github-code-search

A way to search GitHub's worldwide collection of source code for real implementation examples. The results can provide context when designing or writing code.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to compare patterns across repositories, inspect API usage, find focused examples, and inform design decisions before implementing a solution.
Why use it?
It gives you examples from other repositories instead of relying only on memory or general documentation. This is useful when several projects may solve the same problem differently.

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/drvoss/everything-copilot-cli/github-code-search
Any agent
npx skills add drvoss/everything-copilot-cli --skill github-code-search
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/drvoss/everything-copilot-cli

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 39 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 830 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 $0.00039 $0.00830
Opus 5 $0.00019 $0.00415
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00166
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00083

Measured yesterday against content hash cd87f1187c99, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

github-code-search 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 yesterday.

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/copilot-exclusive/github-code-search/SKILL.md · 107 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 107 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

GitHub Code Search as Context

Why This is Copilot-Exclusive

Copilot CLI includes built-in GitHub MCP tools for global code search and repository inspection. That makes it practical to search for real implementations on GitHub, read the matching files, and bring the results back into your current task without leaving the CLI.

When to Use

  • You want grounded implementation examples before writing a new pattern
  • You need to compare how multiple repositories solve the same problem
  • You want to inspect real API usage instead of relying only on memory or docs
  • You need cross-repository context before making a design decision

When NOT to Use

Instead of github-code-search Use
Searching your current local repository direct search tools
GitHub Issues, PRs, or Actions workflows github-issue-triage, github-pr-workflow, or actions-debugging
Documentation-heavy research deep-research
Broad MCP setup guidance mcp-ecosystem

Workflow

1. Form a focused query

Use GitHub code search qualifiers to keep results tight:

language:TypeScript "circuit breaker" "retry"
org:microsoft path:src/auth "refresh token"
filename:SKILL.md "Use when" "GitHub MCP"

2. Search with the built-in GitHub MCP

Tool: github-mcp-server-search_code
  query: "language:TypeScript \"circuit breaker\" retry"
  perPage: 10

3. Read the most relevant files

After finding candidate matches, inspect the actual source:

Tool: github-mcp-server-get_file_contents
  owner: "example-org"
  repo: "example-repo"
  path: "src/retry.ts"

4. Reuse results as grounded context

Treat the retrieved code as external reference material:

Use the GitHub examples above as reference only.
Implement the same pattern in our repo, but adapt naming, boundaries, and tests
to local conventions.

Common Query Patterns

Goal Query example
Find API usage examples "supabase.auth.signIn" language:TypeScript
Find config patterns filename:docker-compose.yml "healthcheck" "interval"
Find error-handling conventions "catch (error)" "instanceof" language:TypeScript NOT test
Find comparable skills filename:SKILL.md "Use when" "GitHub MCP"

Read the full file on GitHub · 107 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. yesterday First seen · 107 lines · 39 tokens per session scan A cd87f1187c99

Subscribe to this mod's changes

github-code-search is a skill published in the GitHub repository drvoss/everything-copilot-cli (45 stars, last pushed 5d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 39 tokens to every session and 830 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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