Codebase Navigation

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Starting work in an unfamiliar codebase
• Area — finding where something is implemented
• How a request flows
• What depends on a piece of code

Example prompts

• “where is”
• “how does this work”
• “find the code that”
• “/codebase-navigation”

Workflow steps

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

1. 1Orient before diving: project manifests, README / AGENTS / CONTRIBUTING, the
2. 2Search by meaning when you don't know the name, by name when you do, and by
3. 3Read skeletons before bodies — signatures, types, and exports carry most of a
4. 4Once you know the line, read that range, not the whole file.
5. 5Trace relationships through the reference graph (callers, callees, imports)
6. 6Don't conclude absence from one empty search. Retry with another query, a
7. 7Keep a running map of key files, entry points, and traced flows so nothing

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 57f6018. 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.

  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

Codebase Navigation loads about 1.3k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 112 tokens; SKILL.md has 593 words of instructions outside code blocks.

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

~112

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

~1.3k

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

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 WrongStack/WrongStack at commit 57f6018, republished under its MIT licence (© WrongStack). 593 words, ~1,256 tokens.

name

codebase-navigation

description

Use this skill when starting work in an unfamiliar codebase or area — finding where something is implemented, how a request flows, what depends on a piece of code, or where a change should go — before reading files one by one. Triggers: user says "where is", "how does this work", "find the code that", "explain this codebase", "what calls", "what uses", "architecture", "entry point", "which file handles", "get familiar with".

version

1.0.0

required-capabilities

filesystem.read

optional-capabilities

code.inspect

## How order placement works
Entry: src/routes/orders.ts:24 (POST /orders)
Flow: createOrder → OrderService.place (src/services/order.ts:58) → OrderRepo.insert (src/db/orders.ts:31)
Validation: request schema at src/routes/orders.ts:12
Side effects: emits order.placed (src/services/order.ts:90), consumed by src/workers/email.ts:15
Tests: tests/services/order.test.ts
Not traced: whether the email worker retries on failure

© WrongStack, 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 1 other file in packages/core/skills/codebase-navigation of WrongStack/WrongStack.

• SKILL.md
• SKILL.save.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 57f6018