Project Exploration

Project Exploration Skill

Version: 1.0 Author: Tres Pies Design Purpose: Structured process for respectfully exploring a new project to determine collaboration readiness and fit before committing.

Philosophy: Exploration Before Commitment

When encountering a large project or codebase, explore its philosophy and patterns before diving into implementation. The goal is not just to understand the code, but to understand the project's relationship to your goals, values, and existing knowledge.

Core Principles

• Progressive Disclosure: Do not attempt to read everything at once. Start with a high-level overview and drill down as needed.
• Incremental Synthesis: Save findings as you go. Externalize understanding to prevent information loss.
• Seek Conceptual Clarity: Prioritize understanding the core philosophy, values, and goals before implementation details.
• Map Connections: Understand the project's relationship to your existing knowledge and skills. Explicitly map resonances.
• Express Genuine Enthusiasm: Collaboration is relational. Output should reflect genuine interest and readiness to contribute.

When to Use This Skill

• Invited to collaborate on a project with a large existing codebase
• Evaluating whether to adopt a library, framework, or tool
• Onboarding to a new team's repository
• Assessing whether a project's architecture supports your goals

The 5-Phase Exploration Process

Phase 1: First Impressions — Map the Terrain

Get a high-level overview of structure and scope.

1. Read the README — What is this project? Who built it? What's its stated purpose?
2. Scan project structure — List top-level directories and key files. Identify organizational patterns.
3. Check recent activity — Last commit, release cadence, contributor count. Is this project alive?
4. Document initial findings — Create an initial overview of themes, structure, and first impressions.

Output: Project overview with structure analysis and activity assessment.

Phase 2: Architecture Mapping — Taste the Water

Select 2-3 key documents or files to understand core content and patterns.

1. Identify entry points — Main module, config files, core abstractions
2. Map behavioral capabilities — Use semantic-clusters approach: what does this project actually do?
3. Identify patterns — What architectural patterns does it follow? (MVC, plugin architecture, event-driven, etc.)
4. Note dependencies — Key external dependencies and their role

Output: Architecture snapshot with capability map and pattern inventory.

Phase 3: Assess Fit — Build the Bridge

Evaluate against user's goals and constraints.

1. Alignment check — Does this project's architecture support what the user wants to do?
2. Pattern compatibility — Are the patterns compatible with existing work?
3. Health assessment — Is the codebase healthy enough to build on? (Test coverage, documentation quality, code style consistency)
4. Resonance mapping — Connect the project's philosophy to existing knowledge:

Phase 4: Identify Entry Points

Where would a new collaborator start?

1. Most approachable areas — Well-documented, well-tested, clear interfaces
2. Most impactful areas — Where contribution would add the most value
3. Most risky areas — Complex, poorly documented, or tightly coupled
4. Quick wins — Small improvements that build familiarity

Phase 5: Synthesis — The Exploration Brief

Produce a comprehensive assessment.

Fit Classification

Output Format: Exploration Brief

## Exploration Brief: [Project Name]

**Date:** [Date]
**Repository:** [URL or path]
**Explorer:** [Name]

### Project Summary

[What this project is, who built it, what it does, and its core philosophy in 2-3 sentences.]

### Architecture Snapshot

**Structure:** [High-level organization]
**Key Patterns:** [Architectural patterns used]
**Core Dependencies:** [Major external dependencies]
**Activity:** [Last commit, release cadence, contributor count]

### Fit Assessment: [GREEN / YELLOW / RED]

**Alignment:** [Does this support your goals?]
**Pattern Compatibility:** [Are patterns compatible?]
**Codebase Health:** [Test coverage, docs quality, consistency]

### Resonance Map

| Project Principle | Existing Principle | Shared Insight |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| [Principle] | [Your pattern] | [Connection] |

### Recommended Entry Points

1. **[Area 1]:** [Why start here] — Risk: Low/Med/High
2. **[Area 2]:** [Why start here] — Risk: Low/Med/High

### Risks & Concerns

- [Risk 1: description and mitigation]
- [Risk 2: description and mitigation]

Best Practices

• Read before you run: Complete the README and structural survey before opening any implementation file. First impressions ground every subsequent judgment.
• Stay at the right altitude per phase: Phase 1 is bird's-eye; Phase 2 is architectural; Phase 4 is ground-level. Mixing altitudes within a phase produces a distorted picture.
• Make the resonance map concrete: Vague entries ("both use modularity") are useless. Name the specific pattern in the project and the specific pattern in your existing work.
• Rate honestly: Assign GREEN only when all 5 phases are complete and health signals are positive. A YELLOW that prompts a conversation is more valuable than a false GREEN that wastes two weeks.
• Scope entry points by risk, not just interest: The most interesting area to explore is often the riskiest. Always pair entry points with a risk rating so the next collaborator can sequence work safely.
• Time-box the exploration: An open-ended survey expands indefinitely. Set a target time per phase (e.g., 30 min for Phase 1, 45 min for Phase 2) and ship the brief at the deadline rather than waiting for perfect coverage.

Quality Criteria

• First impressions phase completed before architecture deep-dive
• Fit assessment uses GREEN/YELLOW/RED classification
• Resonance map connects project to existing knowledge
• Entry points ranked by approachability and impact
• Risks identified with mitigation strategies

Output

• An Exploration Brief markdown document saved to the session working directory or docs/exploration/
• Named: [date]_[project-name]_exploration.md
• Sections: Project Summary, Architecture Snapshot, Fit Assessment (GREEN/YELLOW/RED), Resonance Map, Recommended Entry Points, Risks and Concerns

Examples

Scenario 1: "Explore this repo and tell me if we should collaborate" → Exploration Brief with GREEN rating, architecture snapshot (plugin pattern, 87 tests, Go + Wails), 3 entry points ranked by risk, and resonance map connecting it to existing HTMLCraft work

Scenario 2: "Onboard me to this new codebase before we start implementing" → Exploration Brief with YELLOW rating noting sparse test coverage, architecture mapped, 2 risky areas flagged, quick-win entry points identified for building familiarity

Edge Cases

• Project has no README: Begin Phase 2 directly with structural survey; note the absence of documentation as a codebase health signal in the Fit Assessment
• Repository is private with limited access: Explore what is accessible, note access limitations explicitly, and rate only what can be verified
• Project is extremely large (monorepo with 1000+ files): Limit structural survey to top-level and highest-traffic directories; do not attempt full traversal

Anti-Patterns

• Reading implementation files before completing the README and structural survey — entry into details before understanding the whole produces a distorted architecture picture
• Assigning GREEN without completing all 5 phases — partial exploration that misses health assessment or resonance mapping produces false confidence
• Using this skill to evaluate whether to use a library as a dependency (use web-research instead) — project-exploration is for collaboration potential, not dependency selection
• Skipping the Risks section because the project seems good — surfacing low-probability risks during exploration is cheaper than discovering them mid-implementation

Related Skills

• tldr-code-analysis — use for token-efficient deep structural analysis after exploration assigns a GREEN or YELLOW rating
• research-modes — use when fit assessment requires external research (competitive context, technology landscape) beyond what the repo itself reveals
• research-synthesis — distill findings from exploration into a reusable synthesis document when onboarding multiple collaborators
• web-research — preferred skill when the goal is dependency evaluation rather than collaboration fit assessment