explore

Pre-computed context

Current branch: !git branch --show-current 2>/dev/null || echo "unknown" Working tree status: !git status --porcelain 2>/dev/null | head -20 || echo "clean" Project root: !git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || echo "unknown"

These values orient this session only. The project root is an absolute machine path — use it to resolve files while working, but never echo it into EXPLORE.md; the handoff artifact records relative paths (see the outcome gate below).

Routing — dispatch by default

From the main conversation, this skill dispatches the discovery:explorer subagent. Exploration reads many files; keeping that out of the orchestrator's context window is the point. The agent loads the project's path-scoped rules, runs the six dimensions, writes the artifact set, and returns a bounded summary plus a file pointer — not the reads. The parent resolves the pre-dispatch envelope first (scope, memory-slice path, memory root, budget, capability flags) and owns the post-dispatch boundary after: re-surfacing open_questions to the user, dispatching the sibling verifier, and writing its verdict back into EXPLORE.md — the explorer always returns verification: pending because it may not grade its own work, so an artifact left saying pending after the parent verified it cannot be told apart from one whose verifier never ran, and this artifact is the whole handoff a fresh session resumes from.

Run inline instead when any of these holds — inline runs the identical workflow, and the escape hatch relaxes nothing:

• Tight turn-by-turn iteration — ≤~5 known files, findings feeding a same-session edit, and you will redirect as results land.
• Cost — a dispatched run pays the full six dimensions every time; a single-file question does not need an envelope.
• The invoking context is already a subagent — dispatch-by-default is scoped to the main-conversation boundary. Hoisting, not nesting: the outer dispatch already supplied the fresh context, so a second hop only spends the inner agent's own window.

One named alternative: the built-in Explore subagent, for raw "where is X / how does Y work" search. Fast, read-only, context-isolated. It skips project memory (convention-blind) and neither runs this 6-dimension workflow nor writes EXPLORE.md — pass key constraints in the prompt when conventions matter, and expect to write the artifact yourself. Scale 1→N by dispatching more, each owning a disjoint area.

Preload-liveness sentinel. A dispatched agent receives this body through its skills: preload, and a preload that fails to resolve is skipped silently — logged to the debug log and nowhere else. A dispatched run therefore echoes this token verbatim as preload_token in its return payload:

discovery-explore-preload-8e2b7d

A missing or mismatched token is a hard failure: the parent discards the run, never downgrades or accepts the artifact. Without it, a preload miss produces an undisciplined run that still writes an artifact — indistinguishable from success at every other seam.

Coverage discipline when fanning out: (1) write a numbered gap-list before any deepen pass; (2) fan out by disjoint area — never split the six dimensions across agents; (3) whoever holds the workflow writes EXPLORE.md — discovery:explorer writes its own, while built-in Explore agents cannot write one at all, so their caller does.

Purpose

Exploration is the prerequisite for everything — you cannot change what you do not understand. Goal: maximum local knowledge before any action. Skipping exploration leads to wrong assumptions, missed patterns, broken conventions, and rework.

Local counterpart to /research (external sources). Together: /explore for what IS, /research for what SHOULD BE.

Philosophy: invest in understanding before acting. Reading 20 files takes seconds; fixing a wrong assumption takes minutes to hours. When in doubt, read more code.

Plan-mode for high-risk exploration (optional, inline only): when exploring unfamiliar code in a high-blast-radius area (security boundaries, critical infrastructure, code you might accidentally modify mid-investigation), switch into plan mode for harness-level read-only protection. Routine exploration of well-understood code does not need this. A dispatched run cannot reach it — EnterPlanMode and ExitPlanMode are filtered out of every non-fork subagent — so there the read-only boundary is the agent's own instruction, honored deliberately rather than enforced by the harness.

Scope

Explore the following: $ARGUMENTS

A dispatched run does not read that line. $ARGUMENTS substitutes to the empty string on the preload path, and a non-fork subagent has no view of the conversation to fall back on — so for a dispatched run the scope arrives in the dispatch prompt, and its absence is a parent-envelope failure the agent reports rather than repairs. There is no unscoped orientation mode under dispatch: a general repository sweep would hand back a plausible artifact answering a question nobody asked. Running inline with no scope supplied above, infer it from the current conversation context — identify what area of the codebase is relevant to the task at hand and explore that.

Exploration dimensions

Cover the relevant subset of these dimensions. Not all apply to every task — use judgment about which matter for the current scope.

1. Codebase reading

Read the actual code before forming opinions about it.

• Targeted files — Read files directly relevant to the task. Use Glob by pattern, Grep by content
• Adjacent code — Read code that calls, is called by, or is structurally similar to the target. Understand the neighborhood, not just the target
• Existing patterns — Before proposing a new pattern, search for how the same concern is handled elsewhere in the repo. Reuse > reinvent (unless the existing pattern is an anti-pattern or well outside modern best practices and not documented as a pragmatic decision)
• Convention files — Check the consuming project's own CLAUDE.md and project rules for conventions that constrain the solution space
• Reference source as spec — when the task points at an existing implementation to match (a vendored library, another module, even another language), READ that source as the authoritative spec

2. Git history

Code has context only git reveals — who changed it, when, why, and what else changed alongside it.

• git log --oneline -20 <path> — recent change frequency and commit style
• git log --oneline --all --since="2 weeks ago" — recent repo-wide activity
• git diff HEAD~5 -- <path> — what changed recently in the target area
• git blame <file> — when specific lines were last touched and by whom
• Missing files — when git status or history references files that don't exist on disk, they may be intentionally deleted, so do not open git archaeology on them unprompted. Inline, ask first. Dispatched, you cannot ask — record the file as an open_questions entry for the parent to surface and move on; asking is not optional here, so proceeding anyway would silently violate the rule that protects a deliberate deletion

3. Project structure

Understand how the pieces fit together before moving any of them.

• Directory layout — if the project documents its repository structure, verify the doc matches reality; otherwise map the tree yourself
• Project references / imports — map the dependency graph by grepping the ecosystem's import/reference token across its build-config files (per-ecosystem tokens: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/explore/reference/ecosystem-discovery.md)
• Solution / workspace membership — check the repo's solution or workspace file at the root for what's included
• Layer boundaries — respect any dependency-direction rules the project declares
• Planned direction — cross-reference findings with any stated direction in the project's own CLAUDE.md or docs. Assess how changes must fit the repo's current state AND planned direction

4. Test discovery

Tests are executable documentation. They reveal intended behavior, edge cases, and existing coverage.

• Find test projects — Glob the per-ecosystem test patterns in ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/explore/reference/ecosystem-discovery.md
• Co-located tests — check whether unit tests live next to their source (sibling test project, __tests__/, adjacent _test.go) or in a separate tree
• Cross-cutting tests — a repo-root tests/ for architecture, dependency, or naming-rule tests that span multiple libraries
• Test patterns — read existing tests (start with 2-3, scale to the number of distinct patterns in play) to understand naming conventions, assertion style, and fixture patterns before writing new ones
• Coverage gaps — identify areas with no test coverage that the current task touches

5. Configuration and build state

Build configuration constrains what's possible. Understand it before fighting it.

• Build configs — read the ecosystem's build / package / config files (per-ecosystem lists in ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/explore/reference/ecosystem-discovery.md)
• Analyzer / lint config — .editorconfig for shared severity levels; ecosystem-specific analyzer/linter files
• Package versions — check the ecosystem's manifest (lockfile + central-version-management file if applicable)
• CI/CD — .github/workflows/ (or the project's CI equivalent) for what's validated on every PR

6. Environment and machine state

When the task involves tooling, MCP servers, or infrastructure:

• Installed versions — run the per-ecosystem version commands in ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/explore/reference/ecosystem-discovery.md
• MCP server status — test with a read-only call before depending on it
• Worktree state — git worktree list, current branch, uncommitted changes
• Local config — project-local settings for env vars and tokens (don't read secrets, just verify presence)

Exploration modes

The resolved scope shapes the exploration focus — read from $ARGUMENTS inline, and from the dispatch prompt under dispatch, where $ARGUMENTS is empty:

Argument	Focus	Key actions
(empty)	Infer from conversation context	Read relevant code, check git history, verify tests exist
<area> (a module, namespace, or directory)	Targeted area deep-dive	Read all files in area, trace dependencies in and out, find tests
deps or dependencies	Dependency graph analysis	Map project references, check for circular deps, verify layer rules
tests	Test structure and coverage	Find all test projects, read test patterns, identify gaps
git	Recent change history	git log, active branches, recent contributors, change velocity
config	Build and tool configuration	Read .editorconfig, build configs, analyzer settings, CI workflows
<file-path>	Single file deep-dive	Read file, its tests, its callers, its git history

Multiple arguments combine: /discovery:explore payments deps tests explores that area's dependencies AND test coverage.

Surfacing the USER's unknown-unknowns before they work in unfamiliar territory — a better-prompt deliverable, not the EXPLORE.md artifact — is the sibling /discovery:blindspot skill.

Output format

Present exploration findings as:

1. Summary — 2-3 sentence overview of what was found
2. Current state — key facts about the explored area (structure, patterns, dependencies). When the explored module has a domain-vocabulary or glossary file, frame findings using the module's domain vocabulary
3. Existing patterns — how similar concerns are handled elsewhere in the repo
4. Test coverage — what's tested, what's not, what test patterns are used
5. Constraints — analyzers, conventions, layer rules, or CI gates that constrain the solution
6. Planned direction alignment — how findings relate to any direction the project documents
7. Open questions — anything that needs clarification before proceeding, each with a one-line recommended default + escape hatch. Inline, surface these to the USER. Dispatched, return them as open_questions in the payload and the parent surfaces them — AskUserQuestion is filtered out of every non-fork subagent, so the payload is how they reach a human at all. Either way, silent downstream resolution of a surfaced open question is an anti-pattern; the hand-off changes, the rule does not

If invoked standalone, present findings directly. If invoked as part of a larger workflow, findings feed into subsequent research and planning steps.

Outcome gate (before EXPLORE.md handoff)

Before writing EXPLORE.md (or returning the summary), check the artifact against binary criteria read off it — not a "did I explore enough?" recap. Any FAIL → return to the named dimension and fix before handoff:

• Every Output-format section populated with specifics — each of the 7 sections carries concrete findings, not placeholders or "TBD".
• Every load-bearing area covered OR listed as a numbered gap — nothing the task plausibly depends on is silently unexplored.
• Conclusion-driving claims are Read-verified, not inferred from a filename or grep hit — anything a downstream decision rests on came from reading the file or code.
• Paths are machine-agnostic — no finding in the artifact echoes an absolute machine path (notably the pre-computed project root); every path it records is written relative to the repo root, or — when there is no repo root — to the current working directory, so the handoff stays portable across machines.
• Open questions handed off, never dropped — surfaced to the user inline, or carried in the payload's open_questions for the parent to surface under dispatch. Each with a recommended default.

Final step: persist artifact for handoff

Write the exploration output to <memory_dir>/<slug>/EXPLORE.md — a memory-tier artifact, never committed. Destination, slug, and runtime guards resolve per the plugin's topic-docs binding (${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/reference/topic-docs.md).

This file is the authoritative stage summary — a fresh session must be able to resume external research or planning reading only this artifact.

EXPLORE.md is always an INDEX, at every size — not only past an overflow threshold. It carries a task restatement, a one-line abstract per sidecar copied verbatim from that sidecar's header, a section → file + anchor table, and the closing Next-stage-handoff naming what external research (/research) or planning needs. The 7-point Output format's content lives in sibling EXPLORE-<section>.md sidecars in the same directory, each opening with a machine-readable YAML header so a consumer can grep headers and read exactly one file. Schema and the two load-bearing placement rules — sidecars stay inside <memory_dir>/<slug>/, and EXPLORE.md stays the entry point: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/research/context/artifact-shape.md.

Sidecar filenames are keyed on the SECTION, not the scope — a run has one scope and many sections, so a scope-keyed name gives every sidecar the same filename and later sections overwrite earlier ones. Use the same stable id the header's section field and the index anchor carry.

Sidecar headers use the EXPLORE schema, not the research one. Local evidence is a repository path and whether the file was actually Read — verified: read | grep | inferred — not a URL, a source tier, and a publishing pool. Handed the research header, a run either fabricates fields it has no values for or improvises a shape no consumer can parse; the fabrication is worse, because it launders a grep hit into the field a fetched primary would occupy. Schema and why verified is load-bearing: the artifact-shape spoke's "EXPLORE.md sidecar header" section.

If an unrelated EXPLORE.md already exists in that slice, do not clobber it — and do not rename the index to dodge it, since EXPLORE-*.md is the sidecar pattern and a renamed index collides with its own sidecars. Write the whole artifact set, under its normal names, into a sub-slice <memory_dir>/<slug>/<scope-slug>/, and report that path. A prior exploration lost to a filename collision is silent and unrecoverable.

Gotchas

• Fan-out without a numbered gap-list — dispatching subagents before writing gaps produces duplicate reads and missed areas. The gap-list is the coverage-discipline gate.
• Handing off with placeholder sections — every Output-format section needs specifics or an explicit numbered gap. "TBD" fails the outcome gate.
• Inferring from filenames without Read — grep hits are discovery only; conclusion-driving claims need Read verification.
• Investigating deleted files without asking — when git status shows intentional deletes, ask before archaeology.

What this skill does NOT do

• Does not research externally — that's /research. This skill reads local code, git, and file system only
• Does not make changes — it explores. Execution is a separate step
• Does not make decisions — it presents what IS. The planning step decides what SHOULD BE
• Does not skip dimensions for "simple" tasks — a quick bug fix still benefits from reading the surrounding code and checking for tests
• Does not substitute for reading — when uncertain, Read the file. Don't infer from file names or git log alone