analyzing-projects

Analyzing Projects

When to Load

• Trigger: Onboarding to a new project, "how does this work" questions, codebase exploration, understanding unfamiliar code
• Skip: Already familiar with the project structure and patterns

Project Analysis Workflow

Copy this checklist and track progress:

Project Analysis Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Quick overview (README, root files)
- [ ] Step 2: Detect tech stack
- [ ] Step 3: Map project structure
- [ ] Step 4: Identify key patterns
- [ ] Step 5: Find development workflow
- [ ] Step 6: Generate summary report

Step 1: Quick Overview

# Check for common project markers
ls -la
cat README.md 2>/dev/null | head -50

Step 2: Tech Stack Detection

Package Managers & Dependencies

• package.json → Node.js/JavaScript/TypeScript
• requirements.txt / pyproject.toml / setup.py → Python
• go.mod → Go
• Cargo.toml → Rust
• pom.xml / build.gradle → Java
• Gemfile → Ruby

Frameworks (from dependencies)

• React, Vue, Angular, Next.js, Nuxt
• Express, FastAPI, Django, Flask, Rails
• Spring Boot, Gin, Echo

Infrastructure

• Dockerfile, docker-compose.yml → Containerized
• kubernetes/, k8s/ → Kubernetes
• terraform/, .tf files → IaC
• serverless.yml → Serverless Framework
• .github/workflows/ → GitHub Actions

Step 3: Project Structure Analysis

Present as a tree with annotations:

project/
├── src/              # Source code
│   ├── components/   # UI components (React/Vue)
│   ├── services/     # Business logic
│   ├── models/       # Data models
│   └── utils/        # Shared utilities
├── tests/            # Test files
├── docs/             # Documentation
└── config/           # Configuration

Step 4: Key Patterns Identification

Look for and report:

• Architecture: Monolith, Microservices, Serverless, Monorepo
• API Style: REST, GraphQL, gRPC, tRPC
• State Management: Redux, Zustand, MobX, Context
• Database: SQL, NoSQL, ORM used
• Authentication: JWT, OAuth, Sessions
• Testing: Jest, Pytest, Go test, etc.

Step 5: Development Workflow

Check for:

• .eslintrc, .prettierrc → Linting/Formatting
• .husky/ → Git hooks
• Makefile → Build commands
• scripts/ in package.json → NPM scripts

Step 6: Output Format

Generate a summary using this template:

# Project: [Name]

## Overview

[1-2 sentence description]

## Tech Stack

| Category  | Technology |
| --------- | ---------- |
| Language  | TypeScript |
| Framework | Next.js 14 |
| Database  | PostgreSQL |
| ...       | ...        |

## Architecture

[Description with simple ASCII diagram if helpful]

## Key Directories

- `src/` - [purpose]
- `lib/` - [purpose]

## Entry Points

- Main: `src/index.ts`
- API: `src/api/`
- Tests: `npm test`

## Conventions

- [Naming conventions]
- [File organization patterns]
- [Code style preferences]

## Quick Commands

| Action  | Command         |
| ------- | --------------- |
| Install | `npm install`   |
| Dev     | `npm run dev`   |
| Test    | `npm test`      |
| Build   | `npm run build` |

Analysis Validation

After completing analysis, verify:

Analysis Validation:
- [ ] All major directories explained
- [ ] Tech stack accurately identified
- [ ] Entry points documented
- [ ] Development commands verified working
- [ ] No assumptions made without evidence

If any items cannot be verified, note them as "needs clarification" in the report.