Repo Recon

Systematically map an unfamiliar codebase before changing anything. The recon pass is a short, bounded sequence — minutes, not hours — that front-loads the understanding you would otherwise pay for painfully later in broken builds, rejected PRs, and rewrites. It is the "before" half of every safe edit.

Overview

Reconnaissance is cheap; guessing is expensive. Before you touch a single line, spend a few minutes answering five questions:

1. What is this repo and how is it laid out?
2. How do I build, test, and run it?
3. Where does one real flow live, and how does it work end-to-end?
4. What conventions must my code match?
5. Where did I write all of this down?