The number of tools the software community develops to help each other has always amazed me. But I’m equally baffled by the lack of tools to capture that knowledge. Reading and understanding a large codebase is a daunting task.
We all have been through it. It is a long and demanding process, with moments of frustration or feeling lost. And when we finally have a mental model of the code, we have a hard time to materialize that knowledge.
The traditional way of writing documentation is outdated. The writing is decoupled from the code and the results are short-lived and isolated. We don't need to write documentation, we need to build a knowledge graph.
A knowledge graph reflects our non-linear brains. We store insights and create connections all the time. My startup explores that idea. The tools help you to explore a codebase, record insights and connect them. Team members can learn from or enrich that knowledge.
The knowledge is managed within your favorite IDE, so you can stay in that creative flow. The insights are linked to the source code and are updated as your code evolves.
A common mental model of the code gives more confidence, improves quality and speeds up the onboarding process.