Gluten-free autolyse, pre-ferment etc.

But it is limited. Can't answer all your questions but will part with any advice I can give. 

1. Gluten free goes from perfectly proofed to over proofed in a very short amount of time. It might look ok while baking but then as soon as you take it out it'll deflate very quickly. Better to err on under than over proofed. 

2. You can do a preferment but the final dough should really be one step. It can be done similar to a normal dough but I had better results in a single proof then baking when ready. If you're using gluten replacements they tend to work well with a single rise. They don't have the same structure to support two or more rises and tend to not do well with a degassing and shaping. So once the preferment has been done (flour, water and starter - gluten replacement goes into the final dough) make the dough and go straight into the final proofing. 

3. Autolyse. As in (2) they really don't need it because of the different method. I find with gluten free starters they seem to hydrate very well and then over time they leak water. 

Hope this helps. 

I have done some GF but am not an expert. Abe's answers were great but I can add a little.

First of all, ask yourself what the purpose is of these things we do with wheat based doughs.

AUTOLYSE is done to fully hydrate the flour, esp a whole wheat dough that has all kinds of branny bits (or sticks and logs, as my husband calls them). Most GF flours don't have a problem almost instantaneously sucking up all the moisture. The trick, sometimes, is to get that ratio correct.

PREFERMENT  (any variety) is done for hydration as well as flavor development. Sometimes it is used to enhance the yeast population, as well. I've never used this for GF doughs and I would be hesitant. As Abe says, GF doughs go from fermented to over fermented very quickly. I would be afraid I'd end up with bread dough soup.

I have found that most people starting into GF baking (myself included) expect to use the same principles for making GF breads as are used making wheat- based breads.First mistake. The Second mistake is that they are trying to find a GF replacement that is JUST LIKE the wheat- based bread. Myseldf included. So far, the lessons I have learned is that only the very basic ideas/techniques of wheat- based baking can be used for GF breads and -so far- I have not found direct substitutes. The GOOD news, however, is that I have found some unique deliciousness in my limited repertoire of GF baking. Looking back-I would equate GF baking more like cake baking and handling than wheat-based dough handling. Once you get the hang of how the ingredients handle and some taste-adding (natural) methods, I think it is easier. 

Have some delicous fun!

What kind of product do you want to make-a sandwich loaf/bun? Wrap? Toasting slice for PB&J?

From the search box here on TFL: search celiac:

Gluten Free baking | The Fresh Loaf

Here are some of the posts I contributed to: 

We actually did a Community Bake on GF breads. Good info and recipes.

SOme links to good GF sites and also recipes:

Help with gluten free breads | The Fresh Loaf

Some help with sourdough GF:

Gluten Free SD starter | The Fresh Loaf

Have fun!

Community Bake - Gluten Free Bread | The Fresh Loaf

Laura T,Ars pistorica,and sharonk are all people that did a lot of posting on GF but years ago. Some of their posts had priceless and were full of info. Unfortunately, most of them have disappeared. Sharon K went on to write a book/create a website and she scrubbed TFL practically free of any of her posts that had methods or recipes. Ars has moved on,also, and any links that go to his website are dead. Laura T has some great posts that can be found here on TFL.

Overnight Sourdough Rice & Teff Baguettes | The Fresh Loaf

GF 24-hour Sourdough Bread Recipe (glutenfreegourmand.blogspot.com)

Sourdough Starter Ready to use in 3-7 Days (glutenfreegourmand.blogspot.com)

She seemed to get some good reviews so her recipes might prove interesting.

Good luck!

So far as I have been able to reconstruct, Professor Calvel's autolyse process is a rest period which allows the water in the dough to be fully absorbed by the flour during which some gluten is formed (this is a process that is initially fast but after 20-30 min at room temperature is pretty much complete).  I am not a baker of gluten free products even though my better half is a gluten-free person. When somebody figures it out I will be happy to copy their work.  You might be THE ONE who is successful.  And I wish you luck. But starch does not take much mixing to fully absorb available water and since there is no gluten to form, waiting longer seems pointless. So I suspect that autolyse is not relevant to gluten-free bread.

If you are making a sourdough with gluten free flour, then there will be some lactic acid bacteria that are consuming sugars released by amylase enzymes from the starch. If you have the instrumentation you might try tracking the pH and total titrateable acidity of the resulting dough. If it produces CO2 there should be some measurable weight loss in the process of fermentation (a miligram scale is good enough to observe that process with reasonably good resolution).

More yeast, faster process; higher temperature (up to ~30°C), faster process depending on a lot of other factors. You have not specified your end point and I have insufficient experience to know what constitutes good gluten-free bread, so you are pretty much free to experiment wildly. 

Have fun. Eat well. Report back what you discover!