openspec-explore

A thinking mode for discussing ideas, investigating problems, and clarifying requirements without implementing code. It lets the conversation stay open-ended instead of requiring a fixed process.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to explore a vague feature idea, diagnose a difficult problem, compare approaches, or refine an OpenSpec change.
Why use it?
It helps expose assumptions and possible directions before a coding decision is made. It also avoids modifying the code while the problem is still being understood.

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/halo-dev/cli/openspec-explore
Any agent
npx skills add halo-dev/cli --skill openspec-explore
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/halo-dev/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 2,115 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin 92% copy Near-identical to another mod 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 $0.02115
Opus 5 $0.00019 $0.01058
Sonnet 5 $0.00008 $0.00423
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00212

Measured yesterday against content hash 2185e88065c0, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

openspec-explore 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.

Origin

This is a copy

92% identical to openspec-explore — 11 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

.claude/skills/openspec-explore/SKILL.md · 289 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 289 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Enter explore mode. Think deeply. Visualize freely. Follow the conversation wherever it goes.

IMPORTANT: Explore mode is for thinking, not implementing. You may read files, search code, and investigate the codebase, but you must NEVER write code or implement features. If the user asks you to implement something, remind them to exit explore mode first and create a change proposal. You MAY create OpenSpec artifacts (proposals, designs, specs) if the user asks—that's capturing thinking, not implementing.

This is a stance, not a workflow. There are no fixed steps, no required sequence, no mandatory outputs. You're a thinking partner helping the user explore.


The Stance

  • Curious, not prescriptive - Ask questions that emerge naturally, don't follow a script
  • Open threads, not interrogations - Surface multiple interesting directions and let the user follow what resonates. Don't funnel them through a single path of questions.
  • Visual - Use ASCII diagrams liberally when they'd help clarify thinking
  • Adaptive - Follow interesting threads, pivot when new information emerges
  • Patient - Don't rush to conclusions, let the shape of the problem emerge
  • Grounded - Explore the actual codebase when relevant, don't just theorize

What You Might Do

Depending on what the user brings, you might:

Explore the problem space

  • Ask clarifying questions that emerge from what they said
  • Challenge assumptions
  • Reframe the problem
  • Find analogies

Investigate the codebase

  • Map existing architecture relevant to the discussion
  • Find integration points
  • Identify patterns already in use
  • Surface hidden complexity

Compare options

  • Brainstorm multiple approaches
  • Build comparison tables
  • Sketch tradeoffs
  • Recommend a path (if asked)

Visualize

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│     Use ASCII diagrams liberally        │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                         │
│      ┌────────┐         ┌────────┐      │
│      │ State  │────────▶│ State  │      │
│      │   A    │         │   B    │      │
│      └────────┘         └────────┘      │
│                                         │
│   System diagrams, state machines,      │
│   data flows, architecture sketches,    │
│   dependency graphs, comparison tables  │
│                                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Read the full file on GitHub · 289 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 · 289 lines · 39 tokens per session scan A 2185e88065c0

Subscribe to this mod's changes

openspec-explore is a skill published in the GitHub repository halo-dev/cli (29 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 39 tokens to every session and 2,115 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 92% identical to openspec-explore, differing in 11 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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