What are your first steps when looking at a new codebase?

When looking at a new codebase, the first thing I look out for is the docs for getting set up. If none exists, I ping the contact person to find out how to get set up. It’s important to always document what worked/didn’t work for me while getting setup because sometimes, even on a repo with documentation, the original developer(s) may have missed documenting a key component because they were writing the doc with loads of context and local libraries/packages that a developer new to the codebase might not have. Read more