shep: Skill for Claude Code

.claude/skills/shep-kit-research/SKILL.md

shep-kit:research is a skill for Claude Code from shep-ai/shep. It costs 68 tokens per session (1,032 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A technical research step for a feature under development. It evaluates libraries, architecture options, and integration approaches, then records the decisions.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to compare libraries, choose an architecture pattern, assess integration options, and document technical constraints and decisions.
Why use it?
It helps resolve technical questions before implementation begins. This reduces guesswork about which tools and design choices fit the feature.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: installed under .claude/. Also seen: reads .claude/ paths; mentions CLAUDE.md.

This is shep-ai/shep's own configuration. It tells Claude Code how to work on shep itself, so it is not a mod to install elsewhere. Copy it as a starting point and replace the rules that are about this project. Everything shep configures →

Reuse

Borrowing it

Nothing to install: this file belongs to shep-ai/shep. Take a copy, put it at the same path in your own repository, and replace the rules that are about this project with yours.

Copy the file
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shep-ai/shep/main/.claude/skills/shep-kit-research/SKILL.md
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/shep-ai/shep

Made for: Claude Code.

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 shep-kit:research

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

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/shep-ai/shep/shep-kit-research"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/shep-ai/shep/shep-kit-research.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 68 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,032 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. Third-party audits
  • NVIDIA SkillSpector pass 7 Sept 2026
How audits are shown
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 $0.00068 $0.01032
Opus 5 $0.00034 $0.00516
Sonnet 5 $0.00014 $0.00206
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00103

Measured 11d ago against content hash 908d06f88751, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-10, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

shep-kit:research 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 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.

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.

.claude/skills/shep-kit-research/SKILL.md · 156 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 156 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Research Technical Approach

Document technical decisions, library evaluations, and architectural choices for a feature.

Full workflow guide: docs/development/spec-driven-workflow.md

Prerequisites

  • Feature spec exists at specs/NNN-feature-name/spec.yaml (YAML source of truth)
  • On the feature branch feat/NNN-feature-name

GATE CHECK (Mandatory)

Before starting research, verify:

  1. Read spec.yaml and check the openQuestions array
  2. If any unresolved items exist in openQuestions: STOP and inform user:

    Cannot proceed with research. Open questions in spec.yaml must be resolved first. Please answer these questions or ensure openQuestions is empty (openQuestions: [])

  3. Only proceed when the openQuestions array is empty or all items are marked resolved

Workflow

1. Identify Current Feature

Determine which feature we're researching:

  • Check current branch name
  • Or ask user which spec to research
  • Read specs/NNN-feature-name/spec.yaml for context

2. Identify Technical Decisions

From the spec, identify decisions that need research:

  • Technology/library choices
  • Architecture patterns
  • Integration approaches
  • Performance strategies

3. Research Each Decision

For each technical decision:

Analyze options:

  • List 2-4 viable approaches
  • Research each using web search, documentation
  • Consider project constraints (from CLAUDE.md, existing patterns)

Evaluate trade-offs:

  • Pros and cons of each option
  • Compatibility with existing stack
  • Learning curve, maintenance burden
  • Performance implications

Make recommendation:

  • Choose best option with clear rationale
  • Document why alternatives were rejected

4. Document Security & Performance

Identify and document:

  • Security considerations specific to this feature
  • Performance implications and optimizations

5. Write research.yaml and Generate Markdown

Write research output to specs/NNN-feature-name/research.yaml (the source of truth):

Read the full file on GitHub · 156 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. 11d ago First seen · 156 lines · 68 tokens per session scan A 908d06f88751

Subscribe to this mod's changes

shep-kit:research is a skill published in the GitHub repository shep-ai/shep (250 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 68 tokens to every session and 1,032 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 2026-08-30.

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