Chasing rabbits in practice

Pick a starting point. In the navigator, open Ways in and select the top entry. This is the question you came with: how does the program start?

Find the threads. In the inspector, scroll past IN, OUT, TOUCHES and GOVERNANCE to THREADS TO PULL. These are reasons something else is worth a detour: another routine at the other end of a table or file, one that runs the same decision or loop, one named like this one, one that shares a ticket id, or an outlier nearby. If the panel says there is nothing beside this routine, select one of its callees from OUT and look again.

Weigh a thread. Each thread states its size, and lanes are sorted rarest first. A thread shared with one or two routines is a real detour; one shared with half the program is a category.

Follow one. Click a thread under The other end, for example a table your routine writes. The whole dashboard moves to it, and the inspector shows who reads and writes it.

Keep what you found. Something here is interesting, but it is not what you came for. Press ◇ Keep this. The trail bar now shows ◆ 1 kept.

Look at the trail. The bar across the top of the centre pane lists your steps. A change of view is a step too: switch to Table and watch it appear.

Go back. Press ← Back (or ⌘Z / Ctrl+Z) until you are on your starting routine. Forward → still holds the steps ahead, until you select something new.

Return to what you kept. Click ◆ 1 kept. The shelf opens; click the row to go straight to the thing itself. Drop removes it. The shelf survives a reload.

Try a doorway with no selection. Open Explore → Worth a look. Each card is a measured extreme of the program with its middle stated beside it. None is a judgement; they are doors. Press show the query on one to see the SQL that produced it, then select what the card names.

Tidy up. When the trail is too long to read, press Clear. It keeps the step you are on and everything you kept.