Codebase Research

Overview

Perform systematic codebase exploration to understand how existing systems work. Follows the Iron Law: "Do NOT explore the codebase until the problem is understood."

When to Use

• Implementation direction is clear but codebase understanding is needed
• Investigating how an existing feature works before modifying it
• Understanding dependencies and data flows before planning
• Gathering context for a known goal

Process

1. Understand the request - Ask clarifying questions one at a time (purpose, specifics, scope, constraints, context). Do NOT read any files until confirmed.
2. Explore the codebase - Use file-finder agent, read in order, trace data flows, identify constraints.
3. Document findings - Write structured research document to docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-research.md.
4. Transition - Ask: plan, continue research, or conclude.

Key Rules

• Quotations from source material capped at 125 characters maximum
• Only proceed to exploration after human confirms understanding
• Use file-finder agent for initial file discovery
• Use web-researcher agent for external context needs

Agents Used

• agents/file-finder/ - Locates relevant files with suggested reading order
• agents/web-researcher/ - Gathers external context when needed

Tool Use

Invoke via babysitter process: methodologies/rpikit/rpikit-research