# Reading A Codebase It Has Never Seen

By Rajdeep Mondal. Published 2026-05-08. 5 min read

Canonical: https://www.rajdeepmondal.com/writing/reading-an-unfamiliar-codebase

Tags: Agents, Claude Code, AI Systems

> The first job in an unfamiliar codebase is to stop being lost, cheaply. Read the names, then search, then open a file. Each step costs more than the one before it, so judge an agent by how few files it opens.

Read the interactive essay: https://www.rajdeepmondal.com/writing/reading-an-unfamiliar-codebase