Built for the IBM Bob 2.0 Hackathon

Understand any codebase
in one command.

Joining a project on Monday? Byakugan reads the whole thing for you and hands back something you can actually read — a report, plain-English explanations, a map of what breaks when you change something, and a chat that answers from your code.

Install it free Why it exists
  • 1command to get started
  • 0API keys for you to set up
  • 4things you get back
a new repo, on a Monday

> npm install -g byakugan-macgpt

> byakugan analyze .

reading 30 files…

✓ how the project fits together

✓ what every file is for

✓ what breaks if you change things

✓ questions to check you read it

→ open the report

no API key needed on your side

Real output. It reads the code, then hands you back one page you can read in a coffee break.

the problem

The first week is silent.

Nobody explains the codebase. You open file after file, guess at the names, and slowly piece together something nobody ever wrote down.

You are guessing

Names are abbreviated, the important logic is in three random folders, and nothing tells you where to start.

Asking costs too much

You do not want to keep interrupting the one person who knows. So you keep guessing.

Generic answers do not help

Explaining one file in isolation ignores the other twenty-nine. You already know how to read a function.

watch it work

Ninety seconds, start to finish.

A real run on a real repository, from an empty folder to a report you can read. No edits, no narration of what you are about to see.

Demo video

Coming soon — check the repository for the recording.

  • Point it at a repo you have never opened before.
  • Watch it read every file and work out the shape.
  • Open the report and see what you would have spent a week on.

the solution

Point it at a folder. Get back four things.

One pass over your code, then everything after that is instant — because the understanding is already saved.

01

A report worth reading

One interactive page with the project overview, the file map, the risky spots and what to look at first. It opens in your browser and works offline.

02

Any file, in plain English

Ask about one file and get what it is for, what it depends on, and why it exists — without reading all of it first.

03

Know what breaks

Point at a file before you change it and see who depends on it. No more finding out in production.

04

Ask questions like a person

"Where is auth handled?" gets an answer from your code, not from the model's memory. Follow-ups keep the context.

the bit that surprises people

It explains it your way, not one fixed way.

You say how much you know and what you are trying to do. Everything after that is pitched to match — no separate beginner version to write and maintain.

new to the codebase Learning it

Concepts before implementation, jargon defined, and a sensible order to read things in.

billing.js keeps a running total of
requests per window. when the window
fills up it waits for it to clear.
joining to change it Reviewing it

Skips the tutorial. Tradeoffs, edge cases, and the part that will surprise you later.

the limit is per running copy, so it
resets on deploy. fine for one box,
wrong the moment you scale to two.

how it works

Four steps, and you only do the first one.

It reads your project in several passes rather than one, because a single pass over a whole repository gives confident nonsense.

  1. You point at a folder

    That is the whole setup. No config file, no key, no choosing a model.

  2. It reads everything worth reading

    Skips binaries and build output, keeps the interesting parts of very long files, and works through the rest in batches that fit.

  3. It works out how the pieces fit

    What depends on what, where the risky code is, which files everything else leans on.

  4. It saves the understanding

    Your report, file explanations and chat all read from the same saved result. Ask a fifth question as fast as the first.

the impact

Your first day becomes your first coffee break.

The goal was never to write code for you. It is to get you from "I have no idea where to start" to making a real change.

Stop reading at random

You get an order to read things in, so you stop opening files hoping one of them is the important one.

Ask without awkwardness

The person who knows the codebase is not interrupted, and you are not guessing quietly for a week.

Change things more safely

See what depends on a file before you touch it, not after something falls over.

the hackathon

Built with IBM Bob, in 48 hours.

Byakugan was built during the IBM Bob 2.0 Hackathon. Bob was the reason we got to a working demo at all.

Planning

Bob helped us break a very large idea into a build order we could actually finish in two days.

Building

Bob sat in the loop while we wrote the scanner, the pipeline and the report, catching the parts that would not work before we wasted a night on them.

Finishing

When the project outgrew the original plan, Bob helped us rework it into the shape that shipped.

Two developers, one weekend, and a tool we now use on codebases we did not write.

the team

Two people who kept inheriting codebases.

We built the thing we kept wishing existed.

TogetherThe demo, the script, and the rehearsal
Built forIBM Bob 2.0 Hackathon
Install withnpm install -g byakugan-macgpt
LicenceMIT

get started

Try it on something you have been avoiding.

npm install -g byakugan-macgpt
byakugan analyze .
  1. Install it. One command, nothing to configure.
  2. Check it works. byakugan doctor takes a second and tells you if something is wrong.
  3. Point it at a project. Then open the report and stop guessing.

Still a young tool, built in a weekend. If it gets something wrong on your codebase, we want to know.