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Agent skill

basemind CLI Codebase Navigator

by Goldziher in Goldziher/basemind

Drives the basemind code-intelligence tool from the command line for symbol search, callers, git history and blame, document search and web crawling, sharing its cache with the MCP server.

MITAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install basemind CLI Codebase Navigator

skills CLI
$ npx skills add Goldziher/basemind --skill basemind-cli -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install Goldziher/basemind basemind-cli --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/Goldziher/basemind.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/basemind-cli .claude/skills/basemind-cli && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
basemind-cli
GitHub stars
106
Token cost
~2k tokens
SKILL.md length
872 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
10
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Drives the basemind code-intelligence tool from the command line for symbol search, callers, git history and blame, document search and web crawling, sharing its cache with the MCP server.

  • Finding where a symbol is defined or what calls it across a large codebase
  • SKILL.md covers Capabilities, When to reach for it, Command routing (copy this… and Output format, plus 3 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md
  • Scripting repeated codebase queries in a CI pipeline or headless environment

What it does

basemind offers two equally supported surfaces, an interactive MCP tool interface and this scriptable CLI, and both share the same machine-global cache, so they are safe to use side by side. The CLI is the one to reach for when scripting, batching queries, or running in headless or CI environments.

Its capabilities include a tree-sitter code map across more than 300 languages with outlines, symbol search, references, callers, call graphs and dependents; indexed full-text and symbol search; git history, blame and structural diffs at symbol resolution with churn data; document RAG over more than 90 file formats including PDFs, Office files, HTML, email and OCR'd images; a shared per-repo key-value and semantic memory across sessions; web crawling into the searchable document store; and cache management including a destructive full clear that only the CLI allows.

The skill states a general preference: basemind first, then shell, grep or git only when no basemind command covers the question, with a routing table mapping questions like where is X defined or what calls this specific definition to the matching basemind code, git or web command.

When your agent uses it

  • Finding where a symbol is defined or what calls it across a large codebase
  • Scripting repeated codebase queries in a CI pipeline or headless environment
  • Looking at git history, blame or churn for a file or symbol
  • Crawling or searching documents and web pages into a project's shared memory

Example prompts

  • “Use basemind to find every caller of the resolveConfig function.”
  • “Run a headless basemind query in CI to check for references to the removed API.”
  • “Show the git blame and churn history for this file using basemind.”
  • “Crawl this documentation site into basemind's document store so I can search it later.”

Requirements

  • The basemind CLI installed and indexed against the repository

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 2f6da31. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are bash).

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

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    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

basemind CLI Codebase Navigator loads about 2k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 73 tokens; SKILL.md has 872 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~73
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2k

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

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

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); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from Goldziher/basemind at commit 2f6da31, republished under its MIT licence (© Goldziher). 872 words, ~1,955 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/basemind-cli/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
basemind-cli
description
Navigate codebases and manage caches via the basemind CLI — outlines, symbol search, reference/caller lookups, git history, blame, and diffs. For headless scripting, CI, or when driving the CLI more efficiently than interactive MCP calls. Shares the same index as the MCP server.

basemind CLI — the scriptable interface

basemind has two equally-weighted surfaces: MCP (interactive tool calls) and CLI (scriptable commands). They share the same machine-global cache (Linux ~/.local/share/basemind/, macOS ~/Library/Application Support/basemind/; override BASEMIND_DATA_HOME) and are safe to run alongside each other. Reach for the CLI when you're scripting, batching queries, running in headless environments, or CI.

Capabilities

  • Code map across 300+ languages — tree-sitter outlines, symbol search, references, callers, call graphs, implementations, dependents.
  • Full-text + symbol search — indexed regex over content and substring symbol lookup.
  • Git intelligence — history, blame, and structural diffs at symbol resolution, plus churn.
  • Document RAG over 90+ file formats — PDFs, Office, HTML, email, images (OCR) → semantic search.
  • Shared memory — per-repo, scope-keyed key-value + semantic memory across sessions.
  • Web crawl — scrape / follow-link crawl into the searchable document store.
  • Cache management — stats, garbage collection, selective and full clears.

When to reach for it

  • Running in headless environments or CI pipelines.
  • Batching multiple queries without interactive delays.
  • Integrating basemind into shell scripts or non-MCP tooling.
  • Controlling tool routing explicitly (no agent routing decisions).
  • Clearing caches destructively (only the CLI allows --component all).

basemind first, shell/grep/git fallback. Prefer basemind code / graph over reading files, over grep/rg, and over naked git: use it for code parsing (outlines, references, callers), git history / blame / diffs (basemind git), document extraction / RAG / keyword + entity (NER) / summary (basemind memory documents), and web scraping / crawling / sitemaps (basemind web scrape / crawl / map). Drop to raw shell, grep, or git only when no basemind command covers the question.

Command routing (copy this into your mental model)

QuestionCommandNotes
"Where is X defined?"basemind code symbols "X"Substring match, optional --kind filter.
"What's the shape of file F?"basemind code outline path/FAdd --l2 for calls + docs.
"What calls X?" (any name)basemind code references "X"Name match, no scope resolution.
"What calls this specific definition?"basemind code callers path name [--kind]Specific definition lookup.
"Trace the call graph?"basemind graph calls "name" [--direction --max-depth]BFS over calls.
"What implements / extends X?"basemind code implementations "X"Rust, Python, TS/TSX, JS.
"What imports module M?"basemind code dependents "M"Reverse-lookup via imports.
"What files are indexed?"basemind code files [--language --path-contains]Filter by language/path.
"What changed recently?"basemind git recent [--limit N]Recent commits with paths.
"When did symbol X last change?"basemind git symbol-history path nameCross-commit structural hash.
"Who wrote this line / symbol?"basemind git blame path / blame-symbol path namePer-line / per-symbol.
"Where's the churn?"basemind git churn [--window N --top-k K]Churn-ranked files.
"What's dirty in the working tree?"basemind git statusStaged/unstaged summary.
"Diff a file between revs?"basemind git diff path old new / diff-outline pathFile / outline diffs.
"What's indexed?"basemind admin statusFile count, languages, cache dir.
"What's HEAD / branch?"basemind admin repoBranch, HEAD, origin.
"Regex over file contents?"basemind code grep "pattern" [--language --path-contains]Full-text search.
"Semantic search over docs?"basemind memory documents "query"Needs documents feature.
"Recall something stored earlier?"basemind memory get "key" / list / search "q"KNN + exact match.
"Remember this for future sessions?"basemind memory put "key" "value"Delete with memory delete "key".
"Cache size?"basemind admin cache-statsOn-disk size + orphan accounting.
"What cache space is reclaimable?"basemind admin gcReport orphaned blobs without deleting them.
"Clear caches?"basemind admin cache-clear --component blobs --confirmDestructive; views / all require the offline cache command.
"Pull this URL into RAG?"basemind web scrape <url>Single page (requires --features crawl).
"Ingest a docs site?"basemind web crawl <seed-url>Link-following crawl.
"What URLs exist on this site?"basemind web map <url>Sitemap + link discovery.
"Keep index fresh?"basemind watchLive re-index watcher; no MCP server (that's serve).
"Refresh the index after edits?"basemind scanFull or incremental scan.
"Refresh changed paths?"basemind admin rescan [path…]Re-index in the live server.
"Per-operation activity summary?"basemind admin telemetryHistogram + estimated tokens saved.
Show full SKILL.md (241 more words)Show less

Output format

By default, all commands return human-readable text. For machine consumption, add the global --json flag:

bash
basemind code symbols "parseQuery" --json

This returns the raw JsonSchema-derived response structure, same as MCP.

Setup (one-time per repo)

sh
basemind scan

This walks the tree, parses with tree-sitter, and writes the content-addressed blob store + Fjall inverted index into the machine-global cache (Linux ~/.local/share/basemind/, macOS ~/Library/Application Support/basemind/; override BASEMIND_DATA_HOME). A few seconds for small repos, ~22 s for an ~80k-file TypeScript monorepo.

Re-run basemind scan after large changes, or run basemind watch to keep the index fresh.

Examples

Find where a symbol is defined
bash
basemind code symbols "MapCache"

Output:

text
src/mcp/mod.rs:79:1 MapCache (struct)
src/mcp/mod.rs:88:1 MapCache (impl)
Show a file's outline before opening it
bash
basemind code outline src/mcp/tools.rs --l2
Get all references to a function
bash
basemind code references "process_file"
Find all callers of a specific definition
bash
basemind code callers src/scanner.rs "process_file" --json
Show recent commits with changed files
bash
basemind git recent --limit 5
Blame a symbol to see when its body last changed
bash
basemind git blame-symbol src/scanner.rs "process_file"
Manage cache space
bash
basemind admin cache-stats
basemind admin gc
basemind admin cache-clear --component blobs --confirm

Notes

  • All paths are repository-relative with forward-slash separators.
  • The CLI opens the index read-only; safe to run alongside a live basemind serve process.
  • Lists are capped (--limit, default 100, max 1000).
  • Matching on symbol names is substring-based; code mode references with name: "bar" matches Foo::bar() and bar() alike.
  • Git tools require basemind to be running inside a git repository.
  • memory modes require basemind to be built with --features full (or the individual documents / memory flags).
  • Memory is scoped by the normalized origin remote URL — clones of the same repo share memory; unrelated repos do not see each other's entries.
  • web modes scrape, crawl, and map require --features crawl.

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

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/basemind-cli of Goldziher/basemind.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 2f6da31

Compare with similar skills

basemind CLI Codebase Navigator next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

basemind CLI Codebase Navigator compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
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E2b Sandboxagent-sandbox/agent-sandbox218—~2.6kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Agentsop Aideragentsope/SkillAlchemy457—~3.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Memtrace Cochangesyncable-dev/memtrace-public486—~961Automated safety check: PassCustom licence

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Works with

Categories

Questions about basemind CLI Codebase Navigator

What does basemind CLI Codebase Navigator do?

Drives the basemind code-intelligence tool from the command line for symbol search, callers, git history and blame, document search and web crawling, sharing its cache with the MCP server. basemind offers two equally supported surfaces, an interactive MCP tool interface and this scriptable CLI, and both share the same machine-global cache, so they are safe to use side by side. The CLI is the one to reach for when scripting, batching queries, or running in headless or CI environments.

When should I use basemind CLI Codebase Navigator?

basemind CLI Codebase Navigator fits situations like: finding where a symbol is defined or what calls it across a large codebase; scripting repeated codebase queries in a CI pipeline or headless environment; looking at git history, blame or churn for a file or symbol; crawling or searching documents and web pages into a project's shared memory.

How do I install basemind CLI Codebase Navigator in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add Goldziher/basemind --skill basemind-cli -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/basemind-cli in Goldziher/basemind) into .claude/skills/basemind-cli in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install basemind CLI Codebase Navigator in Codex?

Run `npx skills add Goldziher/basemind --skill basemind-cli -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/basemind-cli in Goldziher/basemind) into .agents/skills/basemind-cli in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use basemind CLI Codebase Navigator in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add Goldziher/basemind --skill basemind-cli -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/basemind-cli, .gemini/skills/basemind-cli, .github/skills/basemind-cli and .opencode/skills/basemind-cli in your project.

What does basemind CLI Codebase Navigator need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: basemind CLI Codebase Navigator is instructions for the agent only. Our summary lists: The basemind CLI installed and indexed against the repository.

Does basemind CLI Codebase Navigator access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is basemind CLI Codebase Navigator safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does basemind CLI Codebase Navigator use?

basemind CLI Codebase Navigator is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does basemind CLI Codebase Navigator use?

About 2k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 7.8k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to basemind CLI Codebase Navigator?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with basemind CLI Codebase Navigator: GitHub (swarmclawai/swarmclaw, 687 stars), Cut Release (spiculedata/saiku, 1.3k stars), E2b Sandbox (agent-sandbox/agent-sandbox, 218 stars) and Agentsop Aider (agentsope/SkillAlchemy, 457 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains basemind CLI Codebase Navigator?

Goldziher (a GitHub user) maintains it in Goldziher/basemind, which has 106 GitHub stars. The repository holds 10 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 6, 2026.

Source: Goldziher/basemind on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.