source-research

A research workflow for investigating open-source libraries using their source code and permanent GitHub links.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to research how a library works, why code changed, or where a behavior is implemented.
Why use it?
It helps replace guesses with evidence when explaining implementation details, changes, or library behavior.

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/aretw0/agents-lab/source-research
Any agent
npx skills add aretw0/agents-lab --skill source-research
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/aretw0/agents-lab

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 71 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,394 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. 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 $0.00071 $0.02394
Opus 5 $0.00036 $0.01197
Sonnet 5 $0.00014 $0.00479
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00239

Measured 3d ago against content hash b5ecbb0fa890, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

source-research scanned grade A with 1 finding 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 3d 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.

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

- `curl`, `wget`, `python requests`, `r.jina.ai` mirrors
packages/web-skills/skills/source-research/SKILL.md · 234 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 234 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Source Research

Answer questions about open-source libraries by finding evidence with GitHub permalinks. Every claim backed by actual code.

Execution Model

Pi executes tool calls sequentially, even when you emit multiple calls in one turn. But batching independent calls in a single turn still saves LLM round-trips (~5-10s each). Use these patterns:

Pattern When Actually parallel?
Batch tool calls in one turn Independent ops (web_search + fetch_content + read) No, but saves round-trips
fetch_content({ urls: [...] }) Multiple URLs to fetch Yes (3 concurrent)
Bash with & + wait Multiple git/gh commands Yes (OS-level)

Step 1: Classify the Request

Before doing anything, classify the request to pick the right research strategy.

Type Trigger Primary Approach
Conceptual "How do I use X?", "Best practice for Y?" web_search + fetch_content (README/docs)
Implementation "How does X implement Y?", "Show me the source" fetch_content (clone) + code search
Context/History "Why was this changed?", "History of X?" git log + git blame + issue/PR search
Interactive Browser Ops "open/navigate/click/fill/login" on a live site web-browser (CDP)
Comprehensive Complex or ambiguous requests, "deep dive" All of the above

Routing Policy (Web)

Use this routing policy to avoid overlap and keep behavior deterministic:

  1. Interactive intent (open tab, click, fill form, login, inspect dynamic UI)
    • Use web-browser skill first (CDP scripts in skills/web-browser/scripts).
    • Do not replace with plain bash scraping unless the browser path fails.
  2. Search / extraction intent (find sources, read docs/pages, summarize content)
    • Use web_search and/or fetch_content.
  3. Source-code evidence intent (implementation details with permalinks)
    • Use fetch_content clone + bash/read in repo + permalink construction.

Read the full file on GitHub · 234 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. 3d ago First seen · 234 lines · 71 tokens per session scan A b5ecbb0fa890

Subscribe to this mod's changes

source-research is a skill published in the GitHub repository aretw0/agents-lab (11 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 71 tokens to every session and 2,394 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.