DeepFork – reverse-engineer any OSS repo into a clean-room rebuild blueprint

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GitHub - GerardoRdz96/deepfork: Don't fork the code. Fork the design. An agent skill that reverse-engineers any open-source repo into a clean explanation + a rebuildable clean-room blueprint — then builds YOUR version. Powered by knowledge graphs. · GitHub

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GerardoRdz96

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🔱 DeepFork

Don't fork the code. Fork the design.

DeepFork is an agent skill that reverse-engineers any open-source repository into

🧠 the cleanest possible explanation of how it actually works, and

📐 a behavioral blueprint you can rebuild from — with your changes, in your stack, clean-room.

🛑 Stop reading 60k lines to understand a tool.<br>🍴 Stop forking when what you wanted was your own version.

you: /deepfork https://github.com/karpathy/micrograd — but in TypeScript, with a graph visualizer

agent: ⚖️ license gate ........ MIT ✓<br>🕸️ knowledge graph ..... 55 nodes · 86 edges · god nodes: Value, Neuron, Layer, MLP<br>🧠 UNDERSTANDING.md .... the repo, explained clean — load-bearing pieces, data flow, the core trick<br>📐 BLUEPRINT.md ........ a spec you could build from without ever seeing the source<br>🔨 rebuild/ ............ your TypeScript version, clean-room, tests first

⚡ Install

Works with Claude Code (and any agent that reads skills):

npx skills add GerardoRdz96/deepfork

🕸️ Optional but recommended — the graph engine that makes the understanding pass exceptional (graphify, 65k★):

uv tool install graphifyy # double-y! code analysis is local & free (tree-sitter)

Without graphify, DeepFork falls back to manual repo mapping. With it: god-node detection, auto-named subsystems, surprising-connection analysis, and token-cheap graph queries.

🎁 What you get

Artifact<br>What it is

🧠<br>UNDERSTANDING.md<br>The repo explained the way you wish its docs did: the 3-7 load-bearing pieces, each subsystem, one request traced end-to-end, the non-obvious couplings. Every claim labeled [VERIFIED] or [INFERRED].

📐<br>BLUEPRINT.md<br>A behavioral spec — mechanisms, contracts, build order, test strategy — plus your customization deltas . Someone who never saw the original could build from it. That someone is your agent.

🔨<br>rebuild/<br>Your version. Clean-room: built from the blueprint with the original source closed. Ships with ATTRIBUTION.md.

🗺️ How it works

License gate"] --> B["📥 Phase 1Acquire"]<br>B --> C["🕸️ Phase 2Comprehendgraph · god nodes · subsystems"]<br>C --> D["🔎 Phase 3Interrogateverify the load-bearing claims"]<br>D --> E["📐 Phase 4Blueprint+ YOUR deltas"]<br>E -.->|"only behavior crosses🧱 the clean-room wall"| F["🔨 Phase 5Rebuildoriginal closed · tests first"]<br>" dir="auto">

flowchart LR<br>A["⚖️ Phase 0License gate"] --> B["📥 Phase 1Acquire"]<br>B --> C["🕸️ Phase 2Comprehendgraph · god nodes · subsystems"]<br>C --> D["🔎 Phase 3Interrogateverify the load-bearing claims"]<br>D --> E["📐 Phase 4Blueprint+ YOUR deltas"]<br>E -.->|"only behavior crosses🧱 the clean-room wall"| F["🔨 Phase 5Rebuildoriginal closed · tests first"]

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⚖️ License gate — SPDX check before anything else; unlicensed code never gets a rebuild.

🕸️ Comprehend — graphify builds a knowledge graph (locally, free for code); the skill turns god nodes + communities + surprising connections into UNDERSTANDING.md.

🔎 Interrogate — the agent answers what a rebuilder must know (the core trick, the contracts, what breaks at 10×), verifying inferred claims against real code.

📐 Blueprint — asks what YOU want different, then writes the spec with your deltas designed in.

🔨 Rebuild — fresh repo, original closed, blueprint only, tests first.

📚 Worked example

examples/micrograd/ — karpathy's micrograd (12k★) deepforked end-to-end:

🧠 UNDERSTANDING.md — the autograd engine...

phase deepfork clean blueprint code room

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