first-tree-read

first-tree-read is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from first-tree-ai/first-tree. It costs 68 tokens per session (741 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

A procedure for reading the project’s approved context and instructions before working on its files.

In plain words
What is it for?
It helps select the correct local project context for tasks involving a repository, path, feature, domain, owner, bug, or error.
Why use it?
It helps prevent work based on the wrong project area, outdated context, or unauthorized local information.

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/first-tree-ai/first-tree/first-tree-read
Any agent
npx skills add first-tree-ai/first-tree --skill first-tree-read
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/first-tree-ai/first-tree

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

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 first-tree-read

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/first-tree-ai/first-tree/first-tree-read.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/first-tree-ai/first-tree/first-tree-read)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/first-tree-ai/first-tree/first-tree-read"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/first-tree-ai/first-tree/first-tree-read.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 68 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 741 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 $0.00068 $0.00741
Opus 5 $0.00034 $0.00370
Sonnet 5 $0.00014 $0.00148
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00074

Measured 4d ago against content hash b9b82339d5c8, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

first-tree-read 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 4d 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.

skill-variants/local-context/first-tree-read/SKILL.md · 78 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 78 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

First Tree Read — Local Context

Purpose and authority

Read the current Agent's private Local Context before acting on a task with a repo, path, feature, domain, owner, bug, or error signal. This payload is the managed Local variant of first-tree-read; its public name and routing description intentionally match the Remote payload.

Local Context is host-local truth for this Agent only. It is not Team-approved truth, a Git checkout, a BYO snapshot, or a fallback for an unreadable or invalid remote binding. first-tree-seed, context-tree-review, and context-tree-audit never operate on it.

Apply the generated Context Tree Policy's normal/archive/member authority and code-vs-tree drift rules. Never modify Tree content with this Skill.

Workflow

  1. Run the generated briefing's exact First Tree CLI invocation:

    <firstTreeInvocation> --json tree local resolve --ensure --intent read
    

    Use only the returned data.path. The guard accepts no caller-supplied live path and rechecks runtime identity, fixed Workspace containment, resource limits, the remote-observed latch, and the live Server binding. Missing, corrupt, unknown, invalid, frozen, or bound state stops the Local read.

  2. Before reading business Context, run:

    <firstTreeInvocation> tree verify --tree-path "<live-root>"
    

    A non-zero result stops the read. Report that Local Write must repair the live Tree; do not guess an older version or continue from partial files.

  3. Inspect the filesystem hierarchy command from the live root, then use its selectors before native Markdown reads:

    <firstTreeInvocation> tree tree --tree-path "<live-root>" --help
    <firstTreeInvocation> tree tree --tree-path "<live-root>" [path] [selectors]
    

    This mode performs no Git discovery, pull, branch, commit, snapshot, forge, Cloud Tree IO, or attribution. Keep the read focused: root and relevant parents, matched leaves, and material soft_links only.

Read the full file on GitHub · 78 lines

Files

What ships with it

2 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

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. 4d ago First seen · 78 lines · 68 tokens per session scan A b9b82339d5c8

Subscribe to this mod's changes

first-tree-read is a skill published in the GitHub repository first-tree-ai/first-tree (140 stars, last pushed today), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 68 tokens to every session and 741 once invoked, about $0.0003 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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