reconnaissance

reconnaissance is a skill for Claude Code from kucherenko/gangsta. It costs 43 tokens per session (2,256 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A codebase survey performed before building or changing something. It examines the project files, tests, dependencies, documentation, and current records to create a written overview.

In plain words
What is it for?
Mapping a repository, checking its tests and dependencies, identifying relevant files and rules, and preparing information for planning implementation work.
Why use it?
It reduces the chance of making changes without understanding the existing project or its constraints.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin. Also seen: mentions subagents; names the AskUserQuestion tool; mentions Claude Code.

Part of the gangsta plugin — 19 skills, 6 agents, 1 hook shipped together

Good fit Mapping a repository, checking its tests and dependencies, identifying relevant files and rules, and preparing information for planning implementation work.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/kucherenko/gangsta/reconnaissance
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 kucherenko/gangsta --skill reconnaissance
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/kucherenko/gangsta

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install gangsta, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 19 skills, 6 agents, 1 hook.

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 reconnaissance

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/kucherenko/gangsta/reconnaissance/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/kucherenko/gangsta/reconnaissance)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/kucherenko/gangsta/reconnaissance"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/kucherenko/gangsta/reconnaissance/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for reconnaissance

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/kucherenko/gangsta/reconnaissance"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/kucherenko/gangsta/reconnaissance.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 43 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,256 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. Third-party audits
  • NVIDIA SkillSpector pass 7 Sept 2026
How audits are shown
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 $0.00043 $0.02256
Opus 5 $0.00022 $0.01128
Sonnet 5 $0.00009 $0.00451
Haiku 4.5 $0.00004 $0.00226

Measured 10d ago against content hash 55aead2d0434, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-10, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

reconnaissance 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 10d 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/reconnaissance/SKILL.md · 227 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 227 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Reconnaissance: Intel and Environment Mapping

Overview

Every Heist begins with gathering intel. The Underboss deploys Associates to perform a detailed survey of the target codebase and infrastructure. The output is a Reconnaissance Dossier that informs all subsequent phases.

Trigger

Invoked when the Don expresses building or creative intent.

Process

Step 1: Analyze Intent

The Underboss parses the Don's request to identify:

  • Objective: What is being built or changed?
  • Scope: Which parts of the system are affected?
  • Constraints: Any explicit requirements or limitations?

Step 2: Deploy Associates

Dispatch Associate subagents in parallel to gather intel.

Subagent type: Use subagent_type: "associate" for all Associate dispatches. Do NOT use "general" or "general-purpose" — these are not valid in a Gangsta installation.

Greenfield Mode (empty or near-empty workspace)

Before dispatching the standard survey, count the files in the working directory (excluding .git, docs/gangsta/, and other meta directories).

Trigger: the workspace contains fewer than 5 source files OR no recognizable project manifest (package.json, requirements.txt, go.mod, Cargo.toml, pyproject.toml, etc.).

When the trigger fires, the reconnaissance objective shifts from "survey the existing code" to "sharpen the IDEA". The standard codebase survey is still run (to capture what little exists), but it is no longer the center. Instead, deploy these associates in parallel:

Associate Task What to Investigate
Idea Framing Restate the Don's objective in the Don's own words. Identify the problem being solved, who has it, and what evidence (if any) the Don offered. Surface hidden assumptions.
Analogues Search the internet for existing tools, libraries, products, or papers that solve the same or adjacent problems. For each analogue: name, what it does, what it gets right, what it gets wrong, license/hosting model. Use the webfetch tool. Produce at least 3 analogues; if fewer than 3 exist, say so and explain why the space is sparse.
Prior Art & Patterns Search the internet for relevant prior art: protocols, data formats, algorithms, design patterns, prior attempts, postmortems. Cite sources (URLs).
Constraint & Risk Survey Enumerate known constraints for the domain: performance ceilings, security concerns, regulatory, accessibility, platform limits. Cite sources.
Codebase Structure (Standard survey — what little exists in the workspace.)
Ledger Search (Standard survey.)
Constitution (Standard survey.)

Read the full file on GitHub · 227 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. 10d ago First seen · 227 lines · 43 tokens per session scan A 55aead2d0434

Subscribe to this mod's changes

reconnaissance is a skill published in the GitHub repository kucherenko/gangsta (81 stars, last pushed 27d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 43 tokens to every session and 2,256 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.