Investigating a Codebase

Overview

Understand current codebase state to ground planning and design decisions in reality, not assumptions. Find existing patterns, verify design assumptions, and provide definitive answers about what exists and where.

When to Use

Use for:

• Verifying design assumptions before implementation ("Design assumes auth.ts exists - verify")
• Finding existing patterns to follow ("How do we currently handle API errors?")
• Locating features or code ("Where is user authentication implemented?")
• Understanding component architecture ("How does the routing system work?")
• Confirming existence definitively ("Does feature X exist or not?")
• Preventing hallucination about file paths and structure