Codebase Onboarder
Analyze any codebase and produce a structured onboarding guide. Covers architecture, key flows, patterns, dependencies, entry points, and gotchas — the things that take weeks to figure out by reading code.
Use when: someone says "help me understand this codebase", "onboard me", "document this project", or "what does this repo do".
Analysis Steps
Run these in order. Each step informs the next.
1. Project Identity
# What is this?
cat README.md 2>/dev/null || cat readme.md 2>/dev/null
cat package.json 2>/dev/null | jq '{name, description, scripts}'
cat pyproject.toml 2>/dev/null | head -30
cat Cargo.toml 2>/dev/null | head -20
cat go.mod 2>/dev/null | head -10
cat Makefile 2>/dev/null | head -40
Determine: language, framework, purpose, build system.
2. Project Structure
# Directory tree (depth 3, ignore noise)
find . -maxdepth 3 -type d \
-not -path '*/node_modules/*' \
-not -path '*/.git/*' \
-not -path '*/vendor/*' \
-not -path '*/__pycache__/*' \
-not -path '*/dist/*' \
-not -path '*/build/*' \
-not -path '*/.next/*' \
-not -path '*/target/*' \
| head -80
# Count files by extension
find . -type f -not -path '*/node_modules/*' -not -path '*/.git/*' \
| sed 's/.*\.//' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -15
Map the architecture: where does business logic live, where are configs, where are tests, what's the convention.
3. Entry Points
# Web apps
grep -rl "listen\|createServer\|app\.run\|uvicorn\|Flask(__name__)" --include="*.{js,ts,py,go,rb}" . 2>/dev/null | head -10
# CLI tools
grep -rl "if __name__\|func main\|fn main\|bin.*:" --include="*.{py,go,rs,json}" . 2>/dev/null | head -10
# Config-declared entry points
cat package.json 2>/dev/null | jq '.main, .bin, .scripts.start, .scripts.dev'
cat pyproject.toml 2>/dev/null | grep -A5 'scripts\|entry_points'
Identify: where does execution start, what are the main scripts/commands, how do you run it locally.
4. Dependencies & Stack
# Key dependencies (not all — just the important ones)
cat package.json 2>/dev/null | jq '.dependencies | keys' | head -20
cat requirements.txt 2>/dev/null | head -20
cat go.mod 2>/dev/null | grep -v '//' | tail -20
cat Cargo.toml 2>/dev/null | grep -A50 '\[dependencies\]' | head -30
Identify: database (postgres, mongo, redis), framework (express, fastapi, gin), ORM, auth, queue, cloud SDKs. These define the project's personality.
5. Data Layer
# Database schemas, migrations, models
find . -type f \( -name "*.sql" -o -name "*migration*" -o -name "*schema*" -o -name "*model*" \) \
-not -path '*/node_modules/*' 2>/dev/null | head -20
# ORM models
grep -rl "class.*Model\|@Entity\|schema\.\|CREATE TABLE\|db\.Column" \
--include="*.{py,ts,js,go,rb,java}" . 2>/dev/null | head -10
Map: what are the core data entities, how are they related, where do migrations live.
6. API Surface
# REST routes
grep -rn "app\.\(get\|post\|put\|delete\|patch\)\|@app\.route\|router\.\(get\|post\)\|@Get\|@Post\|@Controller" \
--include="*.{ts,js,py,go,rb,java}" . 2>/dev/null | head -30
# GraphQL
find . -name "*.graphql" -o -name "*.gql" -o -name "*schema*" -name "*.graphql" 2>/dev/null | head -10
grep -rl "type Query\|type Mutation\|@Query\|@Mutation" --include="*.{ts,js,py,go}" . 2>/dev/null | head -10
List the key endpoints/operations, grouped by domain.
7. Config & Environment
# Environment variables
cat .env.example 2>/dev/null || cat .env.sample 2>/dev/null || cat .env.template 2>/dev/null
grep -rh "process\.env\.\|os\.environ\|os\.getenv\|env::\|std::env" \
--include="*.{ts,js,py,go,rs,rb}" . 2>/dev/null | sort -u | head -30
Document: what env vars are needed, which are secrets, what services need to be running.
8. Testing
# Test structure
find . -type f \( -name "*test*" -o -name "*spec*" -o -name "*_test.*" \) \
-not -path '*/node_modules/*' 2>/dev/null | head -20
# How to run tests
cat package.json 2>/dev/null | jq '.scripts.test'
grep -r "pytest\|jest\|mocha\|vitest\|go test\|cargo test" Makefile* 2>/dev/null
9. CI/CD & Deployment
ls -la .github/workflows/ 2>/dev/null
ls -la .gitlab-ci.yml 2>/dev/null
cat Dockerfile 2>/dev/null | head -20
cat docker-compose.yml 2>/dev/null | head -30
ls -la k8s/ kubernetes/ helm/ 2>/dev/null
Output Template
After analysis, produce a document with these sections:
# [Project Name] — Onboarding Guide
## What This Is
One paragraph: what it does, who it's for, what problem it solves.
## Tech Stack
- Language: X
- Framework: X
- Database: X
- Key dependencies: X, Y, Z
## Architecture
Describe the high-level architecture in 3-5 sentences. Include a simple diagram if helpful:
- Monolith / microservices / serverless
- Request flow: client → API → service → database
- Key patterns: MVC, event-driven, CQRS, etc.
## Directory Map
| Path | Purpose |
|------|---------|
| src/api/ | REST endpoints |
| src/services/ | Business logic |
| src/models/ | Database models |
| ... | ... |
## Key Flows
Walk through 2-3 critical user journeys:
1. **User signup** — POST /auth/register → validate → hash password → insert user → send email → return token
2. **Place order** — POST /orders → check inventory → charge payment → create order → notify warehouse
## Getting Started
Step-by-step: clone, install, configure env, seed database, run locally.
## Gotchas
Things that are non-obvious, surprising, or likely to trip someone up:
- "The auth middleware silently returns 200 on missing tokens (legacy behavior)"
- "Tests require a running Redis instance on port 6380 (not default)"
- "The migration in 0042 takes 20 minutes on large datasets"
## Where to Look
| I want to... | Look at... |
|--------------|-----------|
| Add an API endpoint | src/api/routes/ |
| Change the database schema | src/models/ + migrations/ |
| Debug auth issues | src/middleware/auth.ts |
| Understand the build | Makefile + .github/workflows/ |
Tips
- Read tests first — they document behavior better than comments
- Check git log for the most-changed files — those are the hot paths
- Look at recent PRs for coding conventions and review standards
- If something is confusing, it's a gotcha worth documenting
