# Analyze Project

> Understand a target ontology repo's structure, contribution workflow, and build setup. Use whenever the user wants to analyze an ontology repository, learn how to contribute to a project, understand repo layout, or inspect CONTRIBUTING/issue/PR conventions—e.g. "analyze this ontology repo", "how do I contribute to this project", "what's the structure of this repo", or when they provide a repo URL. Prefer this skill over ad-hoc inspection when contributing to external ontologies.

- Skill: `minitour/analyze-project` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add minitour/analyze-project`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/minitour/analyze-project/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Productivity
- Author: Minitour (https://skillmd.com/u/minitour)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/minitour/analyze-project

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# Analyze Project Skill

Use this skill when the user wants to **understand a target ontology repository** before contributing or cloning. You produce a short, structured report so the user (or a follow-up clone/issue/PR workflow) knows the layout, build system, contribution rules, and issue/PR expectations.

## When to Use

- User says they want to **contribute to** or **work on** an external ontology and provides a repo URL (or repo owner/name).
- User asks **"how do I contribute to this project"**, **"what's the structure of this repo"**, **"analyze this ontology repo"**, or similar.
- Before cloning or picking issues: analyzing first avoids wrong paths and missed conventions.

Use **web fetch or search** (and optionally terminal to list files if the repo is already cloned under `projects/`). Do **not** clone the repo only to analyze it—use the GitHub repo page, README, CONTRIBUTING, and `.github` structure from the web or from an existing clone.

## Workflow

1. **Identify the repo**: From the user's message, get the repo URL or `owner/repo` (e.g. from a GitHub link).
2. **Gather structure**: Fetch or read:
   - **README**: scope, build instructions, where ontology source lives (often `ontology/` or the project's edit directory).
   - **Top-level layout**: key dirs (e.g. `ontology/`, `imports/`, `subsets/`, `mappings/`, `docs/`, `.github/`).
   - **Build system**: ODK Makefile, Docker, CI (e.g. `.github/workflows/*.yml`), and how to run tests/QC (e.g. `make test`, `make -C ontology test`).
   - **CONTRIBUTING** (or "Contributing" in README): issue-first?, required fields for new term requests, link to editor guides or OBO Academy.
   - **Issue/PR conventions**: presence of `.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/`, `.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md`, CODEOWNERS; common labels and branch naming (e.g. `issue-N`, `feature/term-name`).
3. **Synthesize**: Produce a short **structure report** (see Output format below).

## Output Format

Return a concise report with:

- **Layout**: Top-level directories and where the ontology edit file lives (e.g. `ontology/`). Note the edit file path so it can be opened with the ontology-editor tools when working on a clone.
- **Build and CI**: What QC the target repository runs on pull requests (e.g. `.github/workflows/*.yml`, ODK/ROBOT checks). QC is executed by the target repo's CI on the PR — it is not run locally in this workspace.
- **Contributing**: Issue-first? Where to find CONTRIBUTING; main contribution types (e.g. new term request, synonym, obsoletion).
- **Issue/PR expectations**: Any issue templates (NTR, bug, etc.); PR checklist or description expectations (e.g. "Closes #N", change table); review expectations if visible.

Use hypothetical wording (e.g. "a typical OBO ontology", "a repo that uses NTR templates")—do not name specific real-world ontologies as examples.

## Notes

- If the repo is already cloned under `projects/<slug>/`, you may list files and read CONTRIBUTING/README from disk instead of (or in addition to) fetching from the web.
- This skill does not clone; use the **clone-project** skill to clone into `projects/<slug>/` after (or in parallel with) analysis.