researching-codebase

researching-codebase is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from bostonaholic/rpikit. It costs 32 tokens per session (1,555 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guided method for exploring a codebase before planning or changing it. It builds an understanding of the project’s structure, patterns, and implementation details through questions and investigation.

In plain words
What is it for?
Researching architecture, locating relevant code, understanding existing patterns, and preparing an informed implementation plan.
Why use it?
It helps avoid making changes based on incomplete assumptions about how the project works.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Part of the rpikit plugin — 16 skills, 7 agents shipped together

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/bostonaholic/rpikit/researching-codebase
Any agent
npx skills add bostonaholic/rpikit --skill researching-codebase
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/bostonaholic/rpikit

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Or install rpikit, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 16 skills, 7 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 researching-codebase

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/bostonaholic/rpikit/researching-codebase.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/bostonaholic/rpikit/researching-codebase)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/bostonaholic/rpikit/researching-codebase"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/bostonaholic/rpikit/researching-codebase.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 32 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,555 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 5.1 $0.00032 $0.01555
Opus 5 $0.00016 $0.00777
Sonnet 5 $0.00006 $0.00311
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00155

Measured 5d ago against content hash c0c4b9d257de, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-05, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

researching-codebase 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 5d 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/researching-codebase/SKILL.md · 243 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 243 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Research Methodology

Research topic: $ARGUMENTS

Overview

Help turn research requests into thorough codebase understanding through natural collaborative dialogue.

Start by understanding what the user needs to learn, then ask questions one at a time to refine the scope. Once you understand what you're researching, explore the codebase systematically, presenting findings in digestible sections and validating as you go.

The Iron Law

Ask questions BEFORE exploring code.

Do not touch the codebase until the problem is understood. Resist the urge to immediately search for files or read code.

Phase 1: Understanding the Request

Your first action must be asking a clarifying question.

Do NOT:

  • Read any files
  • Search the codebase
  • Use Glob or Grep
  • Explore anything
  • Make assumptions about what the user wants

Ask questions one at a time using AskUserQuestion:

  • Prefer multiple choice questions when possible, but open-ended is fine too
  • Only one question per message
  • If a topic needs more exploration, break it into multiple questions

Focus on understanding:

  • Purpose: What are they trying to accomplish? (build, change, fix, learn)
  • Specifics: What exactly should happen or change?
  • Scope: How big is this? (one file, multiple files, architectural)
  • Constraints: Any requirements around performance, compatibility, security?
  • Context: Have they already looked at anything or have hunches?

When you believe you understand, confirm:

Summarize your understanding and ask if it's accurate before proceeding. If anything needs clarification, ask follow-up questions.

Phase 2: Exploration

Only proceed after confirming understanding with the user.

Locate Relevant Files

Use the file-finder agent to locate files relevant to the research objective:

Task tool with subagent_type: "file-finder"
Prompt: "Find files related to [topic from interrogation]. Goal: [user's stated purpose]"

The file-finder will return a structured report with:

Read the full file on GitHub · 243 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. 5d ago First seen · 243 lines · 32 tokens per session scan A c0c4b9d257de

Subscribe to this mod's changes

researching-codebase is a skill published in the GitHub repository bostonaholic/rpikit (20 stars, last pushed 5d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 32 tokens to every session and 1,555 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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