repo-scout

Repo Scout

Quickly understand a GitHub repo, extract what's valuable — both for .claude/ and for your own projects — and get concrete usage instructions.

When to Activate

• User shares a GitHub repo URL and wants to understand it
• User says "scout this repo", "what does this repo do", "analyze this repo"
• User wants to know what's reusable in a repo
• User asks "what can I steal from this repo"

Input

The skill takes one argument: a GitHub repo URL (e.g., https://github.com/owner/repo). The URL may include extra path segments or query params (e.g. ?tab=readme-ov-file) — strip them and extract owner/repo.

If no URL is provided, ask for one.

Workflow

Step 1: Clone and Explore

1. Extract owner/repo from the URL
2. Clone into /tmp/repo-scout-{repo} using gh repo clone {owner/repo} /tmp/repo-scout-{repo} -- --depth 1
3. If the clone fails (auth, not found), inform the user and stop

Step 2: Read Key Files

Read these files in parallel (skip any that don't exist):

• README.md (or readme.md, README)
• CLAUDE.md
• SKILL.md
• package.json / pyproject.toml / Cargo.toml / go.mod (for metadata + dependencies)
• LICENSE

Then do a structural deep scan:

• ls the root directory
• Glob for **/*.md to find other documentation
• Glob for skill/agent definitions: **/SKILL.md, **/skills/**, **/agents/**, **/.claude/**
• Glob for reusable code: **/components/**, **/utils/**, **/lib/**, **/services/**, **/hooks/**, **/helpers/**, **/middleware/**, **/prompts/**, **/templates/**
• Read key source files that look reusable (utilities, services, core logic) — skim 5-10 files max to understand quality and patterns

Step 3: Analyze and Respond

Produce a structured response with exactly these sections:

## What it does
[2-3 sentence plain-language summary. No marketing fluff. What problem does it solve, for whom.]

## 3 things you need to know
1. **[Thing]** — [concise explanation. Focus on what matters for someone evaluating this repo]
2. **[Thing]** — [architecture, key pattern, or important limitation]
3. **[Thing]** — [maturity, quality, or gotcha worth knowing]

## Reusable parts — what to steal

### For `~/.claude/` (skills, agents, configs)
[List specific files/directories worth copying into .claude/, with exact cp commands.
Focus on: skills, agents, CLAUDE.md snippets, prompts, configurations.
If nothing is worth copying, say "Nothing `.claude/`-specific here." and move on.]

### For your projects (components, utils, patterns)
[List reusable code: components, utilities, services, patterns, middleware, configs.
For each item:]
- **`path/to/file.ts`** — [what it does] — **Why:** [why it's worth reusing over writing your own]

[If the repo has nothing worth extracting, say so honestly. Don't invent value.]

## Use it right now
[One concrete, copy-paste example of using this repo/tool/skill TODAY.
Include the actual command or code. No "you could" — show "do this".
If it's a library: install + minimal usage.
If it's a tool: run command.
If it's a collection of files: exact cp/curl commands.]

## Quick stats
- **Language:** [primary language]
- **License:** [license type — flag if restrictive]
- **Last commit:** [date, from git log --format="%ai" -1]
- **Stars:** [from gh repo view --json stargazerCount]
- **Health:** [Active / Maintained / Stale / Abandoned — based on commit frequency and issue activity]