Brownfield Adoption: Adding Cavekit to Existing Codebases

Brownfield adoption layers kits on top of existing code without rewriting it. The existing codebase becomes reference material, and kits are reverse-engineered from what the code actually does. Once kits exist, all future changes flow through the Cavekit lifecycle.

Core principle: The existing code is not the enemy -- it is the source of truth for cavekit generation. Respect what works; cavekit what matters.

1. When to Use Brownfield Adoption

Brownfield adoption is the right choice when:

• You have a working codebase that you want to improve incrementally
• You want to adopt Cavekit without stopping development
• The codebase is too large or critical for a full rewrite
• You want traceability between kits and code for future changes
• You need to onboard AI agents to an existing project safely
• The team wants to start with Cavekit on a subset of the codebase