onboard-codebase

name	onboard-codebase
description	Rapidly build a mental map of an unfamiliar repository — architecture, entry points, key modules, how to build/test/run — and persist it to project memory. Invoke manually with /onboard-codebase.
disable-model-invocation	true

/onboard-codebase

Human-driven: help the DEVELOPER get productive in an unfamiliar repo fast, and leave durable notes so the next session starts ahead. This is for your understanding — invoke it yourself when you land in a repo you don't know. (For setting up a project's Claude config, use /init-project instead; that one serves both you and the agent.)

Steps

1. Map, don't read everything. Delegate to the explore subagent to identify:
   • Languages, frameworks, package manager.
   • Entry points (main, server bootstrap, CLI).
   • Top-level architecture and the handful of modules that matter.
   • How to build, test, run, and lint (the exact commands).
   • External dependencies and integration points (DBs, APIs, queues).
2. Answer the onboarding questions a new engineer would ask: How does a request flow through? Where does config/secrets loading happen? How is it tested? What are the non-obvious conventions?
3. Summarize concisely for the user: architecture in a few bullets + the key commands + the path:line anchors for the important pieces.
4. Persist to project memory. Write/update <repo>/.claude/memory/PROJECT.md with the stack, build/test/lint/run commands, architecture summary, and gotchas. This is committed for the team. (Do NOT put this in docs/ — that's human-authored documentation.)
5. If the repo has no .claude/ config at all, suggest /init-project to scaffold it.

Guardrails

• Read-heavy work stays in the explore subagent to protect the main context window.
• Verify commands exist before writing them into memory (check package.json, Makefile, pyproject.toml, CI config) rather than guessing.