ask

A research-question tool that searches a bundled knowledge base for evidence, guidance, and examples.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to investigate research methods, find practical guidance, and connect recommendations to specific evidence.
Why use it?
It helps answer methodology questions using referenced research and documents instead of relying only on general knowledge.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

▶ Obsidian セカンドブレインの作り方|ノートが勝手に繋がるClaudeプラグインの詳細解説と実装・運用方法【arscontexta(アースコンテキストタ)】 NAOYA IMURA / Claude × Obsidian for Non-Engineers · about agenticnotetaking/arscontexta · on YouTube →
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 skills/agenticnotetaking/arscontexta/ask
Any agent
npx skills add agenticnotetaking/arscontexta --skill ask
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/agenticnotetaking/arscontexta

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 87 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 4,933 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 $0.00087 $0.04933
Opus 5 $0.00044 $0.02466
Sonnet 5 $0.00017 $0.00987
Haiku 4.5 $0.00009 $0.00493

Measured 2d ago against content hash c8dcf2750dfe, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

ask 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.

skills/ask/SKILL.md · 394 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 394 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

EXECUTE NOW

Question: $ARGUMENTS

If no question provided, ask the user what they want to know.

Execute these steps:

  1. Classify the question — determine which knowledge base tier(s) to consult (see Query Classification below)
  2. Search the knowledge base — route to appropriate tiers based on classification
  3. Read relevant claims and docs — load 3-7 most relevant sources fully (use mcp__qmd__multi_get when reading multiple IDs)
  4. Check user context — read ops/derivation.md if the question involves their specific system
  5. Synthesize an answer — weave claims into a coherent, opinionated argument
  6. Cite sources — reference specific claims and documents so the user can explore further

START NOW. Reference below explains routing and synthesis methodology.


The Three-Tier Knowledge Base

The plugin's knowledge base has three distinct parts, each serving a different function. Effective answers often draw from multiple tiers.

Tier 1: Research Graph (WHY)

Location: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/methodology/ — filter by kind: research Content: 213 interconnected research claims grounded in cognitive science, knowledge system theory, and agent cognition research. Use for: Questions about principles, trade-offs, why things work, theoretical foundations.

What it contains:

  • Claims about how knowledge systems work (human and agent)
  • Cognitive science foundations (working memory, attention, retrieval)
  • Methodology comparisons (Zettelkasten vs PARA, atomic vs compound)
  • Design dimensions (trade-off spectrums with poles and decision factors)
  • Failure modes and anti-patterns
  • Agent-specific constraints (context windows, session boundaries)

Search strategy: Use mcp__qmd__deep_search (highest quality, LLM-reranked) for conceptual questions. Use mcp__qmd__vector_search for semantic exploration. Use mcp__qmd__search for known terminology. All searches use the methodology collection.

Tier 2: Guidance Docs (HOW)

Read the full file on GitHub · 394 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

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 · 394 lines · 87 tokens per session scan A c8dcf2750dfe

Subscribe to this mod's changes

ask is a skill published in the GitHub repository agenticnotetaking/arscontexta (3,486 stars, last pushed 6mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 87 tokens to every session and 4,933 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. 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 2026-08-30.

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