Repo Onboarding & Risk Assistant

THE PROBLEM Unfamiliar codebases are slow and risky to understand. New developers can spend days reading code before contributing meaningfully. Heavily depended-on “load-bearing” files can be difficult to identify. Small changes to critical modules can affect unrelated parts of the system. Missing tests and documentation may remain unnoticed until something fails. Existing AI coding assistants mainly handle one question at a time rather than building a structural understanding of the repository. THE SOLUTION Repo Onboarding & Risk Assistant is a workflow tool built with IBM Bob that turns a GitHub repository into a structured understanding. Paste a GitHub repository URL. Click Scan Repo. Bob performs a multi-step analysis of the actual codebase. Maps the repository architecture and identifies high-dependency / blast-radius modules. Calculates codebase health metrics. Flags risky files before changes are made. Detects missing tests and documentation. Offers first drafts for missing documentation. Generates a concise 5-minute onboarding brief. TARGET USERS 👨‍💻 Software teams onboarding new engineers 🌐 Open-source maintainers 🔍 Developers inheriting unfamiliar codebases 🛠️ Developers auditing existing projects HOW IT WORKS Paste GitHub URL Scan Repo Architecture Summary Risk Flags Missing Docs & Tests Onboarding Brief WHAT MAKES IT UNIQUE Goes beyond a single AI Q&A interaction. Uses Bob as an embedded reasoning engine inside a developer workflow. Chains multiple repository-analysis tasks together. Reasons over the actual codebase, rather than using a generic template. Designed to mirror how a senior engineer approaches codebase onboarding. Not just a generic chatbot wrapper. EFFECTIVENESS Tested on a real repository: 12 Python modules 1,576 lines of code 51 functions 35/100 codebase health score 17% test coverage 33% docstring coverage 62% risk concentration Analysis generated within seconds IMPACT ⏱️ Reduces time spent understanding unfamiliar repositories. ⚠️ Surfaces risky areas before code changes. 🧪 Makes missing tests and documentation visible. 🚀 Helps new contributors understand where to start. 🛡️ Helps teams identify potential problems earlier.