Metabigor OSINT Recon
j3ssie/metabigor
Operates the metabigor CLI to map a target's network ranges, subdomains, ports, related domains, CDNs and archived URLs from free sources without API keys.
Maps the attack surface of a web domain you are authorized to test: confirms scope, lists subdomains from public sources, probes live hosts and fingerprints technology.
Install External Recon Playbook
$ npx skills add PentesterFlow/agent --skill recon -a claude-codeProject install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.
$ gh skill install PentesterFlow/agent recon --agent claude-codeProject scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/PentesterFlow/agent.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/recon .claude/skills/recon && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.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/
Install the "recon" agent skill from https://github.com/PentesterFlow/agent/tree/main/skills/recon into .claude/skills/recon/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "recon", then confirm the skill loads.Claude Code copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$skill-installer install https://github.com/PentesterFlow/agent/tree/main/skills/reconType this inside Codex. $skill-installer <name> installs a curated skill from openai/skills. The installer writes to $CODEX_HOME/skills (default ~/.codex/skills). Restart Codex if the skill does not show up.
$ npx skills add PentesterFlow/agent --skill recon -a codexProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.
$ gh skill install PentesterFlow/agent recon --agent codexProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/PentesterFlow/agent.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/recon .agents/skills/recon && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.
Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/
Install the "recon" agent skill from https://github.com/PentesterFlow/agent/tree/main/skills/recon into .agents/skills/recon/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "recon", then confirm the skill loads.Codex copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add PentesterFlow/agent --skill recon -a cursorProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.
$ gh skill install PentesterFlow/agent recon --agent cursorProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/PentesterFlow/agent.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/recon .cursor/skills/recon && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.cursor/skills/ instead of .cursor/skills for a personal install.
Cursor skills documentation · loads skills from .cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .codex/skills/
Install the "recon" agent skill from https://github.com/PentesterFlow/agent/tree/main/skills/recon into .cursor/skills/recon/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "recon", then confirm the skill loads.Cursor copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gemini skills install https://github.com/PentesterFlow/agent.git --path skills/recon--scope user (default) or --scope workspace; --path is the subfolder of the repo that holds the skill; --consent skips the security confirmation prompt.
$ npx skills add PentesterFlow/agent --skill recon -a gemini-cliProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.
$ gh skill install PentesterFlow/agent recon --agent gemini-cliProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/PentesterFlow/agent.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/recon .gemini/skills/recon && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.gemini/skills/ instead of .gemini/skills for a personal install, then run /skills reload.
Gemini CLI skills documentation · loads skills from .gemini/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "recon" agent skill from https://github.com/PentesterFlow/agent/tree/main/skills/recon into .gemini/skills/recon/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "recon", then confirm the skill loads.Gemini CLI copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gh skill install PentesterFlow/agent reconInstalls for Copilot at project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Preview a skill first with gh skill preview. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ npx skills add PentesterFlow/agent --skill recon -a github-copilotProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/PentesterFlow/agent.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/recon .github/skills/recon && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.copilot/skills/ instead of .github/skills for a personal install. Commit .github/skills so cloud agent and code review can use it.
GitHub Copilot skills documentation · loads skills from .github/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "recon" agent skill from https://github.com/PentesterFlow/agent/tree/main/skills/recon into .github/skills/recon/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "recon", then confirm the skill loads.GitHub Copilot copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add PentesterFlow/agent --skill recon -a opencodeOpenCode documents no install command of its own. Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.config/opencode/skills/.
$ gh skill install PentesterFlow/agent recon --agent opencodeProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/PentesterFlow/agent.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/recon .opencode/skills/recon && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.config/opencode/skills/ instead of .opencode/skills for a personal install.
OpenCode skills documentation · loads skills from .opencode/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "recon" agent skill from https://github.com/PentesterFlow/agent/tree/main/skills/recon into .opencode/skills/recon/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "recon", then confirm the skill loads.OpenCode copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
Facts
- Skill name
recon- GitHub stars
- 1.4k
- Token cost
- ~1.2k tokens
- SKILL.md length
- 406 words
- Files
- 1
- Skills in repo
- 5
- Repo updated
- First seen
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
At a glance
Maps the attack surface of a web domain you are authorized to test: confirms scope, lists subdomains from public sources, probes live hosts and fingerprints technology.
- Works in 5 steps: Confirm scope → Passive subdomain enumeration with curl → Liveness + tech fingerprinting with curl → …
- Mapping the attack surface of a root domain you have permission to test
- SKILL.md covers 1. Confirm scope, 2. Passive subdomain…, 3. Liveness + tech… and 4. Content discovery with curl…, plus 1 more section
- Calls curl and jq; reaches crt.sh and otx.alienvault.com
What it does
The skill starts by restating the apex domain and asking you to confirm it is in scope, noting any out-of-scope subdomains or paths. It stays narrow, with no IP-range scans and no third-party assets, and it defaults to curl and the built-in http tool rather than specialized scanners such as subfinder, httpx, ffuf or gobuster unless you ask for them.
Passive subdomain enumeration pulls from certificate transparency logs through crt.sh, checking that the body is valid JSON and retrying with backoff because the service is flaky, then adds AlienVault OTX passive DNS and saves the deduplicated list under a recon folder for the apex. Each candidate then gets a single GET request to capture status, title and headers such as server and x-powered-by. Real hostnames must replace placeholders before any command runs. Content discovery is listed too, but the excerpt was cut off before it.
When your agent uses it
- Mapping the attack surface of a root domain you have permission to test
- Listing subdomains from certificate transparency logs without extra tools
- Checking which discovered hosts are live and what they run
- Preparing the recon stage of a bug bounty or pentest engagement
Example prompts
- “Run recon on example.com, which is in scope for our authorized pentest.”
- “Enumerate subdomains for our staging apex using only curl and certificate transparency data.”
- “Probe the hosts in recon/example.com/subs.txt and summarize status codes and server headers.”
Requirements
- Authorization to test the target domain
- curl and jq, with network access to public CT log and passive DNS sources
- Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): shell, http, file_write
Workflow steps
5 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.
What it can do on your machine
Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 0759d87. 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:
shellhttpfile_write
From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.
Runs code
Shell commands in SKILL.md call:
curljq
From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.
Network
Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:
crt.shotx.alienvault.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.
Context cost
External Recon Playbook loads about 1.2k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 59 tokens; SKILL.md has 406 words of instructions outside code blocks.
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 PentesterFlow/agent at commit 0759d87, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© PentesterFlow). 406 words, ~1,183 tokens.
Download SKILL.mdSave it as
.claude/skills/recon/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).- name
- recon
- description
- External recon playbook for a web target — subdomain enumeration, live-host probing, tech fingerprinting, and a first pass at content discovery. Use when the user gives you a root domain or apex and wants attack surface mapping.
- allowed-tools
- shell, http, file_write
Recon playbook
You have been asked to map the attack surface of a domain the user is authorized to test. Stay surgical — do not scan IP ranges or third-party assets.
Default to curl and the built-in http tool. Do not pull in specialized scanners (subfinder, httpx, ffuf, gobuster, etc.) unless the user explicitly asks for them.
Execution rule: substitute the real apex/host into commands before running them. Never write literal placeholders such as <APEX>, <HOST>, or <subdomains> to files. If the apex is unclear, ask once before running commands.
1. Confirm scope
Before running anything, restate the apex domain and ask the user to confirm it is in scope (only ask if scope was not already explicit in the conversation). Note any explicit out-of-scope subdomains or paths.
2. Passive subdomain enumeration with curl
Pull from public CT logs — no extra tooling required. Note: crt.sh is flaky and frequently answers with a 502/HTML page or an empty body instead of JSON. Piping that straight into jq is what throws jq: parse error: Invalid numeric literal. Validate the body is JSON before parsing, and retry with backoff:
# Robust crt.sh pull — quiet retries, parse only valid JSON.
APEX="example.com" # replace with the scoped apex before running
mkdir -p "recon/$APEX"
: > subs.txt
for attempt in 1 2 3; do
resp=$(curl -fsS --max-time 30 -H 'Accept: application/json' \
"https://crt.sh/?q=%25.$APEX&output=json" 2>/dev/null || true)
if printf '%s' "$resp" | jq -e 'type == "array"' >/dev/null 2>&1; then
printf '%s' "$resp" \
| jq -r '.[].name_value' \
| sed 's/^\*\.//' \
| tr 'A-Z' 'a-z' | tr -d '\r' \
| sort -u > subs.txt
break
fi
sleep 3 # crt.sh is rate-limited / returns 502 under load
done
[ -s subs.txt ] || printf 'warning: crt.sh unavailable or returned non-JSON; try OTX or another source\n' >&2name_value is newline-separated and may include wildcard (*.) entries; the sed/sort -u above normalizes and dedupes them. If /target is pinned, derive the real apex from that target before running.
For a second source, layer on AlienVault OTX (also guard the JSON):
APEX="example.com" # replace with the scoped apex before running
otx=$(curl -fsS --max-time 30 "https://otx.alienvault.com/api/v1/indicators/domain/$APEX/passive_dns" 2>/dev/null)
printf '%s' "$otx" | jq -e . >/dev/null 2>&1 \
&& printf '%s' "$otx" | jq -r '.passive_dns[].hostname' | sort -u >> subs.txt
sort -u -o subs.txt subs.txtSave the deduped list with file_write to recon/$APEX/subs.txt.
Only reach for subfinder / amass / assetfinder if the user names them or the apex is large enough that crt.sh paging starts to drop results.
Show full SKILL.md (148 more words)Show less
3. Liveness + tech fingerprinting with curl
For each candidate, send a single GET and capture status, title, and key headers. Tight bash loop:
while read h; do
curl -ksS -o /tmp/body -w "%{http_code}\t%{url_effective}\t%header{server}\t%header{x-powered-by}\n" \
--max-time 8 "https://$h/" 2>/dev/null \
| awk -F'\t' -v host="$h" '{title=""; getline title < "/tmp/body"; sub(/.*<title>/,"",title); sub(/<\/title>.*/,"",title); print $0"\t"title}'
done < subs.txt > httpx.txtIf you need more than that (favicon hashing, full tech fingerprinting on hundreds of hosts), say so and ask the user whether to install/run httpx.
4. Content discovery with curl + a wordlist
For 2-3 hosts that look custom (admin panels, staging, dashboards), do a focused wordlist sweep with curl:
HOST="app.example.com" # replace with an interesting live host before running
WORDLIST=/usr/share/seclists/Discovery/Web-Content/raft-small-words.txt
while read w; do
code=$(curl -ksS -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --max-time 5 "https://$HOST/$w")
case "$code" in 200|204|301|302|401|403) echo "$code /$w";; esac
done < "$WORDLIST" | tee "ffuf-$HOST.txt"Use -w "%{http_code} %{size_download}\n" if you also want to filter by body size. Pick a small wordlist first — escalate to medium only if the small one produces signal.
Only use ffuf or gobuster if the user explicitly asks for them.
5. Summarize
Write a recon/$APEX/summary.md with:
- Counts: total subdomains, live hosts, by tech stack
- Top 10 interesting hosts (with one-line reasons)
- Candidate next steps (auth flows to inspect, admin endpoints, exposed configs, JS files worth diffing)
© PentesterFlow, 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 skills/recon of PentesterFlow/agent.
Open the folder on GitHubat commit 0759d87
Compare with similar skills
External Recon Playbook 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.
| Skill | Stars | Used in | Tokens | Auto-check | Licence | Repo updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| External Recon Playbook this skillPentesterFlow/agent | 1.4k | — | ~1.2k | Automated safety check: Pass | Apache-2.0 | |
| Metabigor OSINT Reconj3ssie/metabigor | 1.9k | — | ~2.4k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Wooyun Legacytanweai/wooyun-legacy | 1.8k | — | ~1.9k | Automated safety check: Pass | Custom licence | |
| Client Request Signature Reversalawarexone/Agentic-Bug-Hunter | 5.3k | — | ~4.7k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Web3 Bug Bounty AI Toolstradecatlabs/vibe-coding-cn | 17k | 2 repos | ~3.9k | Automated safety check: Warn | MIT | |
| Add Partial Reconsamugit83/redamon | 3k | — | ~1.1k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT |
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Categories
Questions about External Recon Playbook
What does External Recon Playbook do?
Maps the attack surface of a web domain you are authorized to test: confirms scope, lists subdomains from public sources, probes live hosts and fingerprints technology. The skill starts by restating the apex domain and asking you to confirm it is in scope, noting any out-of-scope subdomains or paths. It stays narrow, with no IP-range scans and no third-party assets, and it defaults to curl and the built-in http tool rather than specialized scanners such as subfinder, httpx, ffuf or gobuster unless you ask for them.
When should I use External Recon Playbook?
External Recon Playbook fits situations like: mapping the attack surface of a root domain you have permission to test; listing subdomains from certificate transparency logs without extra tools; checking which discovered hosts are live and what they run; preparing the recon stage of a bug bounty or pentest engagement.
How do I install External Recon Playbook in Claude Code?
Run `npx skills add PentesterFlow/agent --skill recon -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/recon in PentesterFlow/agent) into .claude/skills/recon in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.
How do I install External Recon Playbook in Codex?
Run `npx skills add PentesterFlow/agent --skill recon -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/recon in PentesterFlow/agent) into .agents/skills/recon in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.
Can I use External Recon Playbook 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 PentesterFlow/agent --skill 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/recon, .gemini/skills/recon, .github/skills/recon and .opencode/skills/recon in your project.
What does External Recon Playbook need to run?
Going by SKILL.md and its folder, External Recon Playbook needs the command-line tools its instructions call (curl and jq). Our summary lists: Authorization to test the target domain; curl and jq, with network access to public CT log and passive DNS sources. Its frontmatter pre-approves these tools: shell, http, file_write.
Does External Recon Playbook access the network?
SKILL.md names 2 domains. In commands or code: crt.sh and otx.alienvault.com; the agent is likely to contact these when it follows the instructions. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.
Is External Recon Playbook 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 External Recon Playbook use?
External Recon Playbook 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 External Recon Playbook use?
About 1.2k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 4.7k 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 External Recon Playbook?
Skills that share tags, products or a category with External Recon Playbook: Metabigor OSINT Recon (j3ssie/metabigor, 1.9k stars), Wooyun Legacy (tanweai/wooyun-legacy, 1.8k stars), Client Request Signature Reversal (awarexone/Agentic-Bug-Hunter, 5.3k stars) and Web3 Bug Bounty AI Tools (tradecatlabs/vibe-coding-cn, 17k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.
Who maintains External Recon Playbook?
PentesterFlow (a GitHub user) maintains it in PentesterFlow/agent, which has 1,391 GitHub stars. The repository holds 5 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on August 31, 2026.
Source: PentesterFlow/agent on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.