Deepfork

DeepFork — don't fork the code, fork the design

You are running a five-phase reverse-engineering pipeline. The product of each phase is a file the user keeps. Never skip Phase 0.

All outputs go to deepfork-out/<target-name>/ in the current working directory.

Phase 0 — License gate (non-negotiable)

Before cloning anything:

1. Check the target's license (gh api repos/<owner>/<repo> --jq .license.spdx_id or the LICENSE file).
2. Proceed only for OSI-approved licenses (MIT, Apache-2.0, BSD, GPL/AGPL/LGPL, MPL, etc.). No license = all-rights-reserved = stop and tell the user (you may still produce the understanding report from public code, but no rebuild).
3. State the rules of engagement in one line to the user:
   • The blueprint describes behavior and architecture, never copies code.
   • The rebuild is clean-room: written from the blueprint, not from the source.
   • Copyleft targets (GPL/AGPL): warn that a rebuild closely derived from the design may carry obligations; recommend the rebuild also be open source.
   • The final repo gets an ATTRIBUTION.md crediting the original.
4. Record license + rules in deepfork-out/<target>/LICENSE-GATE.md.

Phase 1 — Acquire

git clone --depth 1 <target-url> deepfork-out/<target>/source

Note stars/age/activity in one line (context for how battle-tested the design is).

Phase 2 — Comprehend (the graph pass)

With graphify (preferred — check command -v graphify; if missing, offer: uv tool install graphifyy, or proceed to the fallback):

cd deepfork-out/<target>/source
graphify .                          # code-only is free & local (tree-sitter AST)
# add --backend claude-cli if the repo's docs/images matter to understanding
graphify cluster-only .             # names communities, writes GRAPH_REPORT.md
graphify . --wiki                   # agent-crawlable wiki: index + one page per subsystem

Fallback (no graphify): build the map by hand — entry points (bin/main/exports), dependency manifest, directory tree with per-dir one-liners, and a call-graph sketch of the top 5 most-imported modules.

Then write UNDERSTANDING.md — the "most clean way to understand this repo":

1. One-paragraph thesis — what this repo actually is, mechanically.
2. The load-bearing pieces (graphify's god nodes): the 3-7 functions/classes everything routes through. For each: what it does, why everything depends on it.
3. Subsystems (the communities): one section each — purpose, key files, how it talks to the others.
4. The data flow: trace ONE representative request/call end to end, file by file.
5. Surprising connections: the non-obvious couplings (graphify's analysis pass surfaces these) — these are where rebuilds go wrong.
6. Honesty labels: mark each claim [VERIFIED] (you read the code) or [INFERRED] (from the graph/structure). Verify every load-bearing claim by reading the actual code before labeling it VERIFIED.

Phase 3 — Interrogate

Answer the questions a rebuilder must know, using graphify query / path / explain (or direct reading):

• What is the core algorithm/trick, in plain words? (the thing you'd lose if you rebuilt naively)
• What do the public interfaces promise? (CLI surface, API contracts, file formats)
• Which dependencies are load-bearing vs incidental?
• What does it do at the edges — errors, concurrency, persistence?
• What would break first at 10× scale or hostile input?

Append answers to UNDERSTANDING.md § "Interrogation". Read the real code for anything still [INFERRED] that the rebuild depends on.

Phase 4 — Blueprint

Ask the user the customization question before writing (this is the whole point — their version, not a clone):

"What do you want YOUR version to do differently? (different language/stack, smaller scope, new capability, different storage, simpler/embedded, …)"

Then write BLUEPRINT.md — a spec someone could build from WITHOUT ever seeing the original source:

1. Mission — what the new tool does, for whom, in 2 sentences.
2. Architecture — components, responsibilities, boundaries (informed by the original's communities, improved where the surprising-connections pass showed accidental coupling).
3. Core mechanisms — each described behaviorally (inputs → transformation → outputs, invariants, edge rules). Pseudocode allowed; copied code forbidden.
4. Contracts — CLI/API surface, file formats, config schema.
5. The user's customizations — explicit deltas from the original's design, each with rationale.
6. Build order — milestones, each independently testable; test strategy per mechanism.
7. Dependency decisions — what to take, what to write, what to drop (with the original's choices as evidence).

Phase 5 — Rebuild (clean-room)

1. Scaffold a fresh repo (new directory, user's name, their license choice).
2. Close the original source. Build from BLUEPRINT.md only. If you must check behavior, run the original as a black box (inputs/outputs) — do not read its code during implementation.
3. Build milestone by milestone, tests first for the core mechanisms.
4. Ship with ATTRIBUTION.md: "Design informed by reverse-engineering <original> (<license>). Implementation is original, built clean-room from a behavioral blueprint."
5. Final check: diff-of-spirit — does YOUR version do the user's deltas, not just clone the original?

Guardrails

• Phase 0 always runs. Private/leaked/unlicensed code: understanding-report only, never a rebuild.
• Never paste original source into the rebuild. Behavioral description is the only thing that crosses the wall.
• If the target is enormous (>5k files), deepfork ONE subsystem the user picks from the community list.
• Keep deepfork-out/ out of the rebuilt repo.