codebase-mapping

codebase-mapping is a skill for Claude Code from boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit. It costs 40 tokens per session (1,920 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A process for building a complete picture of a codebase before changing or auditing it.

In plain words
What is it for?
It is for onboarding to an unfamiliar project, mapping system structure, preparing audits, and planning major refactors.
Why use it?
It reduces guesses about project structure, dependencies, and data flow that can lead to changes in the wrong place.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin.

Part of the skills-by-amrit plugin — 33 skills, 34 commands, 9 agents shipped together

Good fit It is for onboarding to an unfamiliar project, mapping system structure, preparing audits, and planning major refactors.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit/codebase-mapping
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.

Any agent
npx skills add boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit --skill codebase-mapping
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install skills-by-amrit, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 33 skills, 34 commands, 9 agents.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for codebase-mapping

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit/codebase-mapping/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit/codebase-mapping)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit/codebase-mapping"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit/codebase-mapping/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for codebase-mapping

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit/codebase-mapping"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit/codebase-mapping.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 40 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,920 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
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 5.1 $0.00040 $0.01920
Opus 5 $0.00020 $0.00960
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00384
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00192

Measured 8d ago against content hash 4b4e50920f74, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-11, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

codebase-mapping 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 8d 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/codebase-mapping/SKILL.md · 254 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 254 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Codebase Mapping

Overview

Before you can improve a system, you must understand it. Codebase mapping creates a comprehensive mental model.

Core principle: Observation before action. Understanding before modification.

The Iron Law

NO CHANGES TO A CODEBASE YOU HAVEN'T MAPPED. NO ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT STRUCTURE.

When to Use

  • First time encountering a project
  • Before any audit skill
  • Before major refactoring
  • When onboarding to a team
  • When the codebase feels "confusing"

When NOT to Use

  • You've already mapped this codebase and it hasn't changed significantly
  • Simple bug fix in a file you already understand (use systematic-debugging)
  • Adding to an area you've recently worked in (context is fresh)

Anti-Shortcut Rules

YOU CANNOT:
- Start modifying code before completing the mapping — understand first, change second
- Assume structure from directory names — read the actual files
- Skip the dependency analysis — hidden dependencies create hidden bugs
- Map only the parts you think are relevant — map the whole system, surprises hide in corners
- Trust the README as ground truth — READMEs age, code doesn't lie
- Skip the data model phase — the data model IS the architecture for most systems
- Stop at the directory tree — trace actual data flows through the code
- Declare mapping complete without tracing at least 2 critical flows end-to-end

Common Rationalizations (Don't Accept These)

Rationalization Reality
"I just need to fix this one file" One file connects to other files. Map first.
"The README explains everything" READMEs explain intent. Code reveals reality.
"It's a small project, I can figure it out" Small projects still have hidden complexity.
"I've worked with this framework before" Framework knowledge ≠ project knowledge.
"I'll learn as I go" Learning by breaking things is not mapping.
"The tests explain the behavior" Tests explain expected behavior. Code reveals actual behavior.

Read the full file on GitHub · 254 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. 8d ago First seen · 254 lines · 40 tokens per session scan A 4b4e50920f74

Subscribe to this mod's changes

codebase-mapping is a skill published in the GitHub repository boparaiamrit/skills-by-amrit (5 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 40 tokens to every session and 1,920 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 2026-09-03.

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