1d agoPosted Nov 25, 2025 at 9:49 AM EST

I Vibe-Coded a Tool to Decode a Legacy System Nobody Understood

seng

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Mood

excited

Sentiment

positive

Category

startup_launch

Key topics

Legacy System

Code Analysis

AI Assistance

Software Development

Open Source

My team came to me: "We can't estimate this project. We don't understand how the system works."

  We'd inherited a decade-old Yii2 codebase. Two previous teams had tried and failed to modernize it. The code followed proper patterns—ORM, fat models, MVC—but one feature would
  touch 40+ files across 8 layers. Original developers gone. Docs from 2019.

  Cursor and Claude Code couldn't help. They're brilliant at individual files, but they can't see how features connect across hundreds of files. Limited context windows. No memory
  between sessions.

  So I vibe-coded something to solve it. Not a professional dev—founder desperation.

  18 months later, it's CodeCompass:
  - Maps capabilities to scattered code
  - Traces logic across layers
  - Answers "how does X work?" in seconds
  - Gives AI assistants persistent context

  Open sourced it. Every enterprise I talk to has this same problem.

  https://pearlthoughts.com/codecompass

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ID: 46046248Type: storyLast synced: 11/25/2025, 2:50:08 PM

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We'd inherited a decade-old Yii2 codebase. Two previous teams had tried and failed to modernize it. The code followed proper patterns—ORM, fat models, MVC—but one feature would touch 40+ files across 8 layers. Original developers gone. Docs from 2019. Cursor and Claude Code couldn't help. They're brilliant at individual files, but they can't see how features connect across hundreds of files. Limited context windows. No memory between sessions. So I vibe-coded something to solve it. Not a professional dev—founder desperation. 18 months later, it's CodeCompass: - Maps capabilities to scattered code - Traces logic across layers - Answers "how does X work?" in seconds - Gives AI assistants persistent context Open sourced it. Every enterprise I talk to has this same problem. https://pearlthoughts.com/codecompass