# Audit Codebase > Build or continue an organized HTML map of a repository, audit one user-selected subsystem for architecture and code-quality problems, or analyze one user-selected candidate. Use explicitly for thorough repository-baseline improvement discovery; exclude pending diffs, implementation, ticket publication, and release decisions. - Skill: `stevennitesh/audit-codebase-2` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 14 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add stevennitesh/audit-codebase-2` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/stevennitesh/audit-codebase-2/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Product & Planning - Author: stevennitesh (https://skillmd.com/u/stevennitesh) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/stevennitesh/audit-codebase-2 --- # Audit codebase Build one evidence-backed repository audit over time: ```text Map repository -> Audit user-selected subsystems -> Analyze user-selected candidates ``` The HTML report preserves structure, coverage, findings, and history across invocations. The user chooses every subsystem and candidate. The report may recommend an order, but never selects or starts the next item. ## Authority Audit is read-only except for its report and invocation-owned temporary files under `.tmp/audit-codebase//`. Leave product source, tracked docs, Git, trackers, reviews, and external systems unchanged. The top-level agent owns scope, findings, report publication, and Return. Use read-only subagents only when the user requests them. Inspect their evidence before relying on it. Use [Report CLI](REPORT-QUICK-REFERENCE.md) as the only report interface. [HTML report](HTML-REPORT.md) owns persisted state and rendering. ## Choose one mode - **Map:** create a new report from the current repository. - **Audit:** inspect exactly one subsystem selected from the current map. - **Analyze:** deepen exactly one candidate selected from the current report. Inspect an existing report for the selected mode and ID before working. An invalid or stale selection changes nothing and returns the current choices. Never fall back to Map or choose another item. ## Map the repository Inventory the current tracked worktree. Read repository instructions, manifests, entry points, domain records, ADRs, implementation, representative callers and tests, build and deployment configuration, and data or control flows. Group the repository into systems and subsystems that reflect runtime ownership. Record each subsystem's purpose, owned behavior, entry points, interfaces, callers, dependencies with evidence, flows, decisions, Proof Seams, and paths. Assign every relevant source, test, configuration, and support path to one subsystem, shared infrastructure with named consumers, or an evidenced exclusion. Name important untracked material as an evidence limit. Map records structure, not audit judgment. It may suggest a dependency or hotspot-informed audit order without ranking architectural quality. Publish the report, present all mapped subsystems and their coverage state, and stop for user selection. ## Audit one subsystem Rebuild the selected subsystem's current Source Trace from its files, shared owners, entry paths, callers, dependents, tests, configuration, domain records, ADRs, and bounded history. Trace representative vertical flows for every materially distinct entry-path family and include high-fan-in shared owners. Read [Quality coverage](QUALITY-LENS.md), [Reliability](RELIABILITY-LENS.md), and [Finding contract](DEFECT-CONTRACT.md). Record coverage for Reliability, Domain, Design, Simplification, Coding Practice, and Performance. Load the detailed lens only when Quality's trigger applies. A class is complete when its relevant contracts, flows, and available evidence have been examined, not when it has a finding. Preserve unavailable required evidence as a gap. For each credible observation, search sibling callers, similar instances, and bounded history until the pattern is disproved or its affected set and causal owner are named. A repeated workaround, branch shape, leaked representation, or ownership conflict can be systemic. One isolated hard case may be necessary domain complexity. Admit defects, opportunities, retained complexity, and gaps under the Finding and Quality contracts. Group a candidate only when its members share one coherent improvement direction and Proof Seam. A systemic candidate may span subsystems when one causal owner or repeated cross-subsystem policy explains the members. Read [Candidate analysis](CANDIDATE-CONTRACT.md) when grouping is needed. Rank candidates across audited evidence by demonstrated impact or cost, confidence, change reach, and proof burden. Recheck decisive current source, publish the report, present every candidate, and stop for user selection. ## Analyze one candidate Reinspect the candidate's current source, implicated subsystems, causal owner, callers, contracts, decisions, tests, findings, and Proof Seams. Re-admit changed members. Expand only when current evidence reveals another affected caller, subsystem, or causal owner. Apply [Candidate analysis](CANDIDATE-CONTRACT.md). Compare the present shape with the smallest sound change and any materially different structural or replacement option. Do not force irrelevant alternatives. For one consequential architecture question, load `$codebase-design` and fold its recommendation into the report. Publish the analysis and stop. Suggest at most one natural next owner when an unresolved question clearly belongs elsewhere. Never invoke it, publish tickets, design an implementation graph, or start implementation. ## Completion Map completes when every relevant path is owned or excluded and the new report shows all selectable subsystems. Audit completes when the selected subsystem's six classes are complete or have explicit gaps, every suspected systemic pattern has been widened, and the report shows all selectable candidates. Analyze completes when the selected candidate has current evidence, a bounded recommendation or exact gap, proportional proof, and no downstream work has started. Return the completed mode, selected item, strongest findings or recommendation, coverage limits, report path, and current user-selectable next items.