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🧭 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 picks one codebase to search (currently engine, device_app, and julia_commons). Pick the repo your question is about before asking — the chat stays pinned to it until you change the selection.

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.

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