search-first

A research-before-coding workflow for finding existing libraries, tools, and code patterns before building something new. It can involve package registries, code repositories, skills, and web research.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when starting a feature, adding an integration, creating a helper, or looking for an existing solution to a requested capability.
Why use it?
It reduces duplicate custom code and helps you compare existing options before adding a dependency or utility. The workflow also considers maintenance, documentation, licensing, and dependencies.

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/zhmxiaowo/opencode-simple/search-first
Any agent
npx skills add zhmxiaowo/opencode-simple --skill search-first
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/zhmxiaowo/opencode-simple

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 1,450 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan B 1 finding. Scan, not verified.
Origin 97% 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 $0.01450
Opus 5 $0.00015 $0.00725
Sonnet 5 $0.00006 $0.00290
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00145

Measured 2d ago against content hash e3bb2cdd9f18, 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

97% identical to search-first — 4 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.

.opencode/skills/search-first/SKILL.md · 164 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 164 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 · 164 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 · 164 lines · 29 tokens per session scan B e3bb2cdd9f18

Subscribe to this mod's changes

search-first is a skill published in the GitHub repository zhmxiaowo/opencode-simple (2 stars, last pushed 5mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 29 tokens to every session and 1,450 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 97% identical to search-first, differing in 4 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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