[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":78},["ShallowReactive",2],{"term-c\u002Fcomment-archaeology":3,"related-c\u002Fcomment-archaeology":60},{"id":4,"title":5,"acronym":6,"body":7,"category":40,"description":41,"difficulty":42,"extension":43,"letter":44,"meta":45,"navigation":46,"path":47,"related":48,"seo":54,"sitemap":55,"stem":58,"subcategory":6,"__hash__":59},"terms\u002Fterms\u002Fc\u002Fcomment-archaeology.md","Comment Archaeology",null,{"type":8,"value":9,"toc":33},"minimark",[10,15,19,23,26,30],[11,12,14],"h2",{"id":13},"eli5-the-vibe-check","ELI5 - The Vibe Check",[16,17,18],"p",{},"The code makes no sense until you find the one comment, buried two functions away, written five years ago, that explains it was built this way because of a vendor bug that got fixed eighteen months later. Comment archaeology is reading through layers of old, half-relevant comments hoping one of them finally explains why the code is the way it is.",[11,20,22],{"id":21},"real-talk","Real Talk",[16,24,25],{},"Comment archaeology is the practice of reading through a codebase's accumulated comments, including outdated or contradictory ones, to reconstruct the historical reasoning behind current implementation choices. It's often necessary because the original context lived in a conversation, ticket, or person's head that no longer exists, leaving the comment as the only surviving trace.",[11,27,29],{"id":28},"when-youll-hear-this","When You'll Hear This",[16,31,32],{},"\"Found the answer through comment archaeology, a comment from 2021 explains the whole workaround.\" \u002F \"I shouldn't need comment archaeology to understand why this function exists.\"",{"title":34,"searchDepth":35,"depth":35,"links":36},"",2,[37,38,39],{"id":13,"depth":35,"text":14},{"id":21,"depth":35,"text":22},{"id":28,"depth":35,"text":29},"vibecoding","The code makes no sense until you find the one comment, buried two functions away, written five years ago, that explains it was built this way because of a...","beginner","md","c",{},true,"\u002Fterms\u002Fc\u002Fcomment-archaeology",[49,50,51,52,53],"Legacy Code","Sprint Archaeology","Documentation","Tribal Knowledge","Code Smell",{"title":5,"description":41},{"changefreq":56,"priority":57},"weekly",0.7,"terms\u002Fc\u002Fcomment-archaeology","FyKoqY6qW1xsXhFJ0VA3a7b6L1DQ-2vwv4CMo4fCwvw",[61,65,69,72,75],{"title":53,"path":62,"acronym":6,"category":63,"difficulty":42,"description":64},"\u002Fterms\u002Fc\u002Fcode-smell","architecture","Code that works but feels... wrong. Like when food smells slightly off — it might be fine, but something isn't right.",{"title":51,"path":66,"acronym":6,"category":67,"difficulty":42,"description":68},"\u002Fterms\u002Fd\u002Fdocumentation","general","Documentation is written explanation of how your code works and why.",{"title":49,"path":70,"acronym":6,"category":67,"difficulty":42,"description":71},"\u002Fterms\u002Fl\u002Flegacy-code","Old code that nobody wants to touch but everyone depends on.",{"title":50,"path":73,"acronym":6,"category":40,"difficulty":42,"description":74},"\u002Fterms\u002Fs\u002Fsprint-archaeology","You open a ticket from four sprints ago trying to figure out why a feature works the way it does, and the description just says 'per discussion.",{"title":52,"path":76,"acronym":6,"category":40,"difficulty":42,"description":77},"\u002Fterms\u002Ft\u002Ftribal-knowledge","Tribal knowledge is the stuff that only exists in people's heads — the undocumented rules, workarounds, and 'you just have to know' context that's never wr...",1792528072646]