Code Necromancer

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Tasks that involve Legacy modernization
• Tasks that involve Technical debt

Example prompts

• “legacy code”
• “inherited codebase”
• “no documentation”
• “/code-necromancer”

Requirements

• Python 3
• Node.js
• A Bash shell
• Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): Read, Write, Edit, Bash, WebFetch, Grep, Glob

Workflow steps

9 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

1. 1ARCHAEOLOGY
2. 2RESURRECTION
3. 3REJUVENATION
4. 4Premature Resurrection
5. 5Scope Creep
6. 6Big Bang Updates
7. 7Ignoring Tests
8. 8Undocumented Changes
9. 9Trusting Old Documentation

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 6713fc7. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves these tools, so the agent can use them without asking each time:

  • Read
  • Write
  • Edit
  • Bash
  • WebFetch
  • Grep
  • Glob

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Ships 2 files in scripts/ (Shell), which the agent can run.

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • npm
  • gh
  • pip
  • go

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use npm, gh and pip, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Code Necromancer loads about 1.6k tokens when it runs, and up to ~9.8k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 81 tokens; SKILL.md has 551 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~81

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~1.6k

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~9.8k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

• NotePre-approves every shell command (allowed-tools: Bash)SKILL.md

  allowed-tools: Read, Write, Edit, Bash, WebFetch, Grep, Glob

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); the scripts in this folder are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from curiositech/some_claude_skills at commit 6713fc7, republished under its MIT licence (© curiositech). 551 words, ~1,584 tokens.

name

code-necromancer

description

Systematic framework for resurrecting and modernizing legacy codebases through archaeology, resurrection, and rejuvenation phases. Activate on "legacy code", "inherited codebase", "no documentation", "technical debt", "resurrect", "modernize". NOT for greenfield projects or well-documented active codebases.

allowed-tools

Read, Write, Edit, Bash, WebFetch, Grep, Glob

metadata.category

Code Quality & Testing

metadata.tags

legacy, modernization, technical-debt, archaeology, refactoring

# List all repos in org
gh repo list ORG --limit 1000 --json name,primaryLanguage,pushedAt

# Dependency analysis
npm audit && npm outdated      # Node.js
pip list --outdated && safety check  # Python
go mod graph                    # Go

# Find env vars in code
grep -rn 'process\.env\|os\.environ' --include="*.js" --include="*.py"

© curiositech, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 12 other files (scripts, references) in .claude/skills/code-necromancer of curiositech/some_claude_skills.

• SKILL.md
• .claude-plugin/plugin.json
• CHANGELOG.md
• references/archaeology-guide.md
• references/dependency-patterns.md
• references/framework-detection.md
• references/infrastructure-mapping.md
• references/integration-test-patterns.md
• scripts/analyze-repo.sh
• scripts/scan-repos.sh
• templates/archaeology-report.md
• templates/repo-inventory.json
• templates/resurrection-plan.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 6713fc7