Have you ever had a great open source repository, but some issues that were important to your project weren't documented? There are dozens of tools out there that offer to "chat with your repo" or something similar. But most of the ones I have tried so far have one caveat: they need to read the entire repo in order to answer what might be a tiny question. This took time, and the cost was linear in the size of the repo.

I wondered if I could use Claude's reasoning capabilities to avoid this, as I discussed in my previous post about working with files, but this time for the folder structure - in short, to use reasoning to search for the necessary information.

I tried it with Cline on a bunch of repos and it works like magic. That's what I want to share with you today.

Let's go.

The Setup

1. Install the Cline plugin in VSCode
2. Either clone the repository you want to explore, or let Cline clone it for you
3. Open the chat interface right within VSCode

A Real Example: Understanding Ghost's Medium Import

I was recently working on a migration project from Medium to Ghost (Open Source) and found an export function that was poorly documented (except in the code, of course). So I was curious about how it was implemented. I usually look at the code to find answers before proceeding with the project, but this time I decided to ask Claude for some help or at least get some hints on where to find the answer.

Here's how I did it.

Step 1: Ask the Question

how does ghost (technically) import from medium?

Step 2: Watch the Exploration Process

What's fascinating is how Cline explores the code:

• It doesn't read the entire repository
• Instead, it systematically searches for relevant files and patterns
• It examines specific implementations only when needed
• It traces relationships between components efficiently

Step 3: Get a Comprehensive Answer

The response included:

• Detailed technical explanation
• Actual code snippets
• How different components interact
• Complete implementation details

What I like about this Approach

Speed and Cost Efficiency

• This specific Ghost/Medium question took less than a minute to answer
• Cost only $0.30 (209.6k tokens input, 4.0k tokens output)
• All explanations are backed by actual code from the repository
• You can verify everything in your local codebase
• Everything happens right within VSCode
• Code exploration becomes a natural part of your development workflow

Usage Tips

1. The more specific your question, the more efficient the exploration
2. Always verify explanations with actual code
3. This ensures accuracy and avoid hallucinations
4. Keep an eye on token usage

Happy Coding with AI:)