Understand a codebase you just inherited, in one afternoon
A read-only way to get your bearings in a project you did not write: ask Gravity to map it, trace a request and list the risky parts, without changing a single file.
Everyone meets this moment: a new job, a new client, or a project that a colleague left behind. There is a solution with forty projects, no documentation and a deadline. Reading it file by file takes days. Gravity can read it for you and answer questions in plain language, and it can do all of this without changing anything.
Start with a safe mode
Open the project folder as your workspace. Questions only need Gravity to read and search, and those operations run without asking. Keep the approval mode on Review anyway, so that if a request ever leads to a file edit, you see it first.
Ask for the map
Begin broad. You want the shape of the system before the details.
Give me an overview of this solution. List the projects, what each one
is responsible for, and how they depend on each other.Gravity looks at the solution and project files and answers in the chat. Treat the answer as a first draft of a map, and correct it as you learn more.
Follow one request through the code
The fastest way to understand an application is to follow a single real action from the outside to the database and back.
Trace what happens when a user submits the checkout form.
Name each controller, service and repository involved, in order.Open the files Gravity mentions next to the answer. Each tool call is a card in the chat, so you can see which files it read and check its claims against the source.
Find what is risky
Once you have the map, ask where the trouble is likely to be.
- Which classes are the largest or are used in the most places?
- Where is configuration read, and which settings have no default?
- Which parts have no tests?
Gravity includes Roslyn-based code analysis that can list every reference to a symbol, grouped by file, and can tell test code from production code. That is what makes a question such as "what would break if I change this class" answerable with facts and not a guess.
Write down what you learned
Finish by asking for a short summary of the architecture, the main flows and the risky areas, and keep it in your repository as a README for the next person. In Review mode you approve the file before it is written.
A note on trust
An assistant can be wrong about code it has only read. Use its answers to decide where to look, then confirm in the source before you rely on a detail. If you use a local model through Ollama or LM Studio, none of your code leaves your machine during any of this.
Gravity is free to download with an account. Point it at the most confusing project you have and ask for the map.