Understand Codebase

---
name: understand-codebase
description: Build an evidence-backed map of an unfamiliar repository with the ai-architect code graph. Use before implementing a feature, debugging an unfamiliar subsystem, explaining architecture, or making structural claims about symbols and dependencies.
---

# Understand Codebase

Use the eight-tool `core` profile. Do not assume that pipeline-only tools are available.

For Rust caller or impact questions, request `lsp: true` in `analyze_codebase`
and make rust-analyzer available. Inspect `lsp_status.state`: `disabled` means
static-only analysis; `failed` means analysis continued and may retain partial
LSP results. Record the error and treat affected conclusions as unverified until
source checks or a successful rerun support them. `completed` means the pass
returned, not that every call resolved. Record unresolved sites and coverage gaps.

If a full-profile workflow supplies a `check_security_gates` receipt, inspect
both `gates_passed` and `assessment_complete`. A true pass with an incomplete
assessment is not security clearance: report skipped checks, unresolved symbols
and warnings. This core-profile workflow does not invoke that additional tool.

## Workflow

1. Call `health_check` and record the active profile and tool count. Stop with an installation or configuration instruction if the server is unavailable.
2. Resolve the repository root to an absolute path. Choose a task-scoped, absolute, writable `output_dir` for graph artifacts; never use the source root or a broad system directory as that output.
3. Call `analyze_codebase` with the repository path and output directory. Reuse the exact `graph_path` returned by the tool in every later call.
4. Immediately call `query_graph` with `graph="missed"`. Treat parse-incomplete, skipped, and quarantined files as explicit coverage gaps. Absence from this report is not proof of complete indexing.
5. Use `search_codebase` to discover qualified symbol names. Drill into relevant hits with `get_context` or `get_symbol`; do not guess qualified names.
6. Use read-only `query_graph` queries for structural questions the typed tools do not answer. Add `ORDER BY` before paging with `next_offset`.
7. For any important negative result, inspect the coverage report and use targeted source search for the relevant symbols and call forms, including unflagged files, before concluding that a symbol or edge does not exist. A clean coverage report does not establish relationship completeness.

## Deliverable

Return a compact map of entry points, components, important symbols, dependencies, and available call-graph paths. Tie every structural claim to a tool result. Label interpretations as inferences and list uncovered files or unresolved references as limitations.