HARD GATE — HARD GATE — Environment setup must be idempotent and reproducible. If setup fails, provide clear error messages and remediation steps. Do NOT assume prior state.

Idempotent prep so BUILD phase commands succeed on first run.

1. Read CLAUDE.md / CONVENTIONS.md for required runtimes and commands.
2. Verify runtime versions (node -v, swift --version, etc.).
3. Install dependencies (npm ci, bundle install, etc.) — prefer lockfile installs.
4. Copy .env.example → .env if documented; never commit secrets.
5. Run smoke: lint + one fast test or --version on key tools.
6. Record versions in specs/state.yaml under Environment.

The big-counter tool is an optional dependency for BCP Plus 13-dimension story sizing:

# Install from PyPI (recommended)
pip install big-counter

# Or from npm
npm install -g big-counter

Verify the install: big-counter --version Skip if BCP Plus sizing is not needed for this project.

→ verify: test -f CLAUDE.md && grep -q 'Test' CLAUDE.md && echo "OK: CLAUDE.md has test table" || echo "MISSING: test commands"