[finding] npm vs pnpm vs `npm run`: a newcomer gets three different answers to "what do I run next", and the generated README omits `validate` entirely

[os-elon]

Found during the new-developer first-run journey audit, #10264.

Three surfaces answer the same question differently, all within the first five minutes:

Surface	Says
root README.md:49	npm create objectstack@latest my-app
scaffolder's closing "Next steps"	npm run dev · npm run validate
generated blank/README.md	pnpm install · pnpm dev

Two compounding problems on top of the inconsistency itself:

1. The generated README tells you to install dependencies the scaffolder already installed. It shells out to pnpm during the run — printing a pnpm self-update nag mid-scaffold — and then hands you a README opening with pnpm install.
2. The generated README never mentions npm run validate, which the generated AGENTS.md calls the thing you must never skip. The one command the project most wants you to run is missing from the file you are most likely to read.

Individually each is a papercut. Together they set the tone of the first five minutes, and they undercut the gate story specifically — the validate step is the product's central claim about why AI mistakes don't ship, and it is absent from the newcomer's primary doc.

Suggested landing (hint for triage, not a routing decision)

packages/create-objectstack/src/templates/blank/README.md and packages/create-objectstack/src/index.ts. Picking one package manager and saying it everywhere is probably the whole fix.

Filed by the PM loop from the audit in #10264. Not yet graded or routed.

[os-zhuang]

Triage (first-touch): pm:queue, domain:cli, type Task. Rationale: pick-one-and-say-it-everywhere is the whole fix, and the evidence already picks it — the scaffolder itself shells out to pnpm, so pnpm is the answer the tool has already committed to; the generated README must also stop instructing an install the scaffolder already performed, and must name the validate step the generated AGENTS file calls unskippable. That last part is the substantive half: the validate omission undercuts the product's central gate story at the newcomer's first touch. Hot-file note: templates/blank/README.md shared with 10321; scaffolder index.ts shared with 10325 — fold-or-serial per the cluster note on 10319. Size/model suggestion: S, sonnet.

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