naetive

Understanding: what the project knows

Last reviewed: 16 Sep 2026

The Understanding page is the map of what your project knows: every decision, constraint and lesson an agent has recorded, filed by topic, with the file it rests on. It is what every agent you connect starts from. You do not write it; agents do, as they work, and you settle the few things they cannot.

The top of the page

  • One word for how it is doing. Starting: the first entries are in. Thriving: it grew in the last hour. Steady: current and unchanged. Drifting: the code has moved since it last grew. At risk: entries are disputed and waiting on you. Hover the mark next to it for the same explanation on the page.
  • Last strengthened is the last time an agent added or replaced an entry. A long gap while the code keeps moving is the sign the understanding is falling behind.
  • "N of M facts about the code cite a file" counts, of the entries about the code, how many point at a file you can open. Agents add citations as they record and re-check older entries as they work; nothing for you to do.
  • Your project orientation is a short written picture of the project (what it is, why it exists, how it is built, what shaped it), written by an agent when you ask it to map the project. It is the first thing a new agent reads.

Needs you

When an agent could not settle something (two readings of the code, a claim it disputes), it lands here with three plain choices: Let an agent settle it, Keep it, or Drop it. This band is the whole list of where the project is waiting on you.

The map

Topics, biggest first. Open a topic to read its entries; open an entry for why it matters and what backs it. Each entry is written for two readers: the title and summary for you, and a folded Detail for agents with the technical specifics. An entry marked new landed since you last looked. An entry marked not checked in N months has had no file, document or commit attached in a while; agents re-check these as they work in that topic.

Search (⌘K) finds any entry across the map.

The folder

At the bottom, the card This understanding is also a folder is where the understanding leaves the platform: download it, or run naetive export in the repo. It says when the folder was last written and how many entries have landed since. See The folder.

How agents read it

You do not need these to use the page, but they explain what an agent is doing when it "gets oriented":

  • get_project_context (brief) gives an agent the digest: identity, purpose, current focus, key decisions, constraints, recent activity. Scoped to a query, it gives the entries that matter for one task.
  • recall_memory is the quick lookup an agent calls mid-task: "what do we know about X?"
  • get_project_understanding is the full, source-backed map when an agent needs depth.

None of these make a model call on Naetive's side. The understanding is assembled from what agents recorded.