Why

Recover the forces that shaped code from historical evidence. Separate documented intent from supported inference, plausible hypotheses, and unknowns.

Code is evidence of mechanics, not motivation. Motivation may live in source history, reviews, tickets, documents, team discussions, incidents, telemetry, or product data.

Investigation workflow

1. Frame the question

Identify:

• the target code, pattern, feature, or decision;
• the specific rationale the user wants;
• any hypothesis embedded in the question.

Use open files, recent edits, and conversation context to interpret a vague referent. State the interpretation so the user can redirect it. Ask only when different interpretations would require materially different investigations.

Treat the user's suggested explanation as a hypothesis to test.