You've just been handed a codebase you've never seen before. No walkthrough, sparse docs, and the person who built it has moved on. You need to ship something in it by end of week. This is one of the most common — and most draining — situations in engineering, and AI actually handles it well if you know how to prompt it. Here's a step-by-step walkthrough you can follow right now.
Step 1: Get a High-Level Map Before You Touch Any File
Don't start by opening random files. Start by asking AI to orient you from the top down.
Paste in the root directory tree (just the folder/file names — no code yet) and use this prompt:
I'm trying to understand a codebase I've never worked in before.
