codebase-navigation

A method for exploring an unfamiliar codebase, meaning a software project whose structure and behavior you do not yet understand.

In plain words
What is it for?
It helps find entry points, follow imports, understand data models, read tests, inspect recent history, and trace definitions and callers efficiently.
Why use it?
It helps you build an accurate picture of the system before changing code or explaining how it works.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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/aiming-lab/metaclaw/codebase-navigation
Any agent
npx skills add aiming-lab/MetaClaw --skill codebase-navigation
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/aiming-lab/MetaClaw

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 43 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 247 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 $0.00043 $0.00247
Opus 5 $0.00022 $0.00123
Sonnet 5 $0.00009 $0.00049
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00025

Measured 2d ago against content hash eef0a7e9b425, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

codebase-navigation 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.

memory_data/skills/codebase-navigation/SKILL.md · 27 lines

What it actually says

Codebase Navigation

Before modifying unfamiliar code, build a mental model.

Exploration strategy:

  1. Start with entry points: main.py, __init__.py, index.ts, App.tsx.
  2. Follow imports to understand dependency structure.
  3. Find the data model first — it shapes everything else.
  4. Read tests: they document expected behavior better than comments.
  5. Check git log: recent commits explain why things are the way they are.

Efficient search:

  • Use file pattern search (glob) to find files by name/extension.
  • Use content search (grep) to find where a function/class is defined vs. called.
  • Search for the error message text to find the source location directly.

Anti-patterns:

  • Modifying code without reading it first.
  • Assuming file structure from another codebase.
  • Grepping without a clear hypothesis of what you are looking for.
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 · 27 lines · 43 tokens per session scan A eef0a7e9b425

Subscribe to this mod's changes

codebase-navigation is a skill published in the GitHub repository aiming-lab/MetaClaw (3,494 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 43 tokens to every session and 247 once invoked, about $0.0002 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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