Repository atlas

Before changing anything, the agent needs to know where things live. A repository is a small city: entry points, shared utilities, configuration, tests, and a thousand decisions encoded in file names. Read the map before walking the streets.

Start with the files that reveal structure — the manifest, the entry module, the test layout. These answer the three questions that matter: what the project is, how it is organized, and where a change of this kind would naturally land. Following import chains is how an agent learns the neighborhoods.

The atlas is not a document; it is a habit. Each read of a new file adds a street to the map, and each change either respects the map or redraws it. When you ask an agent to work, let it trace the system first. The extra minute of reading is what keeps the edit from landing in the wrong district.

Keep the atlas honest. If the code no longer matches its own names, say so in the change request. Naming drift is how small repositories become unfamiliar cities.