New: 98,000+ skills indexed from GitHub repos with 100+ stars · every skill safety-checkedBrowse top skillsTop skills
Esc to closeBrowse all skills
Submit a skillBrowse skills
Submit a skillBrowse skills

Agent skill

Investigation

by talmolab in talmolab/sleap

Scaffolds a structured investigation in scratch/ for empirical research and documentation.

BSD-3-Clause-ClearAuto-check passedDevelopment

Install Investigation

skills CLI
$ npx skills add talmolab/sleap --skill investigation -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install talmolab/sleap investigation --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/talmolab/sleap.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.claude/skills/investigation .claude/skills/investigation && 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
investigation
GitHub stars
618
Token cost
~899 tokens
SKILL.md length
375 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
4
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
BSD-3-Clause-Clear

At a glance

Scaffolds a structured investigation in scratch/ for empirical research and documentation.

  • Works in 4 steps: Create a folder in {REPO_ROOT}/scratch/… → Create a README.md in this folder with:… → Create scripts and data files as needed… → …
  • The user says start an investigation
  • SKILL.md covers Instructions, Investigation Patterns, Best Practices and Important: Scratch is Gitignored
  • Calls uv and npx

What it does

Investigation is an agent skill from talmolab/sleap. Scaffolds a structured investigation in scratch/ for empirical research and documentation. Use when the user says "start an investigation" or wants to: trace code paths or data flow ("trace from X to Y", "what touches X", "follow the wiring"), document system architecture comprehensively ("document how the system works", "archeology"), investigate bugs ("figure out why X happens"), explore technical feasibility ("can we do X?"), or explore design options ("explore the API", "gather context", "design…

Its SKILL.md is about 900 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Development, covering Project scaffolding. The repository describes itself as: A deep learning framework for multi-animal pose tracking.

When your agent uses it

  • The user says start an investigation
  • Wants to: trace code paths
  • Data flow (trace from X to Y
  • Follow the wiring)

Example prompts

  • “start an investigation”
  • “trace from X to Y”
  • “what touches X”
  • “/investigation”

Requirements

  • Python 3
  • Node.js

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Create a folder in {REPO_ROOT}/scratch/ with the format {YYYY-MM-DD}-{descriptive-name}
  2. Create a README.md in this folder with: task description, background context, task checklist. Update with findings as you progress.
  3. Create scripts and data files as needed for empirical work.
  4. For complex investigations, split into sub-documents as patterns emerge.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 4786f14. 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:

    • uv
    • npx

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

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use uv and npx, 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

Investigation loads about 899 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 156 tokens; SKILL.md has 375 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~156
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~899

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 talmolab/sleap at commit 4786f14, republished under its BSD-3-Clause-Clear licence (© talmolab). 375 words, ~899 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/investigation/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
investigation
description
Scaffolds a structured investigation in scratch/ for empirical research and documentation. Use when the user says "start an investigation" or wants to: trace code paths or data flow ("trace from X to Y", "what touches X", "follow the wiring"), document system architecture comprehensively ("document how the system works", "archeology"), investigate bugs ("figure out why X happens"), explore technical feasibility ("can we do X?"), or explore design options ("explore the API", "gather context", "design alternatives"). Creates dated folder with README. NOT for simple code questions or single-file searches.

Set up an investigation

Instructions

  1. Create a folder in {REPO_ROOT}/scratch/ with the format {YYYY-MM-DD}-{descriptive-name}:
    bash
    mkdir scratch/$(uv run python -c "import datetime; print(datetime.date.today().isoformat())")-{descriptive-name}
  2. Create a README.md in this folder with: task description, background context, task checklist. Update with findings as you progress.
  3. Create scripts and data files as needed for empirical work.
  4. For complex investigations, split into sub-documents as patterns emerge.

Investigation Patterns

These are common patterns, not rigid categories. Most investigations blend multiple patterns.

Tracing - "trace from X to Y", "what touches X", "follow the wiring"

  • Follow call stack or data flow from a focal component to its connections
  • Can trace forward (X → where does it go?) or backward (what leads to X?)
  • Useful for: assessing impact of changes, understanding coupling

System Architecture Archeology - "document how the system works", "archeology"

  • Comprehensive documentation of an entire system or flow for reusable reference
  • Start from entry points, trace through all layers, document relationships exhaustively
  • For complex systems, consider numbered sub-documents (01-cli.md, 02-data.md, etc.)

Bug Investigation - "figure out why X happens", "this is broken"

  • Reproduce → trace root cause → propose fix
  • For cross-repo bugs, consider per-repo task breakdowns

Technical Exploration - "can we do X?", "is this possible?", "figure out how to"

  • Feasibility testing with proof-of-concept scripts
  • Document what works AND what doesn't

Design Research - "explore the API", "gather context", "design alternatives"

  • Understand systems and constraints before building
  • Compare alternatives, document trade-offs
  • Include visual artifacts (mockups, screenshots) when relevant
  • For iterative decisions, use numbered "Design Questions" (DQ1, DQ2...) to structure review
Show full SKILL.md (133 more words)Show less

Best Practices

  • Use uv with inline dependencies for standalone scripts; for scripts importing local project code, use python directly (or uv run python if env not activated)
  • Use subagents for parallel exploration to save context
  • Write small scripts to explore APIs interactively
  • Generate figures/diagrams and reference inline in markdown
  • For web servers: npx serve -p 8080 --cors --no-clipboard &
  • For screenshots: use Playwright MCP for web, Qt's grab() for GUI
  • For external package API review: clone to scratch/repos/ for direct source access

Important: Scratch is Gitignored

The scratch/ directory is in .gitignore and will NOT be committed.

  • NEVER delete anything from scratch - it doesn't need cleanup
  • When distilling findings into PRs, include all relevant info inline
  • Copy key findings, code, and data directly into PR descriptions
  • PRs must be self-contained; don't reference scratch files

© talmolab, BSD-3-Clause-Clear. 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 .claude/skills/investigation of talmolab/sleap.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 4786f14

Compare with similar skills

Investigation 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.

Investigation compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Investigation this skilltalmolab/sleap618—~899Automated safety check: PassBSD-3-Clause-Clear
Nx Generatenomcopter/react-mosaic4.8k7 repos~1.9kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
PonytailDavidObando/gsharp5657 repos~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Run Nx Generatornrwl/nx29k2 repos~592Automated safety check: NotesMIT
Conductor Setupgemini-cli-extensions/conductor3.8k—~4.2kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Mirage VFS Adapter Authoringstrukto-ai/mirage3.7k—~2.4kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0

Similar skills

  • Nx Generate

    nomcopter/react-mosaic

    Generate code using nx generators. An agent skill from nomcopter/react-mosaic.

    4.8k GitHub starsUsed in 7 repos~1.9k tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

  • Ponytail

    DavidObando/gsharp

    Forces the laziest solution that actually works, simplest, shortest, most minimal.

    565 GitHub starsUsed in 7 repos~1.7k tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

  • Run Nx Generator

    nrwl/nx

    Run Nx generators with prioritization for workspace-plugin generators.

    29k GitHub starsUsed in 2 repos~592 tokens
    DevelopmentAuto-check: notes

  • Conductor Setup

    gemini-cli-extensions/conductor

    Scaffolds the project and sets up the Conductor environment.

    3.8k GitHub stars~4.2k tokensUpdated 1 mo ago
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

  • Mirage VFS Adapter Authoring

    strukto-ai/mirage

    Builds or extends a custom Mirage virtual filesystem adapter for an API, database, object store or app data, with a working mount configuration and filesystem tests.

    3.7k GitHub stars~2.4k tokensUpdated today
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

  • Siteboon Backend Module Standards

    siteboon/claudecodeui

    Enforces this repository's TypeScript backend module architecture under server/: feature folders, barrel exports, and where shared types and utilities belong.

    14k GitHub stars~1.2k tokensUpdated yesterday
    DevelopmentAuto-check passed

More from talmolab/sleap

  • Qt Testing

    talmolab/sleap

    Capture and visually inspect Qt GUI widgets using screenshots.

    618 GitHub stars~557 tokensUpdated 10 days ago
    Auto-check passed

  • PR

    talmolab/sleap

    Create a well-structured GitHub PR with proper branching, testing, formatting, and documentation.

    618 GitHub stars~1.7k tokensUpdated 10 days ago
    Auto-check passed

  • Sleap Support

    talmolab/sleap

    Handle SLEAP GitHub support workflow for issues and discussions.

    618 GitHub stars~2k tokensUpdated 10 days ago
    Auto-check passed

Categories

Questions about Investigation

What does Investigation do?

Scaffolds a structured investigation in scratch/ for empirical research and documentation. Investigation is an agent skill from talmolab/sleap. Scaffolds a structured investigation in scratch/ for empirical research and documentation.

When should I use Investigation?

Investigation fits situations like: the user says start an investigation; wants to: trace code paths; data flow (trace from X to Y; follow the wiring).

How do I install Investigation in Claude Code?

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

How do I install Investigation in Codex?

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

Can I use Investigation 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 talmolab/sleap --skill investigation -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/investigation, .gemini/skills/investigation, .github/skills/investigation and .opencode/skills/investigation in your project.

What does Investigation need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Investigation needs the command-line tools its instructions call (uv and npx). Our summary lists: Python 3; Node.js.

Does Investigation access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use uv and npx, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Investigation 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 Investigation use?

Investigation is published under the BSD-3-Clause-Clear licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Investigation use?

About 899 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.6k 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 Investigation?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Investigation: Nx Generate (nomcopter/react-mosaic, 4.8k stars), Ponytail (DavidObando/gsharp, 565 stars), Run Nx Generator (nrwl/nx, 29k stars) and Conductor Setup (gemini-cli-extensions/conductor, 3.8k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Investigation?

talmolab (a GitHub organization) maintains it in talmolab/sleap, which has 618 GitHub stars. The repository holds 4 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 30, 2026.

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