before-file-search

before-file-search is a skill for Claude Code from eveld/claude. It costs 29 tokens per session (206 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A workflow reminder for finding files and code components in a codebase. It recommends using a specialised codebase-locator agent instead of basic grep or glob searches for exploratory work.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it before searching for authentication code or other related files, unless you only need to verify a known path or make a simple file listing.
Why use it?
It reduces the chance of using a narrow file search when you need a broader view of where code belongs.

Skill for Claude Code

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

Part of the workflows plugin — 29 skills, 5 commands, 17 agents shipped together

Good fit Use it before searching for authentication code or other related files, unless you only need to verify a known path or make a simple file listing.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/eveld/claude/before-file-search
View source ↗ eveld/claude
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 eveld/claude --skill before-file-search
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/eveld/claude

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install workflows, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 29 skills, 5 commands, 17 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 before-file-search

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/eveld/claude/before-file-search.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/eveld/claude/before-file-search)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/eveld/claude/before-file-search"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/eveld/claude/before-file-search.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 29 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 206 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 $0.00029 $0.00206
Opus 5 $0.00015 $0.00103
Sonnet 5 $0.00006 $0.00041
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00021

Measured 8d ago against content hash 07774e81d851, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-08, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

before-file-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 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/before-file-search/SKILL.md · 37 lines

What it actually says

STOP: You're about to use grep or glob.

Use codebase-locator Instead

The codebase-locator agent is specifically designed for finding files and components. It's more efficient and comprehensive than grep/glob.

Instead of:

Grep(pattern="authentication", ...)
Glob(pattern="**/auth*.js")

Do this:

Task(
  subagent_type="codebase-locator",
  prompt="Find all authentication-related files",
  description="Locate auth files"
)

When Basic Tools Are OK

Only use grep/glob when:

  • User explicitly asks for a simple file listing
  • You need to check if a specific file exists
  • You're doing a quick verification of a known path

For all exploratory searches, use codebase-locator.

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 · 37 lines · 29 tokens per session scan A 07774e81d851

Subscribe to this mod's changes

before-file-search is a skill published in the GitHub repository eveld/claude (10 stars, last pushed 7mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 29 tokens to every session and 206 once invoked, about $0.0001 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 2026-08-31.