Delegates repository exploration to a Claude Code CLI subprocess. Supports local paths and remote GitHub/GitLab URLs with read-only access.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/ai-driven-development:repo-explorerThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
Launch a separate Claude Code CLI process (`claude -p --model haiku`) with read-only
Launch a separate Claude Code CLI process (claude -p --model haiku) with read-only
tools to explore a repository and answer questions about it. Supports both local
repositories and remote URLs.
From the user's message extract:
~/projects/foo, /opt/services/bar, . or omitted = cwd)https://github.com/owner/repo, [email protected]:owner/repo.git)owner/repo — treat as https://github.com/owner/repo)If the source is a remote URL or shorthand, clone it first:
REPO_DIR=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth 1 <url> "$REPO_DIR" && echo "$REPO_DIR"
--depth 1 for speed (shallow clone, only latest commit)git clone --depth 1 --branch <ref> <url> "$REPO_DIR"$REPO_DIR to clean up laterUse the Bash tool with timeout: 600000 (10 min) since exploration of large repos can take several minutes.
cd <repo_path> && CLAUDECODE= claude -p "<question>" \
--model haiku \
--output-format text \
--max-turns 15 \
--allowedTools "Read" "Grep" "Glob" "Bash(find *)" "Bash(ls *)" "Bash(wc *)" "Bash(git log *)" "Bash(git show *)" "Bash(git diff *)" "Bash(git branch *)" "Bash(head *)" "Bash(tail *)" \
--append-system-prompt "You are a code exploration expert. Thoroughly explore the repository to answer the user's question. Strategy: 1) Glob to discover project structure. 2) Grep to find patterns, definitions, routes, classes. 3) Read to examine key files. Always cite file paths and line numbers. Give a structured answer based on code facts."
IMPORTANT: The CLAUDECODE= prefix (setting the env var to empty) is required to allow
launching Claude Code as a subprocess. Without it, the nested session will be blocked.
Rules:
CLAUDECODE= directly before claude -p (no &&, it's an inline env override)\"--max-turns to 25--model haikuAfter presenting the result, remove the temp directory:
rm -rf "$REPO_DIR"
Display the CLI output to the user. If empty or error, report the issue and suggest retrying with a more specific question.
Local repo:
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 (GitHub URL):
REPO_DIR=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/expressjs/express "$REPO_DIR"
Then:
cd "$REPO_DIR" && CLAUDECODE= claude -p "How is routing implemented? Describe the Router class and middleware chain." --model haiku --output-format text --max-turns 15 --allowedTools "Read" "Grep" "Glob" "Bash(find *)" "Bash(ls *)" "Bash(wc *)" "Bash(git log *)" "Bash(git show *)" "Bash(git diff *)" "Bash(git branch *)" "Bash(head *)" "Bash(tail *)" --append-system-prompt "You are a code exploration expert. Thoroughly explore the repository to answer the user's question. Strategy: 1) Glob to discover project structure. 2) Grep to find patterns, definitions, routes, classes. 3) Read to examine key files. Always cite file paths and line numbers. Give a structured answer based on code facts."
Then: rm -rf "$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.
npx claudepluginhub codealive-ai/ai-driven-development --plugin ai-driven-developmentClones a GitHub repo and sets up an interactive study session for reading and analyzing the codebase. Answers questions with source-of-truth evidence from the actual code.
Answers codebase questions by analyzing source files with git repo resolution, inline citations, Key Files tables, and Mermaid diagrams for flows and architecture.
Clones an open-source repo and analyzes it from a What/Why perspective (purpose, value, target users, usage flow) via parallel subagents, producing a synthesis report.