cliftonc

Unwind

Skills library for reverse engineering codebases. Produces complete, machine-readable documentation and phased rebuild plans to reliably re-build the service or application in a new technology or modernised framework.

Purpose

Generate documentation that enables an AI agent to rebuild your system in a different language or framework while maintaining:

• External API contract compatibility
• Business logic accuracy
• Data model integrity

Quick Start

Install

/plugin install https://github.com/cliftonc/unwind

Restart Claude Code after installation.

Use

1. Use unwind:start
2. Review docs/unwind/architecture.md
3. Use unwind:unwinding-codebase
4. Use unwind:synthesizing-findings

Output:

• docs/unwind/REBUILD-PLAN.md - Strategic rebuild approach
• docs/unwind/layers/*/ - Detailed layer analysis (folder per layer)

Example Output

See a complete example from the RealWorld Go API:

• REBUILD-PLAN.md
• architecture.md
• Layer documentation

---

Updating

/plugin uninstall unwind
/plugin install https://github.com/cliftonc/unwind

---

Workflow

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                              UNWIND WORKFLOW                                 │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                              │
│  PHASE 1: DISCOVERY                                                          │
│  ┌──────────────────────────┐                                               │
│  │         start            │ ──► architecture.md                           │
│  └────────────┬─────────────┘     (layers, entry points, repo info)         │
│               │                                                              │
│               ▼                                                              │
│  PHASE 2: LAYER ANALYSIS                                                     │
│  ┌──────────────────────────┐                                               │
│  │   unwinding-codebase     │ ──► Dispatches layer specialists              │
│  └────────────┬─────────────┘                                               │
│               │                                                              │
│       ┌───────┴───────┬───────────┬───────────┬───────────┐                │
│       ▼               ▼           ▼           ▼           ▼                │
│  ┌─────────┐    ┌──────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌──────────┐         │
│  │database/│    │ domain-  │ │service- │ │  api/   │ │frontend/ │         │
│  │         │    │ model/   │ │ layer/  │ │         │ │          │         │
│  └────┬────┘    └────┬─────┘ └────┬────┘ └────┬────┘ └────┬─────┘         │
│       │              │            │           │           │                 │
│       └──────────────┴────────────┴───────────┴───────────┘                │
│                              │                                              │
│                              ▼                                              │
│  PHASE 3: GAP DETECTION                                                      │
│  ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐             │
│  │           verifying-layer-documentation                    │             │
│  │   (Parallel agents compare docs to source)                 │             │
│  └─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┘             │
│                                │                                            │
│                                ▼                                            │
│                         ┌──────────┐                                        │
│                         │ gaps.md  │  (per layer - work list only)          │
│                         └────┬─────┘                                        │
│                              │                                              │
│                              ▼                                              │
│  PHASE 4: GAP COMPLETION                                                     │
│  ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐             │
│  │           completing-layer-documentation                   │             │
│  │   (Parallel agents fix all gaps, delete gaps.md)          │             │
│  └─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┘             │
│                                │                                            │