How to Understand Large Codebases with Eigent

How it works

1. Give Eigent the relevant files, directories, or feature area you want to understand.
2. Ask it to trace the request flow and explain which modules own the business logic, transport, persistence, or UI.
3. Ask where validation, side effects, or state transitions happen before you edit anything.
4. End by asking which files you should read next and what the risky spots are.

More prompts to try

• Which module owns the actual business logic versus the transport or UI layer?
• Where does validation happen, and what assumptions are enforced there?
• What related files or background jobs are easy to miss if I change this flow?
• Which tests or checks should I run after editing this area?
• Explain this repo to me — give me a high-level map before I dive in.

How to use

Open Eigent with your codebase connected. Start broad if you are new ("Explain this repo to me"), then narrow to the specific area you need to change. The more you scope the request — a feature name, a directory, a request path — the more concrete the explanation will be. Keep asking follow-up questions until the explanation is specific enough that you would trust yourself to make the first edit.

Expected output

A concrete module map showing which code owns what, a traced request flow, the key validation checkpoints, a list of risky or easy-to-miss areas, and a reading list of the next files to review before making changes.

Limitations

• Works best when you scope the request to a specific area rather than asking about the whole repo at once.
• Very large monorepos benefit from narrowing to a single service or package first.
• Eigent reads what is in the connected codebase — it cannot reason about runtime behavior it has not observed.