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Agent skill

Codebase Recon

by hashgraph-online in hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins

A skill your agent uses when entering an unfamiliar codebase, onboarding to a new project, or wanting to assess codebase health before reading code — analyzes git history to reveal hotspots, risk…

Apache-2.0Auto-check passedDevelopment

Install Codebase Recon

skills CLI
$ npx skills add hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins --skill codebase-recon -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins codebase-recon --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/hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/plugins/yujiachen-y/codebase-recon-skill/skills/codebase-recon .claude/skills/codebase-recon && 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
codebase-recon
GitHub stars
1.2k
Token cost
~1.4k tokens
SKILL.md length
385 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
736
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Apache-2.0

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when entering an unfamiliar codebase, onboarding to a new project, or wanting to assess codebase health before reading code — analyzes git history to reveal hotspots, risk…

  • Works in 2 steps: Probe → Parallel Analysis
  • Entering an unfamiliar codebase
  • SKILL.md covers Phase 1: Probe, Phase 2: Parallel Analysis, Cross-Referencing and Report Template
  • Calls git

What it does

Codebase Recon is an agent skill from hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins. Use when entering an unfamiliar codebase, onboarding to a new project, or wanting to assess codebase health before reading code — analyzes git history to reveal hotspots, risk areas, team structure, and development momentum

Its SKILL.md is about 1.4k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts. Compatibility notes: Requires git. Works in any terminal-based coding agent.

It sits in Development, covering Git workflow and Codebase onboarding. The repository describes itself as: A curated list of awesome OpenAI Codex / ChatGPT plugins, skills, and resources. The 1 Codex Marketplace. See live plugins at: https://hol.org/plugins/best-codex-plugins. The licence is Apache-2.0.

When your agent uses it

  • Entering an unfamiliar codebase
  • Onboarding to a new project
  • Wanting to assess codebase health before reading code — analyzes git history to reveal hotspots
  • Development momentum

Example prompts

  • “/codebase-recon”

Requirements

  • Compatibility (from SKILL.md): Requires git. Works in any terminal-based coding agent.

Workflow steps

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

  1. Probe
  2. Parallel Analysis

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 16b4156. 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

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • git

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

  • Network

    Links to these hosts (documentation or services it may open):

    • piechowski.io
    • github.com

    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.

  • Compatibility

    Requires git. Works in any terminal-based coding agent.

    From compatibility in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

Context cost

Codebase Recon loads about 1.4k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 60 tokens; SKILL.md has 385 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~60
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.4k

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 hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins at commit 16b4156, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© hashgraph-online). 385 words, ~1,422 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/codebase-recon/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
codebase-recon
description
Use when entering an unfamiliar codebase, onboarding to a new project, or wanting to assess codebase health before reading code — analyzes git history to reveal hotspots, risk areas, team structure, and development momentum
compatibility
Requires git. Works in any terminal-based coding agent.
metadata.author
yujiachen-y
metadata.version
1.0
metadata.inspired-by
https://piechowski.io/post/git-commands-before-reading-code/

Codebase Recon

Analyze git history to understand a codebase before reading any code. Reveals project health, risk areas, team structure, and development momentum.

Inspired by "The Git Commands I Run Before Reading Any Code" by Ally Piechowski.

Phase 1: Probe

Before running analysis, determine repo scale to calibrate time windows and result counts.

Run this single shell command to collect repo vitals:

sh
echo "COMMITS=$(git rev-list --count HEAD)" && \
echo "FIRST_COMMIT=$(git log --reverse --format='%ad' --date=short | head -1)" && \
echo "LATEST_COMMIT=$(git log --format='%ad' --date=short | head -1)" && \
echo "BRANCHES=$(git branch -a | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"

Use the commit count to set parameters for Phase 2:

Repo SizeCommitsWINDOW (--since)N (--head)
Small<500(omit --since)10
Medium500-10k1 year ago20
Large>10k6 months ago30

Print the Repo Vitals line immediately:

Repo Vitals: Age: [FIRST_COMMIT to LATEST_COMMIT] | Commits: [COMMITS] | Branches: [BRANCHES] | Analysis window: [WINDOW or "all time"]

Phase 2: Parallel Analysis

Run all 7 commands in parallel (they are independent). Substitute WINDOW and N from Phase 1. For small repos, omit --since flags entirely.

2a. Code Hotspots

Most-changed files in the analysis window:

sh
git log --format=format: --name-only --since="WINDOW" | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -N
2b. Bus Factor

All-time contributor ranking by commit count:

sh
git shortlog -sn --no-merges
2c. Bug Magnets

Files most associated with bug-fix commits:

sh
git log -i -E --grep="fix|bug|broken" --name-only --format='' --since="WINDOW" | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -N
2d. Team Momentum

Commit frequency by month (all time):

sh
git log --format='%ad' --date=format:'%Y-%m' | sort | uniq -c
2e. Firefighting Frequency

Emergency/revert commits in the analysis window:

sh
git log --oneline --since="WINDOW" | grep -iE 'revert|hotfix|emergency|rollback'
2f. Recently Added Files

New files added in the analysis window:

sh
git log --diff-filter=A --since="WINDOW" --name-only --format='' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -N
2g. Active vs Total Contributors

Count of contributors active in the last 3 months (fixed window — measures "who's here now"):

sh
git shortlog -sn --no-merges --since="3 months ago" | wc -l

Compare this count against the total from 2b.

Show full SKILL.md (172 more words)Show less

Cross-Referencing

After collecting all Phase 2 results, perform these cross-references before presenting the report:

  1. High-Risk Files: Intersect code hotspots (2a) with bug magnets (2c). Files appearing in both lists are highest-risk.
  2. Risk Ownership: For each high-risk file, run git shortlog -sn -- <file> to identify the primary owner.
  3. Bus Factor Risk: If active contributors (2g) are less than 30% of total contributors (2b), flag this as a bus factor concern.
  4. Momentum Trend: Analyze the monthly commit counts (2d):
    • Compare the average of the last 3 months to the average of the 3 months before that.
    • Rising: last 3 months average > prior 3 months average by 20%+
    • Declining: last 3 months average < prior 3 months average by 20%+
    • Erratic: month-over-month variance exceeds 50%
    • Stable: otherwise

Report Template

Present the report in the terminal using this structure:

═══ Codebase Recon Report ═══

Repo Vitals
  Age: [first commit] to [latest commit] | Commits: N | Branches: N | Analysis window: WINDOW

1. Code Hotspots (most-changed files)
   [ranked list: count  filepath]

2. Bug Magnets (files with fix/bug/broken commits)
   [ranked list: count  filepath]

3. High-Risk Files (appear in BOTH hotspots AND bug magnets)
   [list with: filepath — hotspot rank #X, bug magnet rank #Y, primary owner: NAME]
   If none overlap, state: "No files appear in both lists — good sign."

4. Bus Factor
   [top 10 contributors: count  name]
   Active (last 3 months): X of Y total contributors
   [If active < 30% of total: "Warning: low active contributor ratio — knowledge concentration risk"]

5. Team Momentum
   [monthly commit counts, most recent 12 months or all if fewer]
   Trend: [rising / stable / declining / erratic]

6. Firefighting Frequency
   [list of revert/hotfix/emergency commits, or "None found"]
   Rate: N emergency commits out of M total in window (X%)

7. Recently Added Files
   [ranked list: count  filepath]

8. Recommendations
   - Start reading: [top 3 high-risk files, or top 3 hotspots if no high-risk files]
   - Talk to: [primary owner of the #1 high-risk or hotspot file]
   - Watch out: [any trend warnings — declining momentum, low bus factor, high firefighting rate]

After printing the report, ask:

"Want me to save this report to a markdown file? (e.g., docs/codebase-recon-report.md)"

If yes, write the same content as a markdown file. Do not commit — let the user decide.

© hashgraph-online, Apache-2.0. 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 plugins/yujiachen-y/codebase-recon-skill/skills/codebase-recon of hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 16b4156

Compare with similar skills

Codebase Recon 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.

Codebase Recon compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Codebase Recon this skillhashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins1.2k—~1.4kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Agentsop Aideragentsope/SkillAlchemy457—~3.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Memtrace Cochangesyncable-dev/memtrace-public486—~961Automated safety check: PassCustom licence
Local File and Code Searchtaxueseek/argo184—~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
basemind CLI Codebase NavigatorGoldziher/basemind106—~2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Codewhale Contributor Onboardingcodewhale-hq/Codewhale41k—~1.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Categories

Questions about Codebase Recon

What does Codebase Recon do?

A skill your agent uses when entering an unfamiliar codebase, onboarding to a new project, or wanting to assess codebase health before reading code — analyzes git history to reveal hotspots, risk…. Codebase Recon is an agent skill from hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins.

When should I use Codebase Recon?

Codebase Recon fits situations like: entering an unfamiliar codebase; onboarding to a new project; wanting to assess codebase health before reading code — analyzes git history to reveal hotspots; development momentum.

How do I install Codebase Recon in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins --skill codebase-recon -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/yujiachen-y/codebase-recon-skill/skills/codebase-recon in hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins) into .claude/skills/codebase-recon in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Codebase Recon in Codex?

Run `npx skills add hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins --skill codebase-recon -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/yujiachen-y/codebase-recon-skill/skills/codebase-recon in hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins) into .agents/skills/codebase-recon in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Codebase Recon 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 hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins --skill codebase-recon -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/codebase-recon, .gemini/skills/codebase-recon, .github/skills/codebase-recon and .opencode/skills/codebase-recon in your project.

What does Codebase Recon need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Codebase Recon needs the command-line tools its instructions call (git). Compatibility (from SKILL.md): Requires git. Works in any terminal-based coding agent..

Does Codebase Recon access the network?

SKILL.md names 2 domains. As links in the text: piechowski.io and github.com. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Codebase Recon 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 Codebase Recon use?

Codebase Recon is published under the Apache-2.0 licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Codebase Recon use?

About 1.4k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5.7k 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 Codebase Recon?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Codebase Recon: Agentsop Aider (agentsope/SkillAlchemy, 457 stars), Memtrace Cochange (syncable-dev/memtrace-public, 486 stars), Local File and Code Search (taxueseek/argo, 184 stars) and basemind CLI Codebase Navigator (Goldziher/basemind, 106 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Codebase Recon?

hashgraph-online (a GitHub organization) maintains it in hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins, which has 1,232 GitHub stars. The repository holds 736 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 6, 2026.

Source: hashgraph-online/awesome-codex-plugins on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.