Vibe CodingRepo Map
A lightweight summary of a codebase's structure that lets an agent reason about files it hasn't fully read into context.
A repo map is a condensed representation of a codebase — file names, function and class signatures, import relationships — that gives an agent a sense of the overall structure without loading every file’s full contents into its context window.
Why it exists
Most real codebases are far larger than any model’s context window. A repo map lets an agent make reasonable decisions about where to look before it commits to reading full files — similar to how a human skims a project’s folder structure before diving into a specific module.
Where you’ll see it
Tools like Aider popularized explicit repo maps, but the underlying idea — search and summarize before reading everything — shows up across most terminal and IDE-based coding agents in some form.