ask

A codebase question skill that chooses a search or analysis method based on the question.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to trace how code works, find implementations by meaning, assess change impact, or inspect a narrow file directly.
Why use it?
It avoids manual file-by-file searching when a structural trace, semantic search, or change-risk check is more suitable.

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/brain-bootstrap/claude-code-brain-bootstrap/ask
Any agent
npx skills add brain-bootstrap/claude-code-brain-bootstrap --skill ask
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/brain-bootstrap/claude-code-brain-bootstrap

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 37 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 385 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 $0.00037 $0.00385
Opus 5 $0.00018 $0.00192
Sonnet 5 $0.00007 $0.00077
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00038

Measured 2d ago against content hash 043ab3189787, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

ask 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.

.claude/skills/ask/SKILL.md · 43 lines

What it actually says

Ask Skill — Codebase Question Router

Answer a question about the codebase by routing to the most effective tool.

Don't search files manually when a smarter tool exists.

Routing Rules

Architecture / flow / how does X work / trace a call

Use mcp__codebase-memory__trace_path or mcp__codebase-memory__get_architecture. Zero file reads. 120× fewer tokens than manual exploration.

Find / search / locate / what file / which function

Use mcp__cocoindex-code__search with a semantic query. Finds code by meaning, not exact text — useful when you don't know the exact name.

Safe to change / impact / blast radius / what breaks / risk score

Use mcp__code-review-graph__detect_changes_tool with base_branch="main". Reports: risk score 0–100, blast radius, breaking changes, dependent modules.

General code question (narrow, specific file, no plugin fits)

Read the file directly. Grep for the symbol.

Decision Logic

  1. Contains architecture/flow/trace/how/explain → codebase-memory-mcp
  2. Contains find/search/locate/where/what file → cocoindex-code
  3. Contains safe/impact/blast/breaks/risk/change → code-review-graph
  4. None of the above → read directly

Answer Format

  • Tool used and why
  • Finding (file path + line if applicable)
  • Surprising cross-module connections revealed by the graph (if any)

If no tool gives a clear answer, fall back to reading relevant files.

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 · 43 lines · 37 tokens per session scan A 043ab3189787

Subscribe to this mod's changes

ask is a skill published in the GitHub repository brain-bootstrap/claude-code-brain-bootstrap (11 stars, last pushed 4mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 37 tokens to every session and 385 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.

Related

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review-spec

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chain-of-verification

Apply Chain-of-Verification (CoVe) prompting to improve response accuracy through self-verification. Use when complex questions require fact-checking, technical accuracy, or multi-step reasoning.

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review-design

Review design, implementation, and task documents produced by design. Evaluates document quality, internal consistency, and technical soundness. Use after design completes and before starting implement.

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review-code

Code review of current git changes with an expert senior-engineer lens. Detects SOLID violations, security risks, and proposes actionable improvements. Use when performing code reviews.

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