# Audits

> Understanding the codebase “as is”.

An **audit** is a picture of the codebase section by section (from architecture to contracts).

- Each section has a status: **ready / in progress / planned / no report**, a report date and a **staleness** warning if the code has changed. A section whose report is unfinished is marked as a **draft** — the text can already be read, but it is not ready yet.
- The audits screen opens with coverage: how many sections are ready, how many are stale, how many have no report and how many are in progress right now.
- A report is markdown with an automatically built table of contents; metrics and a timer are visible while it runs.
- A set of sections can be restarted; an audit that is running should not be interrupted.

An audit is the input for quality development and for [preparing the tools](/en/docs/quickstart/devprep).

_Illustration: Audit sections on the left, the report for the selected one on the right._