2 ...```If the team has a GitHub team page, add its URL to the header comment block. Skip the URL if the team page does not exist yet; the validator only warns about a missing URL, it does not block.## Step 2 — Reserve the directoriesCreate empty `.gitkeep` placeholders so the owned paths exist before any code lands:```experimental/<area>/.gitkeepacceptance/experimental/<area>/.gitkeep```## Step 3 — Map the paths in `.github/OWNERS`Add rules under an `# <Area>` comment. Because last-match-wins, specific rules go after the `*` maintainer catch-all:```/experimental/<area>/ team:<name>/acceptance/experimental/<area>/ team:<name>```## Step 4 — Validate and open the PR```bash# OWNERS parser + approval-logic testsnode --test .github/scripts/owners.test.js .github/workflows/maintainer-approval.test.js# OWNERS/OWNERTEAMS consistency: undefined teams, zero-owner rules, missing pathsnode .github/scripts/owners.js validate# Repo quick checks (no Go/Python/YAML changed, so the formatters have nothing to do)./task checks```No `.nextchanges/` entry; this is ownership/config only. Write the PR using the `.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md` sections (Why / Changes / Tests).## Experimental vs stable, and graduation- **Experimental** — code under `experimental/<area>/`, tests under `acceptance/experimental/<area>/`. Register it under the hidden parent in `cmd/experimental/experimental.go`, or top-level in `cmd/cmd.go` with `Hidden: true` (as `ssh` does). Experimental commands still ship enabled in every release; `Hidden` only removes them from `--help`, it does not gate or compile them out. No `.nextchanges/` entries while experimental. To hand a build to testers, push a `bugbash-<topic>` branch (auto-builds a snapshot) and share the `internal/bugbash/exec.sh` one-liner.- **Graduating to stable** — `git mv` the feature-complete commands to `cmd/<area>/` + `libs/<area>/`, register them top-level in `cmd/cmd.go`, keep the old `experimental` paths as deprecated cobra aliases (`sub.Hidden = true`, `sub.Deprecated = '...'`), add OWNERS rules for the new stable paths, and add a `.nextchanges/` entry. See `experimental/aitools` graduating to top-level `aitools` (PR #4917) as the worked example.

Frequently asked questions