symbiote-init

symbiote-init is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from MohmmedAshraf/symbiote. It costs 87 tokens per session (1,885 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A setup skill that scans a project and records its structure, coding preferences, constraints, and architectural decisions.

In plain words
What is it for?
It is for initializing Symbiote, creating a project overview, scanning related projects for developer preferences, and storing the resulting context.
Why use it?
It gives AI tools a shared starting point for understanding an unfamiliar codebase.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one. Also seen: reads .claude/ paths; mentions CLAUDE.md; mentions subagents.

Good fit It is for initializing Symbiote, creating a project overview, scanning related projects for developer preferences, and storing the resulting context.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/mohmmedashraf/symbiote/symbiote-init
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 MohmmedAshraf/symbiote --skill symbiote-init
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/MohmmedAshraf/symbiote

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 symbiote-init

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/mohmmedashraf/symbiote/symbiote-init/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/mohmmedashraf/symbiote/symbiote-init)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/mohmmedashraf/symbiote/symbiote-init"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/mohmmedashraf/symbiote/symbiote-init/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 symbiote-init

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/mohmmedashraf/symbiote/symbiote-init"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/mohmmedashraf/symbiote/symbiote-init.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 87 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,885 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 1 finding. 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 $0.00087 $0.01885
Opus 5 $0.00044 $0.00942
Sonnet 5 $0.00017 $0.00377
Haiku 4.5 $0.00009 $0.00188

Measured 11d ago against content hash dcbb4a7f7a60, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-11, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

symbiote-init scanned grade A with 1 finding 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 11d 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.

Makes network callslowCapability

Not a fault in itself. Listed so you know the mod talks to something, and to what.

sleep 3 && curl -s http://127.0.0.1:$(cat .brain/port)/internal/health
packages/cli/skills/symbiote-init/SKILL.md · 222 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 222 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Symbiote Project Init

Initialize Symbiote for the current project — scan codebase and extract DNA + intent.

MCP server is already registered globally by symbiote install. This skill only scans and extracts.

Process

  1. Scan the codebase and start the server
  2. Write project overview
  3. Scan ALL projects for developer identity
  4. Build complete DNA entries, constraints, and decisions
  5. Dispatch subagent with pre-built entries
  6. Print one-line summary

Step 1: Scan and Start Server

Run these as SEPARATE bash commands:

npx symbiote-cli scan

Then start the server:

npx symbiote-cli serve --no-open > /dev/null 2>&1 &

Then wait and verify:

sleep 3 && curl -s http://127.0.0.1:$(cat .brain/port)/internal/health

IMPORTANT: Do NOT combine scan and serve into one command. The scan must finish and release the DB lock before the server starts.

Step 2: Write Project Overview

Write .brain/intent/overview.md — a concise project summary that gives AI tools instant context.

Read the codebase context (CLAUDE.md, package.json, top-level structure, scan results) and write a markdown file with this exact structure:

# {Project Name}

{One sentence: what this project does and who it's for.}

## Tech Stack

- {Language/runtime} ({key detail})
- {Framework} ({purpose})
- {Database/storage} ({why chosen})
- {Other significant deps}

## Architecture

- `{top-level-dir}/` — {what it contains}
- `{top-level-dir}/` — {what it contains}

## Key Patterns

- {How data flows}
- {How modules connect}

## Entry Points

- `{file}` — {what it does}

Rules: keep it under 40 lines, no frontmatter, be specific to THIS project.

Step 3: Scan ALL Projects for Developer Identity

Read the developer's full coding identity across every project:

  1. ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md — global instructions
  2. Every CLAUDE.md in ~/.claude/projects/*/ — all project instructions
  3. Every .md file in ~/.claude/projects/*/memory/ — all memories
  4. ./CLAUDE.md — current project

Read the full file on GitHub · 222 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. 11d ago First seen · 222 lines · 87 tokens per session scan A dcbb4a7f7a60

Subscribe to this mod's changes

symbiote-init is a skill published in the GitHub repository MohmmedAshraf/symbiote (5 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 87 tokens to every session and 1,885 once invoked, about $0.0004 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 1 finding (makes network calls). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.

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