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repo-explorer

Agents & models

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Updated 10-15 19:50

About this skill

Repo Explorer

Launch a separate Claude Code CLI process (claude -p) with read-only tools to explore a repository and answer questions about it. Supports both local repositories and remote URLs.

Workflow

1. Determine repo source, question, and model

From the user's message extract:

  • source: one of:
    • local path (~/projects/foo, /opt/services/bar, . or omitted = cwd)
    • remote URL (https://github.com/owner/repo, git@github.com:owner/repo.git)
    • shorthand (owner/repo — treat as https://github.com/owner/repo)
  • question: what to find out about the repository.
  • model — pick by task type, not by habit:
    • haiku — mechanical lookup, where the answer is located in the code and just needs finding: "what endpoints exist", "where is X defined", "list the migrations", structure inventory, "does this repo use Y".
    • sonnet — analytical work, where the answer must be judged, not just found: "what can we learn/borrow from this repo", applicability assessment, design/architecture review, comparing approaches, security analysis, "what's original here", trade-off summaries. Cue words: assess what is useful, ideas, applicability, review, compare, learn from.
    • A cheap model on an analytical question produces shallow results with flattened nuances that cost more to verify than the tokens saved — this rule exists because it happened.
    • An explicit user request ("use haiku", "run sonnet", opus) always overrides the heuristic.

2. For remote repos — clone to temp directory

If the source is a remote URL or shorthand, clone it first:

REPO_DIR=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth 1 <url> "$REPO_DIR" && echo "$REPO_DIR"
  • Use --depth 1 for speed (shallow clone, only latest commit)
  • If the user asks about a specific branch/tag: git clone --depth 1 --branch <ref> <url> "$REPO_DIR"
  • Store $REPO_DIR to clean up later

3. Run the CLI command

Use the Bash tool with timeout: 600000 (10 min) since exploration of large repos can take several minutes.

cd <repo_path> && CLAUDECODE= claude -p "<question>" \
  --model <haiku|sonnet per step 1> \
  --output-format text \
  --max-turns 15 \
  --allowedTools "Read" "Grep" "Glob" "Bash(find *)" "Bash(ls *)" "Bash(wc *)" "Bash(git log *)" "Bash(git show *)" "Bash(git diff *)" "Bash(git branch *)" "Bash(head *)" "Bash(tail *)" \
  --append-system-prompt "You are a code exploration expert. Thoroughly explore the repository to answer the user's question. Strategy: 1) Glob to discover project structure. 2) Grep to find patterns, definitions, routes, classes. 3) Read to examine key files. Always cite file paths and line numbers. Give a structured answer based on code facts."

IMPORTANT: The CLAUDECODE= prefix (setting the env var to empty) is required to allow launching Claude Code as a subprocess. Without it, the nested session will be blocked.

Rules:

  • Always include CLAUDECODE= directly before claude -p (no &&, it's an inline env override)
  • Escape double quotes in the question with \"
  • Wrap repo paths containing spaces in quotes
  • For very large repos or analytical (sonnet) runs, increase --max-turns to 25
  • Model follows the step 1 heuristic (haiku = lookup, sonnet = analysis); an explicit user request always wins

4. Clean up (remote repos only)

After presenting the result, remove the temp directory:

rm -rf "$REPO_DIR"

5. Present the result

Display the CLI output to the user. If empty or error, report the issue and suggest retrying with a more specific question.

Examples

Local repo (lookup → haiku):

cd ~/projects/my-api && CLAUDECODE= claude -p "What REST endpoints are defined? List each with HTTP method, path, and handler." --model haiku --output-format text --max-turns 15 --allowedTools "Read" "Grep" "Glob" "Bash(find *)" "Bash(ls *)" "Bash(wc *)" "Bash(git log *)" "Bash(git show *)" "Bash(git diff *)" "Bash(git branch *)" "Bash(head *)" "Bash(tail *)" --append-system-prompt "You are a code exploration expert. Thoroughly explore the repository to answer the user's question. Strategy: 1) Glob to discover project structure. 2) Grep to find patterns, definitions, routes, classes. 3) Read to examine key files. Always cite file paths and line numbers. Give a structured answer based on code facts."

Remote repo (analysis → sonnet):

REPO_DIR=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/expressjs/express "$REPO_DIR"

Then:

cd "$REPO_DIR" && CLAUDECODE= claude -p "Assess the middleware chain design: what patterns are worth borrowing for our own router, and what are the known trade-offs?" --model sonnet --output-format text --max-turns 25 --allowedTools "Read" "Grep" "Glob" "Bash(find *)" "Bash(ls *)" "Bash(wc *)" "Bash(git log *)" "Bash(git show *)" "Bash(git diff *)" "Bash(git branch *)" "Bash(head *)" "Bash(tail *)" --append-system-prompt "You are a code exploration expert. Thoroughly explore the repository to answer the user's question. Strategy: 1) Glob to discover project structure. 2) Grep to find patterns, definitions, routes, classes. 3) Read to examine key files. Always cite file paths and line numbers. Give a structured answer based on code facts."

Then: rm -rf "$REPO_DIR"

Shorthand (owner/repo): treat vercel/next.js as https://github.com/vercel/next.js.

Current directory (no path): run claude -p without cd.