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The /understand command is the entry point for Understand Anything. It orchestrates a five-agent pipeline that scans your project, extracts structure and relationships, classifies architectural layers, builds a guided tour, and validates the result — all saved to .understand-anything/knowledge-graph.json. Once complete, it automatically opens the interactive dashboard. Run /understand whenever you join a new project, after large refactors, or any time you want a fresh map of the codebase.

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Usage

# Analyze the current directory
/understand

# Force a full rebuild, ignoring the existing graph
/understand --full

# Scope analysis to a specific subdirectory
/understand src/payments

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The five-agent pipeline

1

project-scanner — Discover

Detects languages, frameworks, and enumerates all source files with line counts. Reads README.md and your package manifest (package.json, pyproject.toml, etc.) for authoritative project metadata.Output: .understand-anything/intermediate/scan-result.json
If your project has more than 200 files, the scanner will ask you to confirm before continuing or suggest scoping to a subdirectory.
2

file-analyzer — Extract

Reads every source file and extracts functions, classes, imports, and their relationships as graph nodes and edges. Batches are processed up to 3 concurrently for speed.Output: .understand-anything/intermediate/batch-<N>.json
3

architecture-analyzer — Classify

Groups nodes into architectural layers (API, Service, Data, UI, Utility) using the directory tree and framework conventions as evidence.Output: .understand-anything/intermediate/layers.json
4

tour-builder — Narrate

Generates a step-by-step guided tour ordered by dependency, aligned with the project README narrative. Each step points to the files you should read first.Output: .understand-anything/intermediate/tour.json
5

graph-reviewer — Validate

Cross-validates the assembled graph against the file inventory. Removes dangling edges, fills missing required fields, and approves or flags the graph before it is saved.Output: .understand-anything/intermediate/review.json

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Incremental updates

By default, /understand only re-analyzes files that changed since the last run:
  1. Reads .understand-anything/meta.json to get the last git commit hash.
  2. Runs git diff <lastCommitHash>..HEAD --name-only to find changed files.
  3. Re-runs file-analyzer only on those files, then merges results into the existing graph.
  4. Always re-runs architecture-analyzer on the full merged node set, since layer boundaries may shift.
If the commit hash is unchanged, the command reports “Graph is up to date” and exits immediately. Use --full to bypass this check and rebuild from scratch.

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Options

OptionDescription
--fullForce a full rebuild, ignoring any existing graph
<directory>Scope analysis to a subdirectory (e.g. src/payments)

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Output

After a successful run, .understand-anything/ contains: 
.understand-anything/
  knowledge-graph.json   # Full graph: nodes, edges, layers, tour
  meta.json              # Last analyzed timestamp, git commit hash, file count
The graph schema: 
{
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "project": {
    "name": "my-app",
    "languages": ["TypeScript"],
    "frameworks": ["React", "Express"],
    "description": "...",
    "analyzedAt": "2026-03-23T10:00:00Z",
    "gitCommitHash": "a1b2c3d"
  },
  "nodes": [...],
  "edges": [...],
  "layers": [...],
  "tour": [...]
}
A final summary is printed showing files analyzed, nodes and edges created (by type), layers identified, tour steps generated, and any warnings from the reviewer.
On success, /understand automatically launches /understand-dashboard so you can explore the graph immediately. If final validation did not pass, the graph is saved with warnings and dashboard launch is skipped.

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Examples

# First-time analysis of the whole project
/understand

# Rebuild completely after a major refactor
/understand --full

# Analyze only the authentication module
/understand src/auth

# After merging a PR, update the graph incrementally
/understand
# Output: "Incremental update — 4 files changed. Re-analyzing..."

/understand-dashboard

Explore the knowledge graph visually in an interactive web dashboard.

/understand-chat

Ask natural-language questions about the codebase using the graph as context.

/understand-diff

Analyze the impact of your current git changes on the knowledge graph.

/understand-onboard

Generate a structured onboarding guide for new team members.

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