environment-discovery

Environment Discovery

When dropped into an unfamiliar environment, ALWAYS explore before acting.

Step 1: Understand the workspace

ls -la /app/          # or the working directory
find . -type f | head -50

• What files exist? What are their sizes?
• Are there READMEs, Makefiles, config files?
• What languages/frameworks are involved?

Step 2: Inspect data files

Before writing any code that reads data, understand the format:

• file <filename> — detect file type (binary, text, encoding)
• head -20 <file> — first lines of text files
• xxd <file> | head -20 — hex dump for binary files
• wc -l <file> — line count for text files
• stat <file> — exact file size in bytes
• python3 -c "import struct; ..." — parse binary headers

Step 3: Check available tools

which python3 gcc g++ make cmake node npm cargo rustc java go
pip list 2>/dev/null | head -20

• What compilers/interpreters are installed?
• What libraries are available?
• What package managers can you use?

Step 4: Read existing code

If there are existing source files:

• Read them FULLY before modifying
• Understand the build system (Makefile, CMakeLists.txt, pyproject.toml)
• Check for existing tests

Key Principles

• NEVER assume file formats — always inspect first
• NEVER assume tools are installed — always check
• A 500MB file is NOT a "small file" — plan for it
• Binary files need byte-level inspection, not cat
• Spend 30 seconds exploring to save 5 minutes debugging