tools-only Intake Phase
One-time project onboarding that establishes baseline understanding of an existing codebase. Run once when first adopting a project; results feed every subsequent phase.
Purpose
Before any feature work begins, the team needs documented code, behavioral safety nets, and a shared system overview. Intake produces all three artifacts in sequence.
Commands
| Order | Command | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | intake:document-codebase |
Scan and document all undocumented functions, classes, and modules |
| 2 | intake:capture-behavior |
Write characterization tests asserting current behavior |
| 3 | intake:create-system-description |
Generate a living system description at docs/system-description.md |
Outputs
- Documented codebase — Docstrings/JSDoc/XML docs on every public API and module
- Characterization tests — Safety net that detects unintended behavior changes
- System description — Architecture overview, API surface, security patterns, external dependencies
Prerequisites
- Access to the project codebase
- No external tooling (ticketing/documentation) required
Next Steps
After intake, the system description is available for feature-forge to read during feature definition. If discovery is needed, proceed to the Discovery Phase. Otherwise, skip to Planning.