identifying-file-types-and-formats

identifying-file-types-and-formats is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack. It costs 69 tokens per session (717 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

A file-analysis guide that identifies a file from its actual bytes and internal structure rather than its filename extension. It can distinguish executables, scripts, archives, and other containers, including files disguised as documents or images.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to inspect magic bytes, confirm archive or container formats, and find extension-content mismatches in unknown samples.
Why use it?
A misleading extension can cause an analyst to open a file with the wrong tool or miss a hidden payload. Content-based checks reveal what the file really is before further analysis.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

Good fit Use it to inspect magic bytes, confirm archive or container formats, and find extension-content mismatches in unknown samples.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack/identifying-file-types-and-formats
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 meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack --skill identifying-file-types-and-formats
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack

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 identifying-file-types-and-formats

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack/identifying-file-types-and-formats/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack/identifying-file-types-and-formats)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack/identifying-file-types-and-formats"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack/identifying-file-types-and-formats/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 identifying-file-types-and-formats

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack/identifying-file-types-and-formats"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack/identifying-file-types-and-formats.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 69 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 717 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.
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 $0.00069 $0.00717
Opus 5 $0.00034 $0.00358
Sonnet 5 $0.00014 $0.00143
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00072

Measured 7d ago against content hash 47230f329bd6, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-11, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

identifying-file-types-and-formats 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 7d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 1 executable file (scripts/analyst.py), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

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/identifying-file-types-and-formats/SKILL.md · 90 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 90 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Identifying File Types and Formats

When to Use

  • You receive an unknown sample and must determine what it actually is before choosing tools.
  • You suspect masquerading — a .pdf or .jpg that is really an executable or script.
  • You need to detect container formats (ZIP/OLE/ISO) that hide a payload.

Do not use the file extension or the OS-reported type as truth — adversaries rename executables and embed payloads; always confirm by content.

Prerequisites

  • file/libmagic or an equivalent magic-byte database; the sample handled inertly in the lab.

Safety & Handling

  • Never open the sample in its associated application during identification; read raw bytes only.
  • Keep the disguised extension in mind — a double extension or RTLO trick can mislead the eye.

Workflow

Step 1: Read the magic bytes

Inspect the leading bytes and known offset signatures (e.g., MZ, \x7fELF, %PDF, PK\x03\x04, OLE D0 CF 11 E0).

python scripts/analyst.py identify sample.dat

Step 2: Confirm structure

For container formats, confirm internal structure (ZIP central directory, OLE storage, ISO CD001 at 0x8001) rather than trusting the header alone.

Step 3: Compare against the claimed extension

Flag mismatches: a .jpg whose content is MZ, or a document that is actually a script. These are strong masquerading indicators.

Step 4: Route to the right analysis

Use the confirmed type to pick the correct workflow (PE static analysis, document analysis, archive extraction).

Validation

  • The detected type is confirmed by both magic bytes and structural checks, not magic alone.
  • Extension/content mismatches are explicitly reported.
  • The result correctly routes the sample to the appropriate analysis skill.

Pitfalls

  • Trusting the first 2 bytes only; some formats need offset or structural confirmation.
  • Missing polyglot files that are valid as two formats at once.
  • Overlooking nested containers (archive inside archive) that hide the real payload.

Read the full file on GitHub · 90 lines

Files

What ships with it

3 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. 7d ago First seen · 90 lines · 69 tokens per session scan A 47230f329bd6

Subscribe to this mod's changes

identifying-file-types-and-formats is a skill published in the GitHub repository meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack (22 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 69 tokens to every session and 717 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 2026-09-03.

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