Streamlining Engineering Onboarding

Grok Large Codebases in Minutes

Building features from scratch is an entirely different challenge compared to building features in large, gnarly codebases where you might have limited to no context. At Entelligence, we've thought through the onboarding process from the bottom up and built a system that works for engineers to get an understanding of the codebase at different levels of abstraction so that they understand both the overall architecture as well as where any part of code is implemented.

Current Approaches to Onboarding:

Traditional methods of onboarding to a new codebase are often time-consuming, frustrating, and inefficient. Let's break down the common approaches and their typical timelines:

1. Exploring the Codebase:

   "Navigating the codebase felt like piecing together a puzzle without a guide. I’d spend hours trying to understand the structure." - Raghav Dixit, Senior Developer

   Developers spend countless hours navigating through directories, trying to understand the project structure and relationships between different components. This process can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks, depending on the codebase's complexity.

2. Reading Documentation:

   "Onboarding to me is generally spending hours reading outdated docs and pestering my colleagues with questions regarding where I should be looking for things. The issue with products like Copilot is you need to know what to ask for it to be useful and early on you don't." - Mike Berdinis, Uber

   When documentation exists, it's often outdated or incomplete. Engineers might spend days sifting through wikis, READMEs, and comments, only to find that much of the information is no longer relevant.

3. Asking Colleagues:

   "I feel like I'm constantly interrupting my teammates with questions. Our org is mostly remote so that ends up being sitting around waiting for people to reply on Slack. All around it honestly impacts everyone's productivity." - Alex Wang, Waymo

   New team members often rely heavily on their colleagues for guidance, leading to frequent interruptions and reduced productivity across the team. This can continue for weeks or even months after joining.

In total, the traditional onboarding process can take anywhere from 3 to 8 weeks before a new developer becomes truly productive. This doesn't account for the ongoing learning curve that can extend for months as developers encounter new parts of the codebase.

Limitations of Current AI-powered Tools

While tools like GitHub Copilot, Codeium, or Cursor offer valuable assistance for specific coding tasks, they fall short in providing a comprehensive overview of the entire codebase. These tools are great for generating code snippets or offering suggestions, but they don't address the core challenges of understanding the overall architecture, relationships between components, or the "big picture" of how everything fits together.

The result? Engineers are left without a clear understanding of the system as a whole, struggling to piece together the puzzle of a complex codebase. This fragmented approach not only extends the onboarding period but also increases the likelihood of introducing bugs or architectural inconsistencies in future development.

The Entelligence Philosophy:

At Entelligence, we've reimagined the onboarding process with a revolutionary approach. Our philosophy is built on three key principles:

1. Automated Codebase Mapping: We instantly generate a comprehensive overview of the entire codebase, highlighting key modules, dependencies, and architectural patterns. This gives developers a clear "big picture" understanding from day one.
2. Interactive Exploration: Our platform allows developers to click through different parts of the codebase, diving deeper into specific areas of interest. Each interaction provides context-aware explanations, making it easy to understand complex systems piece by piece.
3. Multi-faceted Comprehension: We recognize that understanding code is a combination of visualization, explanation, and reading the code itself. Entelligence empowers engineers to seamlessly switch between these three modes of learning for any part of the codebase they're interested in, catering to different learning styles and depths of exploration.

By combining these principles, Entelligence provides a holistic understanding of codebases at various levels of abstraction. We empower developers to rapidly familiarize themselves with new projects, dramatically reducing onboarding time and enhancing overall productivity.

With Entelligence, engineers can:

• Visualize: See graphical representations of code structure, dependencies, and data flow.
• Explain: Get clear, context-aware explanations of code functionality and purpose.
• Navigate: Access the actual source code, with intelligent navigation and cross-referencing.

This flexible approach allows developers to engage with the codebase in the way that best suits their current needs and learning preferences, making the onboarding process more efficient and effective.

Unleash Your Creativity and Exploration:

With Entelligence, you're not just reading about code - you're interacting with it. Our approach allows you to take your codebase creativity and exploration to new heights, making the onboarding process an exciting journey of discovery.

Competitor Comparison:

While tools like Codeium, GitHub Copilot, and Cursor offer assistance in coding tasks, they fall short in providing a comprehensive onboarding experience. Here's how Entelligence stands out:

Feature	Entelligence	GitHub Copilot	Codeium	Cursor
Deep Dives	✓	✗	✗	✗
Visualizations	✓	✗	✗	✗
Comprehensive Overview	✓	✗	✗	✗
Guided Exploration	✓	✗	✗	✗
Easy Follow-ups	✓	✗	✗	✗

See It in Action: