After seeing yesterday's insightful post on using git heuristics as the first step for exploring a codebase [1], I messaged a couple of friends to ask how they explore codebases today. All of us just point Claude or Codex at the repo and start asking questions. I realized I barely read docs, browse files on GitHub, or explore repos locally anymore without Claude Code. But using LLMs to help us learn and understand code rather than just write code still seems to be under-explored.
A couple months ago, I tried building a Claude code command to help me "fly through" a repo using an LLM to guide me to interesting parts of the codebase and narrate explainers for them as it navigated the files. That didn't really work, partially because my attention span for reading docs and code is at an all-time low. I saw that Devin released Deepwiki and tried to use that, but usually didn't get very far. More recently, I tried to make it fun: generate a game that tricks me into actually getting started with the codebase. I landed on an Oregon Trail inspired game where I read code snippets and answer questions generated by Claude. You can try it out here: https://www.davidtran.me/coderegon-trail/
I've been having fun pointing it at various repos, especially ones getting a lot of hype and stars but not necessarily real usage or contributions. I pointed it at a few projects that my friends and I starred but never explored as well as some of the top Show HN projects from 2026 so far that linked to open-source repos. I wanted to see if this might be interesting to anyone else who is struggling to read code. It sort of works for PRs, but that feels like a pretty different problem, so open to any ideas.
As I was typing up this Show HN, I realized that it would be ironic if this wasn't also open source, so I frantically tried to clean up the repo a bit, and pointed the command at its own source code. You can play the Recursive Trail here: https://www.davidtran.me/coderegon-trail/ or see the Github repo here:
Let me know if there are any inaccuracies, bugs, or if you'd like me to add a repo without setting it up yourself!
Nice job. Some feedback:
1. Make sure you’re using nearest-neighbor for scaling otherwise you end up with blurry aliased fringing on assets that are supposed to represent pixel art.
2. The character is moving left to right - why are the oxen on the wrong side? Are they pushing the cart? :)
Same thing occurs when you die of "tech debt dysentery". The oxen is on the left side, but the wheels are rotating clockwise.
3. On a widescreen monitor, make sure to wrap the text section; otherwise you end up with lines that are far too long.
Thanks for trying it, and keen eye! Fixing (with Claude code) but also taking time to try to learn a bit about the canvas drawing/pixel art, which I'm not super familiar with.
Sure! If you’re just drawing things directly polygons, lines, and other primitive shapes, then you can usually get away with just turning off anti-aliasing, and that will fix most visual artifacts and get you closer to that classic Apple II Oregon Trail look.
However, if you’re using pre-rendered sprite sheets, you’ll probably need to enforce integer scaling to avoid fringing or blurring.