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
- Understand the request - Ask clarifying questions one at a time (purpose, specifics, scope, constraints, context). Do NOT read any files until confirmed.
- Explore the codebase - Use file-finder agent, read in order, trace data flows, identify constraints.
- Document findings - Write structured research document to
docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>-research.md. - 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 orderagents/web-researcher/- Gathers external context when needed
Tool Use
Invoke via babysitter process: methodologies/rpikit/rpikit-research