Find the entry point
Locate how the process starts and how a single request travels through it. One traced path teaches more structure than an hour of directory browsing.
Read the schema and the tests
Migrations show what the system believes about its data. Tests show which behaviours the team considered worth protecting. Together they are the most honest documentation in a repository.
Make the smallest possible change
Change a label, add a log line, tighten a type. Watch it appear where you expected. That single loop converts assumptions into knowledge faster than any amount of further reading.
- Run the suite before touching anything, so failures are attributable.
- Keep the first pull request narrow enough to review in five minutes.
- Write down what surprised you; it is the map for the next person.