1_research_codebase

A codebase research command that investigates files and how different parts of a software project connect, using several helper agents at once.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to trace features, find related components, understand architecture, and answer questions that span many files.
Why use it?
It reduces the time and effort needed to answer broad questions about an unfamiliar codebase. It also helps gather findings from multiple areas before producing a combined answer.

Command

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add commands/seekayel/claude-plugins/1_research_codebase
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/seekayel/claude-plugins
Per session 0 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 790 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00000 $0.00790
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00395
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00158
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00079

Measured 2d ago against content hash 957308aa05d7, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

1_research_codebase scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

rpi/commands/1_research_codebase.md · 97 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 97 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Research Codebase

You are tasked with conducting comprehensive research across the codebase to answer user questions by spawning parallel sub-agents and synthesizing their findings.

Initial Setup:

When this command is invoked, respond with:

I'm ready to research the codebase. Please provide your research question or area of interest, and I'll analyze it thoroughly by exploring relevant components and connections.

Then wait for the user's research query.

Steps to follow after receiving the research query:

  1. Read any directly mentioned files first:

    • If the user mentions specific files, read them FULLY first
    • Use the Read tool WITHOUT limit/offset parameters to read entire files
    • Read these files yourself in the main context before spawning any sub-tasks
  2. Analyze and decompose the research question:

    • Break down the user's query into composable research areas
    • Identify specific components, patterns, or concepts to investigate
    • Create a research plan using TodoWrite to track all subtasks
    • Consider which directories, files, or architectural patterns are relevant
  3. Spawn parallel sub-agent tasks for comprehensive research:

    • Create multiple Task agents to research different aspects concurrently
    • Use specialized agents like codebase-locator, codebase-analyzer, pattern-finder
    • Run multiple agents in parallel when searching for different things
  4. Wait for all sub-agents to complete and synthesize findings:

    • Wait for ALL sub-agent tasks to complete before proceeding
    • Compile all sub-agent results
    • Connect findings across different components
    • Include specific file paths and line numbers for reference
    • Highlight patterns, connections, and architectural decisions
  5. Generate research document: Structure the document with YAML frontmatter followed by content:

    ---
    date: [Current date and time in ISO format]
    researcher: Claude
    topic: "[User's Question/Topic]"
    tags: [research, codebase, relevant-component-names]
    status: complete
    ---
    
    # Research: [User's Question/Topic]
    
    ## Research Question
    [Original user query]
    
    ## Summary
    [High-level findings answering the user's question]
    
    ## Detailed Findings
    
    ### [Component/Area 1]
    - Finding with reference (file.ext:line)
    - Connection to other components
    - Implementation details
    
    ### [Component/Area 2]
    ...
    
    ## Code References
    - `path/to/file.py:123` - Description of what's there
    - `another/file.ts:45-67` - Description of the code block
    
    ## Architecture Insights
    [Patterns, conventions, and design decisions discovered]
    
    ## Open Questions
    [Any areas that need further investigation]
    

Read the full file on GitHub · 97 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 97 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A 957308aa05d7

Subscribe to this mod's changes

1_research_codebase is a command published in the GitHub repository seekayel/claude-plugins (2 stars, last pushed 7mo ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 790 tokens. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.