gsd-map-codebase

gsd-map-codebase is a skill for Claude Code from open-gsd/gsd-core. It costs 21 tokens per session (906 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A codebase analysis workflow that uses mapper agents to document how an existing software project is organised and works. It saves structured documents about the codebase for later reference.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when onboarding to a project, refreshing its documentation, scanning it quickly, or querying the saved codebase information.
Why use it?
Understanding an unfamiliar codebase can require searching through many files and directories. This creates a reusable map that helps developers find structure and existing behaviour more quickly.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: allowed-tools in frontmatter. Also seen: reads .claude/ paths.

Part of the gsd-core plugin — 72 skills, 35 agents, 7 hooks shipped together

Good fit Use it when onboarding to a project, refreshing its documentation, scanning it…

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/open-gsd/gsd-core/gsd-map-codebase
About the project

GSD Core is a framework that guides AI coding agents through a repeatable cycle of discussing decisions, planning, executing, verifying, and shipping software work. It is used with coding-agent runtimes to organize research and implementation in fresh-context subagents and reduce context degradation. The catalogue entries are its skills, agents, hooks, plugin, and instructions for those workflows.

open-gsd/gsd-core · 9,140 stars · on GitHub · opengsd.net

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 open-gsd/gsd-core --skill gsd-map-codebase
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/open-gsd/gsd-core

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install gsd-core, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 72 skills, 35 agents, 7 hooks.

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 gsd-map-codebase

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/open-gsd/gsd-core/gsd-map-codebase.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/open-gsd/gsd-core/gsd-map-codebase)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/open-gsd/gsd-core/gsd-map-codebase"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/open-gsd/gsd-core/gsd-map-codebase.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 21 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 906 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 $0.00021 $0.00906
Opus 5 $0.00010 $0.00453
Sonnet 5 $0.00004 $0.00181
Haiku 4.5 $0.00002 $0.00091

Measured 3d ago against content hash 17bc541bff39, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

gsd-map-codebase 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 3d 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.

Origin

Copies of this mod

1 near-identical copy found in the catalogue:

skills/gsd-map-codebase/SKILL.md · 84 lines

What it actually says

Each mapper agent explores a focus area and writes documents directly to .planning/codebase/. The orchestrator only receives confirmations, keeping context usage minimal.

Output: .planning/codebase/ folder with 7 structured documents about the codebase state.

<execution_context> @~/.claude/gsd-core/workflows/map-codebase.md </execution_context>

Parse the first token of $ARGUMENTS:

  • If it is --fast: strip the flag, then read and execute ~/.claude/gsd-core/workflows/scan.md (passing remaining args including optional --focus). Load it on demand here — it is deliberately not in <execution_context>, so the common full-map path does not pay for it.
  • If it is --query: strip the flag, run the intel workflow (passing remaining args as the subcommand).
  • Otherwise: pass all of $ARGUMENTS as focus area to the map-codebase workflow.

Load project state if exists: Check for .planning/STATE.md - loads context if project already initialized

This command can run:

  • Via /gsd-onboard for first-time brownfield setup - creates codebase map first
  • After /gsd-new-project (greenfield codebases) - updates codebase map as code evolves
  • Anytime to refresh codebase understanding

<when_to_use> Use map-codebase for:

  • Brownfield projects before initialization (understand existing code first)
  • Refreshing codebase map after significant changes
  • Refreshing or deepening an onboarded codebase map
  • Before major refactoring (understand current state)
  • When STATE.md references outdated codebase info

Skip map-codebase for:

  • Greenfield projects with no code yet (nothing to map)
  • Trivial codebases (<5 files) </when_to_use>

<success_criteria>

  • .planning/codebase/ directory created
  • All 7 codebase documents written by mapper agents
  • Documents follow template structure
  • Parallel agents completed without errors
  • User knows next steps </success_criteria>
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. 3d ago First seen · 84 lines · 21 tokens per session scan A 17bc541bff39

Subscribe to this mod's changes

gsd-map-codebase is a skill published in the GitHub repository open-gsd/gsd-core (9,140 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 21 tokens to every session and 906 once invoked, about $0.0001 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.