explore-codelisted

# Explore code A protocol for building a working mental model of an unfamiliar codebase before changing it. The goal is orientation, not a full audit: enough understanding to know where execution starts, how data moves, and where a given change belongs. **Tradeoff**: bias toward building a map before editing. For a one-line fix in a file you already know, skip it. ## 1. Start with purpose, architecture, stack, entry points Before reading source, answer four questions from the README and the manifest: - Purpose: what does it do, and for whom? - Architecture: single service, library, CLI, monorepo, frontend plus backend? - Stack: language, framework, runtime, datastore, and versions. - Entry points: where execution starts (a `main`, a server `listen`, a CLI registration, a framework convention). ## 2. Map the directory structure Get the tree, ignoring generated and vendored directories. ```bash tree -L 2 -I 'node_modules|dist|build|.git|target|__pycache__|.venv' ``` Locate source versus tests, config and environment templates, docs, and build and deploy definitions. The layout encodes the team's mental model. ## 3. Trace one representative flow end to end Follow one request, one command, or one public call through every layer: route to handler to service to data access to response, or argument parsing to side effect. One traced flow teaches more than many files read in isolation, because it reveals the layering and the conventions repeated everywhere else. ## 4. Ide