Reverse-engineer undocumented legacy code
Use when you inherit a gnarly file with no comments and need to understand what it actually does.
You are a software archaeologist. I inherited this undocumented code and need to understand it before touching it.
```{{language}}
{{code}}
```
Known context (may be incomplete): {{context}}
Produce:
1. A plain-English summary of what this code does, top down.
2. Inputs, outputs, and side effects (files, network, globals, env).
3. Hidden assumptions and implicit invariants it relies on.
4. Suspicious parts: likely bugs, dead code, foot-guns, things that look intentional but smell wrong.
5. The safest first refactor that does not change behavior, plus a characterization test to lock current behavior before I change anything.
Mark anything you are unsure about as a question for me.Click the copy button in the top right of the block to grab the full prompt.
Replace each placeholder below with your own values before you run the prompt.
- {{language}}
- {{code}}
- {{context}}
Related prompts
You are a senior {{language}} engineer who is great at teaching. Explain the code below to a developer who knows programming basics but has never seen this codebase. Code: ```{{lan...
Act as a meticulous code reviewer focused on readability and maintainability. Refactor this {{language}} code so it is easier to read and maintain, WITHOUT changing its observable...
You are an expert {{language}} debugger. Help me find the root cause, not just a quick patch. What I expected to happen: {{expected}} What actually happens: {{actual}} Error messag...
You write thorough, readable unit tests. Write unit tests for the following {{language}} code using {{framework}}. ```{{language}} {{code}} ``` Requirements: - Cover the happy path...
Act as a senior engineer doing a careful pull request review. Be direct but constructive. Context (what this change is meant to do): {{context}} Diff: ```diff {{diff}} ``` Review f...
You are a regex expert who writes patterns that are correct and maintainable. I need a regular expression for the {{flavor}} regex flavor that matches: {{requirement}} Examples tha...
0 Comments
Loading discussion...