md2idx-read

md2idx-read is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from oubakiou/md2idx. It costs 161 tokens per session (2,004 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A method for reading large Markdown documents by first viewing their heading index and then loading only the relevant sections. Markdown is a plain-text format commonly used for documentation.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when analysing or answering questions about a Markdown file that is large or when selective reading is requested.
Why use it?
It avoids loading an entire long document when only a few sections are needed, saving time and context.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one. Also seen: reads .claude/ paths; mentions Claude Code; mentions Codex.

Good fit Use it when analysing or answering questions about a Markdown file that is large or when selective reading is requested.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/oubakiou/md2idx/md2idx-read
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 oubakiou/md2idx --skill md2idx-read
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/oubakiou/md2idx

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 md2idx-read

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/oubakiou/md2idx/md2idx-read/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/oubakiou/md2idx/md2idx-read)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/oubakiou/md2idx/md2idx-read"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/oubakiou/md2idx/md2idx-read/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 md2idx-read

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/oubakiou/md2idx/md2idx-read"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/oubakiou/md2idx/md2idx-read.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 161 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,004 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 $0.00161 $0.02004
Opus 5 $0.00081 $0.01002
Sonnet 5 $0.00032 $0.00401
Haiku 4.5 $0.00016 $0.00200

Measured 9d ago against content hash 103886f8ee35, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

md2idx-read 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 9d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 1 executable file (scripts/md2idx-run.sh), 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/md2idx-read/SKILL.md · 190 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 190 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

md2idx-read

A skill for reading large Markdown files efficiently using md2idx. Instead of loading an entire file into context, first fetch the index (heading table of contents), then selectively retrieve only the sections needed for the current task.

The bundled scripts/md2idx-run.sh wrapper handles file size checking, md2idx command resolution (local build, PATH, npx), and execution. All Bash operations go through this single script, so one permissions.allow prefix covers the full workflow.

When to use

  • Reading a large Markdown file (guideline: more than 200 lines or 10 KB)
  • Only specific sections are needed, not the entire file
  • The user explicitly asks to "read via md2idx", "check the index", or "read selectively"

When NOT to use

  • Small Markdown files (under 200 lines) — reading directly with the Read tool is faster
  • The entire file needs to be edited — the Edit tool requires full content
  • Non-Markdown files

Workflow

Call the wrapper via bash with a project-root-relative path (not absolute) so it matches permissions.allow prefix rules. The base directory depends on which agent installed the skill — .claude/skills/ for Claude Code, .agents/skills/ for other agents (Codex CLI uses .codex/skills/ in some configurations):

# Claude Code:
bash .claude/skills/md2idx-read/scripts/md2idx-run.sh "<file>" --index

# Other agents:
bash .agents/skills/md2idx-read/scripts/md2idx-run.sh "<file>" --index

Use the path that matches your agent's install directory throughout all commands below.

The wrapper performs these steps internally:

  1. File size check — if the file is under 200 lines AND under 10 KB, it exits with code 2 and prints SMALL: ... — use Read tool directly to stderr. In that case, use the Read tool to read the file directly and stop.
  2. md2idx command resolution — tries node dist/md2idx.mjs (local build), then md2idx (PATH), then npx -y md2idx (auto-download). Exits with code 3 if none are available.
  3. Execution — runs the resolved md2idx with jq and outputs the result to stdout.

Read the full file on GitHub · 190 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file 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. 9d ago First seen · 190 lines · 161 tokens per session scan A 103886f8ee35

Subscribe to this mod's changes

md2idx-read is a skill published in the GitHub repository oubakiou/md2idx (12 stars, last pushed 29d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 161 tokens to every session and 2,004 once invoked, about $0.0008 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.

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