Understand-Anything README

The project's README from github.com/Egonex-AI/Understand-Anything. As one markdown file: README.md.

Understand Anything

Turn any codebase, knowledge base, or docs into an interactive knowledge graph you can explore, search, and ask questions about.
Works with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, and more.

Understand Anything. Understand Anyone.
AI should help people, not replace them.

Understand Anything | Trendshift

English | 简体中文 | 繁體中文 | 日本語 | 한국어 | Español | Türkçe | Русский

Quick Start License: MIT Claude Code Codex Copilot Copilot CLI Gemini CLI OpenCode Vibe CLI Trae Homepage Live Demo Understand Anyone

Understand Anything — Turn any codebase into an interactive knowledge graph

An open-source project from Egonex
Originally created by Lum1104.


You just joined a new team. The codebase is 200,000 lines of code. Where do you even start?

Understand Anything is a Claude Code Plugin that analyzes your project with a multi-agent pipeline, builds a knowledge graph of every file, function, class, and dependency, then gives you an interactive dashboard to explore it all visually. Stop reading code blind. Start seeing the big picture.

The goal isn't a graph that wows you with how complex your codebase is — it's a graph that quietly teaches you how every piece fits together.


✨ Features

[!NOTE] Want to skip the reading? Try the live demo in our homepage — a fully interactive dashboard you can pan, zoom, search, and explore right in your browser.

Explore the structural graph

Navigate your codebase as an interactive knowledge graph — every file, function, and class is a node you can click, search, and explore. Select any node to see plain-English summaries, relationships, and guided tours.

Understand business logic

Switch to the domain view and see how your code maps to real business processes — domains, flows, and steps laid out as a horizontal graph.

Analyze knowledge bases

Point /understand-knowledge at a Karpathy-pattern LLM wiki and get a force-directed knowledge graph with community clustering. The deterministic parser extracts wikilinks and categories from index.md, then LLM agents discover implicit relationships, extract entities, and surface claims — turning your wiki into a navigable graph of interconnected ideas.

🧭 Guided Tours

Auto-generated walkthroughs of the architecture, ordered by dependency. Learn the codebase in the right order.

🔍 Fuzzy & Semantic Search

Find anything by name or by meaning. Search "which parts handle auth?" and get relevant results across the graph.

📊 Diff Impact Analysis

See which parts of the system your changes affect before you commit. Understand ripple effects across the codebase.

🎭 Persona-Adaptive UI

The dashboard adjusts its detail level based on who you are — junior dev, PM, or power user.

🏗️ Layer Visualization

Automatic grouping by architectural layer — API, Service, Data, UI, Utility — with color-coded legend.

📚 Language Concepts

12 programming patterns (generics, closures, decorators, etc.) explained in context wherever they appear.


🚀 Quick Start

1. Install the plugin

/plugin marketplace add Egonex-AI/Understand-Anything
/plugin install understand-anything

Using a local model? For privacy or enterprise setups, point your platform at a local model provider such as Ollama — follow their integration guide to change the model provider.

2. Analyze your codebase

/understand

A multi-agent pipeline scans your project, extracts every file, function, class, and dependency, then builds a knowledge graph saved to .ua/knowledge-graph.json. (Projects that already have a .understand-anything/ directory keep using it — it stays the data directory when present, so nothing needs migrating.)

Heads up on token usage: The initial /understand analyzes your whole codebase and can consume a significant number of tokens on large projects. We recommend running it on a token plan / subscription, or using a local model (see above) for initialization. Subsequent runs are incremental by default — only changed files are re-analyzed — so they use far fewer tokens.

Localized output: Use --language to generate content in your preferred language:

# Generate Chinese content (知识图节点描述和 Dashboard UI)
/understand --language zh

# Supported languages: en (default), zh, zh-TW, ja, ko, ru

On the first run in a project — when you don't pass --language and no language is stored yet — /understand detects the language you're conversing in. If it isn't English, it asks you to confirm (or override) before generating; English conversations are unaffected. Your choice is saved to .ua/config.json and reused on every later run.

The --language parameter affects:

3. Explore the dashboard

/understand-dashboard

An interactive web dashboard opens with your codebase visualized as a graph — color-coded by architectural layer, searchable, and clickable. Select any node to see its code, relationships, and a plain-English explanation.

4. Keep learning

# Ask anything about the codebase
/understand-chat How does the payment flow work?

# Analyze impact of your current changes
/understand-diff

# Deep-dive into a specific file or function
/understand-explain src/auth/login.ts

# Generate an onboarding guide for new team members
/understand-onboard

# Extract business domain knowledge (domains, flows, steps)
/understand-domain

# Analyze a Karpathy-pattern LLM wiki knowledge base
/understand-knowledge ~/path/to/wiki

# Re-run anytime — incremental by default (only re-analyzes changed files)
/understand

# Auto-update on every commit via a post-commit hook
/understand --auto-update

# Scope to a subdirectory (for huge monorepos)
/understand src/frontend

🌐 Multi-Platform Installation

Understand-Anything works across multiple AI coding platforms.

Claude Code (Native)

/plugin marketplace add Egonex-AI/Understand-Anything
/plugin install understand-anything

One-line install (Codex / OpenCode / OpenClaw / Antigravity / Gemini CLI / Pi Agent / Vibe CLI / VS Code Copilot / Hermes / Cline / KIMI CLI / Trae / Nanobot / Kiro)

macOS / Linux:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Egonex-AI/Understand-Anything/main/install.sh | bash
# or skip the prompt by passing the platform:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Egonex-AI/Understand-Anything/main/install.sh | bash -s codex

Windows (PowerShell):

iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Egonex-AI/Understand-Anything/main/install.ps1 | iex

The installer clones the repo to ~/.understand-anything/repo and creates the right symlinks for the chosen platform. Restart your CLI/IDE afterwards.

Note on invoking skills: the invocation prefix differs per platform. Most platforms use slash commands (/understand), but Codex uses $ instead — type $understand, not /understand. If neither prefix is recognized on your platform, just ask in plain language: "Use the understand skill to analyze this project."

Cursor

Cursor auto-discovers the plugin via .cursor-plugin/plugin.json when this repo is cloned. No manual installation needed — just clone and open in Cursor.

If auto-discovery doesn't pick it up, install it manually: open Cursor Settings → Plugins, paste https://github.com/Egonex-AI/Understand-Anything into the search field, and add it from there.

VS Code + GitHub Copilot

VS Code with GitHub Copilot (v1.108+) auto-discovers the plugin via .copilot-plugin/plugin.json when this repo is cloned. No manual installation needed — just clone and open in VS Code.

For personal skills (available across all projects), run the install.sh above with the vscode platform.

Copilot CLI

copilot plugin install Egonex-AI/Understand-Anything:understand-anything-plugin

Kiro CLI / IDE

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Egonex-AI/Understand-Anything/main/install.sh | bash -s kiro

After installation:

For personal skills (available across all projects), run the install.sh above with the kiro platform.

Platform Compatibility

Platform Status Install Method
Claude Code ✅ Native Plugin marketplace
Cursor ✅ Supported Auto-discovery
VS Code + GitHub Copilot ✅ Supported Auto-discovery
Copilot CLI ✅ Supported Plugin install
Codex ✅ Supported install.sh codex
OpenCode ✅ Supported install.sh opencode
OpenClaw ✅ Supported install.sh openclaw
Antigravity ✅ Supported install.sh antigravity
Gemini CLI ✅ Supported install.sh gemini
Pi Agent ✅ Supported install.sh pi
Vibe CLI ✅ Supported install.sh vibe
Hermes ✅ Supported install.sh hermes
Cline ✅ Supported install.sh cline
KIMI CLI ✅ Supported install.sh kimi
Trae ✅ Supported install.sh trae
Nanobot ✅ Supported install.sh nanobot
Kiro CLI / IDE ✅ Supported install.sh kiro

📦 Share the Graph with Your Team

The graph is just JSON — commit it once, and teammates skip the pipeline. Good for onboarding, PR reviews, and docs-as-code.

Example: GoogleCloudPlatform/microservices-demo — Go / Java / Python / Node reference with a committed graph.

What to commit: everything in .ua/ except intermediate/ and diff-overlay.json (those are local scratch). (Legacy projects use .understand-anything/ — substitute that directory name below if it's the one present.)

.ua/intermediate/
.ua/diff-overlay.json

Keep it fresh: enable /understand --auto-update — a post-commit hook incrementally patches the graph so each commit lands with a matching graph. Or re-run /understand manually before releases.

Large graphs (10 MB+): track with git-lfs.

git lfs install
git lfs track ".ua/*.json"
git add .gitattributes .ua/

View the dashboard without Claude Code

Once a graph has been generated and committed, anyone on the team can open it with one command — no Claude Code, no LLM, no API key. Only Node.js (>= 18) is required:

npx https://github.com/Egonex-AI/Understand-Anything/releases/latest/download/understand-anything-viewer.tgz /path/to/analyzed/project

The terminal prints a tokenized URL (http://127.0.0.1:5173/?token=…) and opens the full interactive dashboard in your browser. The project directory (default: current directory) must contain the committed data directory (.ua/, or legacy .understand-anything/). Everything is served read-only from local disk — no LLM calls, no data leaves your machine.

Working from a clone instead? pnpm install && pnpm --filter @understand-anything/core build, then GRAPH_DIR=/path/to/analyzed/project pnpm dev:dashboard does the same via the Vite dev server.


🔧 Under the Hood

Tree-sitter + LLM hybrid

Static analysis and LLMs do what each does best:

This split is why the graph is reproducible on the structural side (the same code always yields the same edges) while still capturing intent on the semantic side (what a file is for, not just what it imports).

Multi-Agent Pipeline

The /understand command orchestrates 5 specialized agents, /understand-domain adds a 6th, and /understand-knowledge adds a 7th:

Agent Role Used By
project-scanner Discovers files, detects languages and frameworks /understand
file-analyzer Extracts functions, classes, imports; produces graph nodes and edges /understand
architecture-analyzer Identifies architectural layers /understand
tour-builder Generates guided learning tours /understand
graph-reviewer Validates graph completeness and referential integrity. Runs inline by default; use --review for full LLM review /understand
domain-analyzer Extracts business domains, flows, and process steps /understand-domain
article-analyzer Extracts entities, claims, and implicit relationships from wiki articles /understand-knowledge

File analyzers run in parallel, up to 5 concurrent workers and 20–30 files per batch.

The pipeline also supports incremental updates: only files changed since the last run are re-analyzed.


🎥 Community

A community-made walkthrough by Better Stack.

Community walkthrough by Better Stack — watch on YouTube
Watch on YouTube →

Made a video, blog post, or tutorial? Open an issue or PR — happy to feature it here.


🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Here's how to get started:

  1. Fork the repository
  2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
  3. Run the tests (pnpm --filter @understand-anything/core test)
  4. Commit your changes and open a pull request

Please open an issue first for major changes so we can discuss the approach.


Stop reading code blind. Start understanding everything.

Star History

Star History Chart

Thanks to everyone who's used and contributed — knowing this saves people time is what made it worth building.

MIT License © Yuxiang Lin and Infinite Universe, Inc.

Understand-Anything (Egonex-AI/Understand-Anything)

Searching Database…

这是什么?Understand Anything 会通过多智能体流水线分析你的代码库(或知识库/wiki),并将其转换为交互式知识图谱,涵盖每个文件、函数、类和依赖关系,你可以在可视化仪表盘中探索它。
这只是 Claude Code 的插件吗?还是也能配合其他编程助手使用?它是原生的 Claude Code 插件,也可以通过斜杠/技能命令安装到 Codex、Cursor、GitHub Copilot、Gemini CLI、OpenCode、Antigravity、Pi Agent、Vibe CLI、Hermes、Cline、KIMI CLI、Trae、Nanobot 和 Kiro 中。此外还有一个独立的网页仪表盘,即使不使用 Claude 的队友也能打开。
我该如何安装并生成知识图谱?通过 Claude Code 插件市场安装,或者对其他平台运行一行命令的 install.sh / install.ps1 脚本。该脚本会将仓库克隆到 ~/.understand-anything/repo,并创建正确文件的符号链接。然后在项目中运行 /understand(Codex 中为 $understand)来构建图谱。
我需要云端 LLM/API 密钥,还是可以用本地模型运行?它依赖于你安装到的编程助手(Claude Code、Codex、Gemini CLI 等),因此需要该助手的 API 访问权限或令牌套餐。出于隐私或企业环境的考虑,你也可以将平台指向 Ollama 等本地模型提供商。
首次扫描大型代码库会消耗大量 token 吗?会的。首次运行 /understand 会分析整个项目,在大型仓库上可能消耗相当多的 token,因此 README 建议为首次分析准备令牌套餐/订阅,或使用本地模型。之后的运行是增量的,只会重新分析有变化的文件。
队友无需 Claude Code、LLM,也不用外发任何数据,就能查看共享的图谱吗?可以。图谱提交到仓库(.ua/ 目录)后,任何人只需一条命令,并仅依赖 Node.js 18+ 即可打开仪表盘。它以只读方式从本地磁盘提供所有内容,不涉及任何 LLM 调用。
流水线中的智能体具体做什么?核心的 /understand 运行使用 5 个智能体(project-scanner、file-analyzer、architecture-analyzer、tour-builder、graph-reviewer);/understand-domain 增加了一个用于业务逻辑的 domain-analyzer;/understand-knowledge 则为 wiki 增加了 article-analyzer。
什么是导览?它是按依赖关系排序、自动生成的架构导览,目的是按合理的顺序带你了解代码库,而不是盲目地逐个阅读文件。
它能告诉我当前的代码改动会影响什么吗?可以。Diff 影响分析会在你提交前显示改动涉及系统的哪些部分,让你看清代码库中的连锁影响。
我能用它分析文档或 wiki,而不是代码吗?可以。/understand-knowledge 面向 Karpathy 模式的 LLM wiki,先以确定性方式解析维基链接和分类,然后由 LLM 智能体发现关系、实体和论断,最终生成力导向的聚类图谱。
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