search-first

A research-before-coding workflow that searches for existing tools, libraries, and implementation patterns before new code is written.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when starting features, adding integrations or dependencies, or considering a new helper, utility, or abstraction.
Why use it?
It reduces duplicated work and helps choose dependencies or designs using information about fit, maintenance, documentation, licensing, and related factors.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

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.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/x-cmd/skill/search-first
Any agent
npx skills add x-cmd/skill --skill search-first
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/x-cmd/skill

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 29 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,441 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan B 1 finding. Scan, not verified.
Origin 100% copy Near-identical to another mod 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 $0.00029 $0.01441
Opus 5 $0.00015 $0.00720
Sonnet 5 $0.00006 $0.00288
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00144

Measured 2d ago against content hash 752b24a8a06b, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade B, and why

search-first scanned grade B 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 2d 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.

Reads agent configuration directoriesmediumAgent snooping

.claude/, .codex/, .gemini/ hold keys, settings and other credentials a mod has no legitimate need for.

2. Is there an MCP for this? → Check `~/.claude/settings.json` and search
Origin

This is a copy

100% identical to search-first — 0 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

data/affaanmustafa/search-first/SKILL.md · 162 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 162 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

/search-first — Research Before You Code

Systematizes the "search for existing solutions before implementing" workflow.

Trigger

Use this skill when:

  • Starting a new feature that likely has existing solutions
  • Adding a dependency or integration
  • The user asks "add X functionality" and you're about to write code
  • Before creating a new utility, helper, or abstraction

Workflow

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  1. NEED ANALYSIS                           │
│     Define what functionality is needed      │
│     Identify language/framework constraints  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  2. PARALLEL SEARCH (researcher agent)      │
│     ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐  │
│     │  npm /   │ │  MCP /   │ │  GitHub / │  │
│     │  PyPI    │ │  Skills  │ │  Web      │  │
│     └──────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────┘  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  3. EVALUATE                                │
│     Score candidates (functionality, maint, │
│     community, docs, license, deps)         │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  4. DECIDE                                  │
│     ┌─────────┐  ┌──────────┐  ┌─────────┐  │
│     │  Adopt  │  │  Extend  │  │  Build   │  │
│     │ as-is   │  │  /Wrap   │  │  Custom  │  │
│     └─────────┘  └──────────┘  └─────────┘  │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  5. IMPLEMENT                               │
│     Install package / Configure MCP /       │
│     Write minimal custom code               │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Decision Matrix

Signal Action
Exact match, well-maintained, MIT/Apache Adopt — install and use directly
Partial match, good foundation Extend — install + write thin wrapper
Multiple weak matches Compose — combine 2-3 small packages
Nothing suitable found Build — write custom, but informed by research

How to Use

Quick Mode (inline)

Read the full file on GitHub · 162 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. 2d ago First seen · 162 lines · 29 tokens per session scan B 752b24a8a06b

Subscribe to this mod's changes

search-first is a skill published in the GitHub repository x-cmd/skill (26 stars, last pushed 1mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 29 tokens to every session and 1,441 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it B with 1 finding (reads agent configuration directories). It is 100% identical to search-first, differing in 0 lines, and is treated as a copy.

Related

Other skills, from other repositories

skill-creator

Create new skills, modify and improve existing skills, and measure skill performance. Use when users want to create a skill from scratch, edit, or optimize an existing skill, run evals to test a skill, benchmark skill performance with variance analysis, or optimize a skill's description for better triggering accuracy.

CherryHQ/cherry-studio · 64 tokens

gh-pr-review

Automated Cherry Studio review for local branches, PRs, commits, files, architecture docs, and repository skills. Use for code or documentation reviews that need project-specific naming, main/renderer/shared placement and dependency rules, IpcApi and DataApi boundaries, lifecycle/service ownership, renderer hooks…

CherryHQ/cherry-studio · 147 tokens

prepare-release

Prepare a new release by collecting commits, generating bilingual release notes, updating version files, and creating a release branch. Use when asked to prepare/create a release, bump version, or run /prepare-release.

CherryHQ/cherry-studio · 44 tokens

claude-automation-recommender

Analyze a codebase and recommend Claude Code automations (hooks, subagents, skills, plugins, MCP servers). Use when user asks for automation recommendations, wants to optimize their Claude Code setup, mentions improving Claude Code workflows, asks how to first set up Claude Code for a project, or wants to know what…

CherryHQ/cherry-studio · 77 tokens

cherry-tool-guide

Cherry Studio first-party tool and bundled-shell routing for general agents. For straightforward local work in shell-capable sessions, run JS/TS with bun and one-off JS tools with bun x; run Python with uv run [--with ] python and one-off Python CLIs with uvx; search with rg. Load this guide before changing project…

CherryHQ/cherry-studio · 171 tokens

find-skills

Helps users discover and install agent skills when they ask questions like "how do I do X", "find a skill for X", "is there a skill that can...", or express interest in extending capabilities. This skill should be used when the user is looking for functionality that might exist as an installable skill.

CherryHQ/cherry-studio · 67 tokens