Understand Anything

An open-source tool that combines LLM intelligence with static analysis to help anyone understand any codebase — from junior developers to product managers.

Current Status

Phase 4 complete. The core analysis engine, web dashboard, and Claude Code skills are all functional. The project includes a multi-agent /understand command, fuzzy and semantic search, schema validation, staleness detection, layer auto-detection, guided learning tours, and an interactive chat interface.

Features

Phase 1 — Foundation

• Knowledge Graph — Automatically maps your codebase into an interactive graph of files, functions, classes, and their relationships
• Multi-Panel Dashboard — Graph view, code viewer, chat, and learn panels in a workspace layout
• Natural Language Search — Search your codebase with plain English: "which parts handle authentication?"
• Tree-sitter Analysis — Accurate structural analysis for TypeScript, JavaScript (more languages coming)
• LLM-Powered Summaries — Every node gets a plain-English description of what it does and why

Phase 2 — Intelligence

• Fuzzy Search — Fast, typo-tolerant search across all graph nodes via Fuse.js (SearchEngine in core)
• Schema Validation — Zod-based runtime validation when loading knowledge graphs, with detailed error messages
• Staleness Detection — Detects changed files via git diff and incrementally merges graph updates
• Layer Auto-Detection — Heuristic-based layer grouping (API, Service, Data, UI, Utility) with LLM refinement
• /understand-chat Skill — Ask questions about your codebase directly in the terminal via Claude Code
• Dashboard Chat Panel — Context-aware Q&A integrated into the web dashboard (Claude API)
• Dagre Auto-Layout — Automatic hierarchical graph layout for clean visualization
• Layer Visualization — Color-coded layer grouping with collapsible groups and a legend panel

Phase 3 — Learning

• Guided Tours — Auto-generated step-by-step walkthroughs of codebase architecture (Kahn's algorithm)
• Language Lessons — 12 concept patterns explained in context (generics, closures, decorators, etc.)
• Persona Selector — Adaptive UI for junior devs, non-technical stakeholders, and AI-assisted developers
• Learn Panel — Interactive tour mode with graph highlighting in the dashboard

Phase 4 — Skills & Ecosystem

• /understand Command — Multi-agent pipeline that analyzes a codebase end-to-end and produces knowledge-graph.json
• /understand-diff Skill — Analyze git diffs against the knowledge graph for impact and risk assessment
• /understand-explain Skill — Deep-dive explanations of any file, function, or module
• /understand-onboard Skill — Generate team onboarding guides from the knowledge graph
• Plugin Registry — Community analyzer plugins with auto-discovery
• Semantic Search — Embedding-based vector search with cosine similarity

Quick Start

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Build the core package
pnpm --filter @understand-anything/core build

# Build the skill package
pnpm --filter @understand-anything/skill build

# Start the dashboard dev server
pnpm dev:dashboard

Commands

Command	Description
pnpm install	Install all dependencies
pnpm --filter @understand-anything/core build	Build the core package
pnpm --filter @understand-anything/core test	Run core tests
pnpm --filter @understand-anything/skill build	Build the skill package
pnpm --filter @understand-anything/skill test	Run skill tests
pnpm --filter @understand-anything/dashboard build	Build the dashboard
pnpm dev:dashboard	Start dashboard dev server

Claude Code Skills

Install as a Claude Code plugin, then use these commands:

# Analyze a codebase (produces .understand-anything/knowledge-graph.json)
/understand

# Force a full rebuild
/understand --full

# Ask questions about the codebase
/understand-chat How does authentication work in this project?

# Analyze impact of current changes
/understand-diff

# Deep-dive into a specific file
/understand-explain src/auth/login.ts

# Generate an onboarding guide
/understand-onboard

Plugin Installation

# Option 1: Load for current session
claude --plugin-dir ./packages/skill

# Option 2: Add to .claude/settings.json for persistent use
{
  "enabledPlugins": {
    "understand-anything": {}
  }
}

Multi-Agent Architecture

The /understand command orchestrates 5 specialized agents in a 7-phase pipeline:

Agent	Model	Role
project-scanner	Haiku	Discover files, detect languages and frameworks
file-analyzer	Sonnet	Extract functions, classes, imports; produce graph nodes/edges
architecture-analyzer	Sonnet	Identify architectural layers (API, Service, Data, UI, etc.)
tour-builder	Sonnet	Generate guided learning tours
graph-reviewer	Haiku	Validate graph completeness and referential integrity

File analyzers run in parallel (up to 3 concurrent) for speed. Supports incremental updates — only re-analyzes files that changed since the last run.

Project Structure

packages/
  core/        — Analysis engine: types, persistence, tree-sitter, search, schema, staleness, layers, tours
  dashboard/   — React + TypeScript web dashboard with chat, learn, and persona panels
  skill/
    agents/    — Specialized AI agents (scanner, analyzer, architect, tour-builder, reviewer)
    skills/    — Claude Code skills (/understand, /understand-chat, /understand-diff, etc.)

Tech Stack

• TypeScript, pnpm workspaces
• React 18, Vite, TailwindCSS
• React Flow (graph visualization)
• Monaco Editor (code viewer)
• Zustand (state management)
• tree-sitter (static analysis)
• Fuse.js (fuzzy search)
• Zod (schema validation)
• Dagre (graph layout)

License

MIT