← Back to Atlas

🧭 Atlas — how to use it

Atlas answers questions about our codebases. Ask in plain English — it reads the actual code and explains what you need, for both technical and non-technical people.

What can I ask?

• How something works — e.g. “How does the WiFi onboarding flow work?”
• Whether a change is feasible — e.g. “How hard is it to add a new dispenser type?”
• The impact of a change — e.g. “What breaks if we change the recipe ingredient schema?”
• Where to look to modify something — e.g. “Which files handle induction heating?”

Atlas only answers questions about the enrolled codebases. Off-topic questions are politely declined.

Which codebase does it answer about?

At the top of a chat, the Repo selector is set to Auto (detect) — Atlas figures out which repo your question is about (currently engine and device_app), and for cross-cutting questions it can look at more than one. If you already know the repo, pick it from the dropdown to pin the chat to it.

Technical vs Simple answers

The Answer selector controls the style:

• Simple (default) — a plain-language, concepts-only explanation with analogies. No code or file names. Best for non-technical readers.
• Technical — a short summary followed by the technical detail with exact path:line code references. Best for engineers.

You can switch the style per chat at any time.

Follow-up questions

Keep asking in the same chat — Atlas remembers the conversation, so you can drill in (“which file has the PID constants?”) without repeating context. Start a fresh topic with + New chat.

How long does an answer take?

Atlas actually searches and reads the code, so a full answer usually takes 1–3 minutes. You’ll see live progress (“Searching…”, “Reading…”) while it works. You can switch to another chat and even ask something there in the meantime — the first answer keeps running and is saved to its own chat.

Giving feedback

• Per answer (optional): under each answer, tap 👍 or 👎 (and optionally add a note) to tell us how good it was.
• Per session (required): before starting a new chat, you’ll be asked to rate your previous session 👍/👎 — this helps us improve Atlas.

Reading an answer

Technical answers cite code as path:line (e.g. engine/src/.../PidPowerController.h:76). Under each answer, a small footer shows which repo · branch · commit Atlas read, the model, and how long it took — handy for confirming exactly which version of the code the answer is based on.

← Back to Atlas