Build Knowledge

build-knowledge — build the codebase knowledge base from the code

Read the existing code and write a durable, human-facing knowledge base under docs/: per-domain technical and functional docs, plus a top-level architecture.md that shows how the services connect. This is committed documentation the whole team (and future Maestro runs) reads. Run once per workspace; re-runnable (refresh, don't duplicate).

Inputs

Your instruction names the docs root to write under and the code surface to read (the codebase/ repos or the single repo, their AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md/.cursor/rules, existing docs/). Standalone with no paths given? Write to docs/ and tell the user.

Method

1. Survey the code. Per repo: entry points, build/test/run commands, directory layout, house style, dependencies, datastores. Read each repo's AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, or Cursor rules first, applying the instruction files that exist for the active host.
2. Identify the domains — the bounded contexts / feature areas the code is organised around (e.g. auth, order-management, catalog, payments). Use kebab-case names.
3. Per domain, write two files:
   • docs/technical/<domain>.md — the technical view: key modules/packages, data model & schemas, the APIs it exposes and consumes, storage, background jobs, and the build/test commands specific to it.
   • docs/functional/<domain>.md — the functional view: what the domain does, the business rules, the primary user/actor flows, and notable edge cases.
4. Write docs/architecture.md — the whole-system view:
   • One or more Mermaid diagrams (```mermaid fenced blocks) showing every service/ component as a node and every connection as an edge.
   • How the services connect — for each edge: the protocol (REST / gRPC / GraphQL / event/queue / shared DB), direction, sync vs async, what data flows, and how calls are authenticated between services. Call out the datastores each service owns. Example shape (derive the real one from the code):

   graph LR
     FE[Web frontend] -->|REST/JSON| BE[Backend API]
     BE -->|SQL| DB[(Postgres)]
     BE -->|gRPC| PAY[Payments svc]
     BE -->|publish| Q[[order-events]]
     WORKER[Order worker] -->|subscribe| Q
   

5. Seed cross-cutting review lessons (optional). For recurring standards/pitfalls that belong to the corroborated-lesson store (not domain docs), also write an authoritative drop to the memory incoming path named in your instruction, as JSON: {"slug": "bootstrap", "lessons": [{"domain": "backend-review", "key": "<kebab>", "text": "...", "authoritative": true}]}. The engine renders these; you do not.

Per-repo codebase map (the HLD's primary grounding)

For EACH repo — in an umbrella workspace, each repo under codebase/; single repo, the repo itself — write docs/codebase-map.md, the standing, per-repo description a designer reads before authoring an HLD (so it grounds the design in real code instead of the prompt):

• entry points and key modules; how the repo is built/tested/run;
• the primary end-to-end flows, and — critically — every distinct execution mode each runs in (single-turn / multi-turn, sync / async, batch / streaming, first-request / idempotent-retry, single- / multi-tenant, …), what selects each mode, and where it lives, cited to file:line;
• the data model, the APIs it exposes/consumes, the auth/guard pattern, the error envelope, and the conventions a change must respect.

Run python3 .maestro/engine/codebase_scan.py plan first to see which repos to map and their scope — at bootstrap every repo is full (write the whole map); on a refresh a repo is incremental (update only the areas its changed_files touch) or current (skip). Do not write or edit the <!-- maestro-codebase-map commit=… --> marker line — the engine stamps the commit after you write, and that recorded commit is what makes the next refresh incremental. Each map is git-tracked in its own repo.

Standards

• Document what the code actually does today, not aspirations. A wrong doc is worse than a missing one.
• Keep Mermaid node/edge labels short; the diagram must render. Prefer a couple of focused diagrams (service topology, and a data-flow per critical path) over one unreadable graph.
• Re-run = refresh: update existing domain files in place; add files for new domains; keep human edits.

Safety

• Read-only against application code; write only the docs (the central docs root AND each repo's docs/codebase-map.md) and the optional memory incoming drop named in your instruction. Never edit application code here.

Output contract

Return domains_written (count of domains documented), architecture_path (the architecture.md you wrote), and summary (one line).