A developer joining Runa from a .NET background has described how the company’s onboarding process helped them contribute to an unfamiliar AWS serverless system. The first-person account, published September 15, 2025, covers the first three months of learning new architecture, tools and working practices.

The engineer says the initial adjustment included unfamiliar services such as Lambda, Step Functions and API Gateway, alongside a move from Windows to macOS. A structured plan supplied milestones and documentation, and the first completed ticket was a small bug fix closed after one week.

Pair programming provided a practical introduction to the codebase. Colleagues explained how components and repositories fit together, including the different purposes of two similarly named repositories that had initially caused confusion.

The account also describes technical decision documents, which record a problem, alternative solutions and the reasoning behind a choice. Writing and revising a first document required several rounds of feedback, but the author says that process clarified the implementation before coding began.

AI tools helped the engineer follow existing features through the codebase and prepare starting points for automated tests. The account describes refining those suggestions for the project rather than treating generated code as a finished implementation.

During a later design sprint, the team explored three approaches to a problem through proofs of concept. The engineer presents that process, along with pairing and documented decisions, as central to learning how Runa evaluates changes before committing to a larger build.