dep-recon

Dep Recon

Three-phase probe of a dependency's GitHub repo to answer existence + capability questions with actual source, not speculation. Runs BEFORE context7 + web search.

When to use

Any claim, assumption, or question about whether something exists or behaves a certain way in an external dep:

• "Does <flag> exist in <tool>?"
• "Is there a way to <x> in <lib>?"
• "What version added <feature>?"
• "Was <thing> removed from <dep>?"
• "Does <lib> support <behavior>?"
• Anytime training data may be stale for a fast-moving dep.
• A config var lookup

The core rule

context7 + web results are derivatives + can be stale, summarized, or wrong. A gh search code hit in main settles the question. Only fall back to context7/web when all three GH passes return empty AND you've verified with qualifiers that empty really means empty.

Confidence gradient, highest to lowest:

A: Local clone of the dep's repo / local offline docs (no truncation, no rate limit, no network) B: gh search hits in the official GH repo C: WebFetch of the dep's official docs page D: context7 (MUST be corroborated: see Fallback) E: Web search / blog posts / Stack Overflow

Phase 0: Ask about local resources (before anything else)

Before any GH query, ASK the operator:

"Do you have a local clone of <owner>/<name>, offline docs, or a vendored copy I should read first? (path, or 'no')"

If yes: use Grep directly on that path: same term variants you'd run on GH, no truncation, no rate limits, instant. Grep is the primary verb here; Read only to open a specific file after a Grep hit. A local match supersedes everything downstream (but verify it reflects a current branch, not a stale fork).

Example Grep shape for the local path:

# Grep tool calls: pseudocode
Grep(pattern="skip_output", path="/abs/path/to/local/lefthook", output_mode="content", -n=true)
Grep(pattern="skipOutput",  path="/abs/path/to/local/lefthook", output_mode="content", -n=true)
Grep(pattern="skip-output", path="/abs/path/to/local/lefthook", output_mode="content", -n=true)