/research_codebase
Research and document the codebase as it exists today. This command spawns parallel sub-agents to analyze different parts of the codebase and writes findings to the thoughts directory.
/research_codebaseThe agent will ask for your research question, then:
- Read any directly mentioned files
- Spawn parallel sub-agents to explore relevant components
- Synthesize findings into a comprehensive document
- Save the research to
thoughts/shared/orthoughts/<username>/
Key Behavior
Section titled “Key Behavior”- Documents only — The agent describes what exists, where it exists, and how it works. It does not suggest improvements, critique the implementation, or propose changes unless explicitly asked.
- Uses Opus — This command uses the most capable model for deep analysis.
- Parallel research — Sub-agents explore different areas of the codebase simultaneously for thorough coverage.
- Persistent output — Research is saved to the thoughts directory so it persists across sessions and is available to team members.
Example
Section titled “Example”/research_codebase
> How does the authentication system work? I need to understand> the full flow from login to token refresh.What This Adds
Section titled “What This Adds”By default, when you ask an AI tool to research your codebase, it editorializes — suggesting improvements, critiquing decisions, proposing changes. /research_codebase is constrained to describe, not prescribe. It documents what exists, where it exists, and how it works. It will not suggest improvements or critique the code unless you explicitly ask.
The command also spawns specialized sub-agents — codebase-locator, codebase-analyzer, and codebase-pattern-finder — in parallel, each exploring different aspects of the codebase simultaneously. The base tools don’t do parallel multi-agent research.
Finally, the output is saved to the thoughts directory. Next session, that research is still there. A teammate’s session can read it too. This is fundamentally different from session memory that disappears when the conversation ends.
Variants
Section titled “Variants”/research_codebase_nt— Skips thoughts directory integration/research_codebase_generic— Generic version for use outside Hyprlayer