analysis-methodology

A structured investigation method for turning unknowns into verified knowledge. It records how strongly each finding is supported and documents unanswered questions that still need evidence.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to investigate technical problems, test assumptions, track evidence, and record what remains unknown and how to resolve it.
Why use it?
It reduces guesswork by separating proven results from observations and deductions. It also makes unresolved uncertainty visible instead of hiding it in a final conclusion.

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/groupzer0/vs-code-agents/analysis-methodology
Any agent
npx skills add groupzer0/vs-code-agents --skill analysis-methodology
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/groupzer0/vs-code-agents

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 0 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 757 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 $0.00000 $0.00757
Opus 5 $0.00000 $0.00378
Sonnet 5 $0.00000 $0.00151
Haiku 4.5 $0.00000 $0.00076

Measured 2d ago against content hash 52e30e03bdad, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

analysis-methodology 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.

.github/skills/analysis-methodology/SKILL.md · 94 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 94 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Analysis Methodology

A systematic approach to converting unknowns to knowns through structured investigation.

Core Principle

Objective: Every analysis session should reduce uncertainty. If an unknown cannot be resolved, document why and what is needed to close it.


Confidence Levels

Classify every finding by its evidence strength:

Level Label Meaning Example
1 Proven Verified by code execution, POC, or reproducible test. "Running npm test -- --filter=X confirms the error."
2 Observed Seen in logs, monitoring, or direct inspection, but not isolated. "The error appears in production logs at 3am."
3 Inferred Derived from documentation, patterns, or logical deduction. "The API docs suggest this should return 404."

Rule: Findings at Level 3 (Inferred) should be flagged for upgrade to Level 1 (Proven) before being used for decisions.


Gap Tracking Template

Use this structure to surface remaining unknowns:

## Remaining Gaps

| # | Unknown | Blocker | Required Action | Owner |
|---|---------|---------|-----------------|-------|
| 1 | Why does X fail under load? | Cannot reproduce locally. | Need staging access or load test harness. | [TBD] |
| 2 | Does API Y support pagination? | Docs unclear. | Contact vendor or run POC against sandbox. | [TBD] |

Behaviors:

  • Populate this table during investigation, not just at the end.
  • Surface the table to the user in chat before handoff.
  • Mark items as "Resolved" (with link to finding) or "Deferred" (with rationale).

Investigation Techniques

Use these patterns to move unknowns to knowns:

Log Tracing

  • Add targeted logging to isolate behavior.
  • Compare expected vs actual log sequences.

Component Isolation

  • Reproduce behavior with minimal dependencies.
  • Use mocks/stubs to eliminate variables.

Binary Search Debugging

  • Narrow the failure window by bisecting commits, config changes, or code paths.
  • Halve the search space with each step.

Read the full file on GitHub · 94 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. 2d ago First seen · 94 lines · 0 tokens per session scan A 52e30e03bdad

Subscribe to this mod's changes

analysis-methodology is a skill published in the GitHub repository groupzer0/vs-code-agents (284 stars, last pushed 7mo ago), licensed MIT. It costs nothing until one of its globs matches a file; then it loads 757 tokens. 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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