Understand the Project — refactor-chain · understand

Bundle: refactor-chain (self-diagnosing, self-healing fix-it pipeline). Phase: understand · Prerequisite: none (entry) · Next: refactor-diagnose. Adaptivity / conditional: repo-agnostic — works on any language/platform; degrades gracefully when files are missing.

Purpose

Before refactor-chain classifies or changes anything, it needs a plain, accurate picture of what the project is. This skill quietly reads the non-code truth of the repo — package manifests, lockfiles, CI config, folder layout, test setup — and produces a short "here's what I'm looking at" summary. It touches nothing, changes nothing, and hands a structured project profile to the diagnostic engine so every later decision rests on real evidence, not guesses.

When to use

• The very first thing the chain does on a new target directory.
• Someone says "look at this repo", "what even is this", "can you clean this up" and no lane is chosen yet.
• You (or a later skill) need to know the stack, framework, package manager, or how the project builds/tests.
• Re-run any time the target directory changes or a monorepo subtree is selected.