# Codebase Exploration Guide

Traces how code works, what calls what and the flows across unfamiliar code.

- Repository: https://github.com/abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus (48173 stars)
- Category: Engineering
- License: see repository
- Last updated: 2026-11-01
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus --skill gitnexus-exploring -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus --skill gitnexus-exploring -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus --skill gitnexus-exploring -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus --skill gitnexus-exploring -g -a gemini-cli -y`
Claude Code plugin marketplace: `/plugin marketplace add abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus`

## Description

Use when the user asks how code works, wants to understand architecture, trace execution flows, or explore unfamiliar parts of the codebase. Examples: \"How does X work?\", \"What calls this function?\", \"Show me the auth flow\

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Exploring Codebases with GitNexus

## When to Use

- "How does authentication work?"
- "What's the project structure?"
- "Show me the main components"
- "Where is the database logic?"
- Understanding code you haven't seen before

## Bind the repository first

Bind once per session using a confirmed registry name/path or configured MCP
default; reuse it. Call `list_repos {}` when the target is not yet known, not before
every question. Never guess the registry name from the checkout directory. With
one indexed repository, use the examples below as written. With more than one, pass `repo` on every call: an omitted `repo` normally errors,
but under an MCP policy with a configured default it resolves to that default
silently. If you cannot tell which repository is meant, stop and ask. Report
the bound repository and index freshness alongside your explanation.

`list_repos` is paginated, so page with `offset: pagination.nextOffset` until
`hasMore` is false before concluding a repository is absent.

## Workflow

```
1. Bind the repository once; use hot-tool staleness on subsequent calls
2. If no symbol is known: query({search_query: "<concept>", limit: 3, max_symbols: 3})
3. context({uid: "<returned id>"})                → Inspect the selected symbol
4. Read a process resource only when its full trace answers an unresolved question
```

> If the index is stale → run `node .gitnexus/run.cjs analyze` in terminal.
> Hot-tool `staleness` names which index answered (`branch`/`lastCommit`) and how fresh it is (`status`). Re-analyze only for `behind` or `diverged`, `current` is identity, `unknown` is unmeasurable.

## Ask for only the evidence needed

The rest: https://github.com/abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus/blob/HEAD/gitnexus-claude-plugin/skills/gitnexus-exploring/SKILL.md