System Overview Command Guide¶

Get a quick architectural summary of your project from Graphiti.

Quick Start¶

/system-overview

What It Does¶

Displays a condensed view of your project's components, ADRs, cross-cutting concerns, and tech stack - all pulled from Graphiti's knowledge graph. Think of it as "remind me where I am" for architecture.

Prerequisites¶

Run /system-plan at least once to capture architecture context
(Optional) Graphiti stack running for live queries

Usage¶

/system-overview [--verbose] [--section=SECTION] [--format=FORMAT]

Flag	Description	Default
`--verbose`	Include full descriptions for all sections	Off
`--section`	Filter to specific section: `components`, `decisions`, `crosscutting`, `stack`, `all`	`all`
`--format`	Output format: `display`, `markdown`, `json`	`display`

Examples¶

Basic Overview¶

/system-overview

Output:

======================================================================
SYSTEM OVERVIEW: My Project
======================================================================

SYSTEM CONTEXT:
  Purpose: CLI tool for task management with quality gates
  Methodology: Modular
  Users: Developers, AI agents

COMPONENTS (5):
  - CLI Parser: Command routing, argument validation
  - Planning Engine: Question flow, markdown generation
  - Graphiti Integration: Persist architecture context
  - Task Manager: Task state management
  - Quality Gates: Test and coverage enforcement

ARCHITECTURE DECISIONS (3):
  - ADR-001: Use Click for CLI (active)
  - ADR-002: YAML for config files (active)
  - ADR-003: Graphiti for knowledge storage (active)

CROSS-CUTTING CONCERNS (2):
  - Logging: Structured logging with [Module] prefixes
  - Error Handling: Graceful degradation for external services

======================================================================

Verbose Mode¶

Get full descriptions for each component and ADR:

/system-overview --verbose

Filter to Specific Section¶

Only show components:

/system-overview --section=components

Only show architecture decisions:

/system-overview --section=decisions

JSON Output for Scripting¶

/system-overview --format=json

Returns structured JSON with system, components, decisions, and concerns objects.

Integration with Other Commands¶

Typical Workflow¶

# 1. Get oriented at start of session
/system-overview

# 2. Analyze impact of planned work
/impact-analysis TASK-042

# 3. Plan a feature with architecture context
/feature-plan "add user notifications"

With `/system-plan`¶

/system-overview reads what /system-plan captures:

# First time: capture architecture
/system-plan "project description"

# Later: quick refresh
/system-overview

With `/task-work`¶

Review architecture before implementing:

/system-overview              # Quick refresh
/task-work TASK-042           # Start implementation

Graceful Degradation¶

No Architecture Context¶

If /system-plan hasn't been run yet:

======================================================================
NO ARCHITECTURE CONTEXT
======================================================================

No architecture information found for this project.

NEXT STEPS:
  1. Run /system-plan "project description" to capture architecture
  2. Or create architecture docs manually in docs/architecture/

For quick project understanding, try:
  - Read CLAUDE.md for project conventions
  - Check docs/architecture/ for existing documentation
======================================================================

Graphiti Unavailable¶

If Graphiti service is not running:

======================================================================
ARCHITECTURE CONTEXT UNAVAILABLE
======================================================================

Cannot query Graphiti for architecture information.

ALTERNATIVES:
  - Read docs/architecture/ARCHITECTURE.md directly
  - Check CLAUDE.md for project conventions
  - Run /system-plan when Graphiti is available

To configure Graphiti:
  pip install guardkit-py[graphiti]
======================================================================

Troubleshooting¶

"No architecture context" but I ran /system-plan¶

Verify Graphiti is running: guardkit graphiti status
Check seeding: guardkit graphiti verify
Re-run system-plan: /system-plan "project" --force

Sections showing as empty¶

Some projects may not have ADRs or cross-cutting concerns defined
Use --verbose to see what data exists
Run /system-plan again to capture more detail

Output is stale¶

Architecture context reflects the last /system-plan run. To update:

/system-plan "project" --mode=review