How to Contribute to the Understand Anything Project: A Complete Guide

Yes—you can contribute to the Understand Anything project by forking the repository, setting up the pnpm monorepo workspace, and submitting pull requests following the guidelines in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Understand Anything is an open-source knowledge-graph visualization tool maintained by Lum1104 that welcomes community contributions. Whether you want to add language support, improve the React dashboard, or enhance the core analysis engine, the project provides a structured workflow for contributors. This guide walks you through the repository architecture, contribution workflow, and essential code patterns needed to submit successful pull requests.

Repository Architecture and Tech Stack

The project is organized as a pnpm monorepo with three distinct architectural layers. Understanding this structure helps you locate the correct files for your contributions.

Core Engine

The core engine (understand-anything-plugin/packages/core/) handles static analysis, graph construction, and schema validation. It exports browser-safe sub-path modules (e.g., ./search, ./types, ./schema) to ensure the dashboard never pulls Node-only dependencies into the browser bundle.

Dashboard UI

The dashboard (understand-anything-plugin/packages/dashboard/) is built with React and TypeScript. This package consumes the core engine's browser-safe exports to visualize the knowledge graph interactively.

Skills and Agents

The skills & agents layer (understand-anything-plugin/src/ and understand-anything-plugin/agents/) contains LLM-driven skill definitions and agent prompts. Skills like /understand and /understand-dashboard define how the system parses and interprets different programming languages.

Step-by-Step Contribution Workflow

Follow these six steps to contribute to the Understand Anything project:

1. Fork and clone the repository from Lum1104/Understand-Anything.
2. Install dependencies using pnpm install at the workspace root.
3. Build the core package with pnpm --filter @understand-anything/core build.
4. Run the test suite using pnpm --filter @understand-anything/core test and pnpm --filter @understand-anything/skill test.
5. Create a feature branch, implement your changes, and ensure code style consistency (ESLint and TypeScript strict mode are enforced).
6. Submit a pull request following the checklist outlined in CONTRIBUTING.md.

The CONTRIBUTING.md file specifies branch naming conventions, commit message formats, and a detailed PR checklist that reviewers use to evaluate submissions.

Extending Skills: A Practical Example

When adding new functionality, you will often work with the KnowledgeGraph type from the core package. Below is the pattern used in understand-anything-plugin/src/understand-chat.ts for building chat prompts:

import type { KnowledgeGraph } from "@understand-anything/core";
import { buildChatContext, formatContextForPrompt } from "./context-builder.js";

/**
 * Build a complete chat prompt by combining knowledge‑graph context
 * with a user query.
 */
export function buildChatPrompt(
  graph: KnowledgeGraph,
  query: string,
): string {
  const context = buildChatContext(graph, query);
  const formattedContext = formatContextForPrompt(context);

  return [
    "You are a knowledgeable assistant that answers questions about a software codebase.",
    "Use the following knowledge graph context to inform your answer.",
    "Reference specific files, functions, classes, and relationships from the graph.",
    "",
    "---",
    "",
    formattedContext,
    "---",
    "",
    `**User question:** ${query}`,
  ].join("\n");
}

To add support for a new programming language:

• Create a markdown file under understand-anything-plugin/skills/understand/languages/ (e.g., rust.md or go.md).
• Register the language in the skill's manifest (SKILL.md).
• Write corresponding unit tests in the tests/skill/ directory.

Key Files Every Contributor Should Know

File	Purpose
CONTRIBUTING.md	Complete workflow guide, branch naming rules, and PR checklist.
understand-anything-plugin/package.json	Declares skill package versions and dependencies on @understand-anything/core.
understand-anything-plugin/src/index.ts	Entry point that wires all skill modules together.
understand-anything-plugin/src/understand-chat.ts	Reference implementation for skill development.
understand-anything-plugin/agents/*.md	AI agent prompt definitions driving the analysis pipeline.
understand-anything-plugin/skills/understand/**/*.md	Language-specific skill definitions.
understand-anything-plugin/packages/core/**	Core analysis engine and knowledge-graph generation logic.
understand-anything-plugin/packages/dashboard/**	React components and layout for the interactive dashboard.

Summary

• Understand Anything is a pnpm monorepo with separate packages for the core engine, dashboard UI, and LLM skills.
• Contributions require pnpm for dependency management and building, with strict TypeScript and ESLint enforcement.
• The core engine uses browser-safe sub-path exports (./types, ./schema, ./search) to separate Node.js analysis from frontend code.
• New language support is added via markdown files in the skills directory, registered through SKILL.md.
• All changes must include tests and follow the PR checklist in CONTRIBUTING.md to be accepted.

Frequently Asked Questions

What programming languages can I add support for?

You can add support for any programming language by creating a new skill definition. Create a markdown file in understand-anything-plugin/skills/understand/languages/, register it in the skill's SKILL.md manifest, and write unit tests in tests/skill/. The system uses these definitions to construct knowledge graphs from source code.

Do I need to build the entire monorepo to test my changes?

No—you can build specific packages using pnpm filters. Run pnpm --filter @understand-anything/core build to build just the core engine, or pnpm --filter @understand-anything/skill test to run skill-specific tests. This modular approach speeds up development when you are only touching one component.

Are there specific requirements for the React dashboard code?

Yes—the dashboard (understand-anything-plugin/packages/dashboard/) must only import browser-safe modules from the core package. The core exports specific sub-paths (./types, ./search, ./schema) that exclude Node.js-specific code. Ensure your dashboard changes use these exports rather than importing directly from the core's internal Node.js modules.

Where should I look for beginner-friendly issues?

Check the GitHub Issues tab for labels like "good first issue" or "help wanted". Documentation improvements, adding new language skill definitions, and minor UI enhancements in the dashboard are typically excellent starting points for first-time contributors to the Understand Anything project.

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