analyzing-unknown-codebases

To analyze an unfamiliar codebase, you systematically detect major components, dependencies, and interfaces to form a formal subsystem catalog. This process identifies architectural patterns and outputs standardized entries to support architecture understanding.

Yes, you can catalog subsystems in a mixed-language repository with varying sizes. The analysis applies to diverse codebases, detecting major components and interfaces to generate a formal subsystem catalog summarizing responsibilities and dependencies.

The best way to document architectural patterns is to generate a deterministic, contract-compliant subsystem catalog. This standardized output ensures downstream tooling and validation can accurately process the identified components and dependencies.

You generate a standardized subsystem catalog entry by running an analysis task on your workspace. This appends a new entry to the 02-subsystem-catalog.md file, summarizing each subsystem's responsibilities and dependencies for architecture governance.

Yes, the subsystem catalog output conforms to a strict format for validation. The skill produces exact-output catalog entries written deterministically to the 02-subsystem-catalog.md file to ensure contract compliance.

You need a formal subsystem catalog when examining unknown codebases to establish consistent architecture understanding. It identifies subsystems, components, dependencies, and interfaces, creating consistent entries for governance and downstream processing.