Article · 8 min read

Four Steps for Inheriting a Codebase

Tyler Hoffman · Atomic Spin Free Beginner

A short, concrete checklist your new engineer can actually follow in their first weeks with an unfamiliar, agency built codebase. It turns the vague fear of a mystery codebase into a sequence of steps: get it running, map it, make a small safe change, then go deeper. Hand it to the hire on day one.

  • Get the project building and running locally before anything else
  • Make a small low risk change early to learn the feedback loop
  • Map the system at a high level before diving into any one module
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The question it answers

  1. When should I stop using an agency and hire my first in-house developer?

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