Prior Work Retrieval
Only for explicit prior-work/reuse/history requests, not status checks.
Install
npx skills add daymade/claude-code-skills --skill prior-work-retrieval -g -a claude-code -y- Repository
- daymade/claude-code-skills1.5k
- Category
- Testing
- Updated
- 3d ago
- License
- MIT
- Context cost
- Mediumabout 3,000 tokens
- Runs scripts
- Yes, review before use
What it does
Only for explicit prior-work/reuse/history requests, not status checks. Finds and verifies existing work before new production when reuse is plausible. Use when the user explicitly references earlier work, existing code, history, or prior decisions, or says 以前做过, 已有代码, 别重复造轮子. Not for current tests, files, bug fixes, or mechanical verification. Produces a reuse/adapt/reject receipt; zero hits never prove absence.
Prior Work Retrieval
Run this before substantial production only when the trigger above is present. Read-only current-state checks stay direct unless the user asks for history. Its job is not to generate another summary. Its job is to answer: what already exists, which source is current, what should be reused, and what remains genuinely new?
Not for: current-file inspection, ordinary bug fixes, mechanical verification, or a task merely because the final answer happens to be a report/summary. A mention of current/现有 tests, README, files, implementation, behavior, or validation is not by itself a prior-work request. Do not infer the trigger merely because new work might duplicate something, that risk alone does not make a request explicit.
Completion contract
A retrieval pass is complete only when all conditions below are true:
- The task's real business outcome is written as one sentence.
- Every relevant carrier declared in the manifest reports
searched,manual_completed, or an explicit failure/coverage gap. - Candidate claims are opened at their original path or record, not accepted from a search snippet alone.
- Each adopted item has a
reuseoradaptdecision and a reason tied to the current task. If nothing is adopted, the receipt carries a concreteno_reuse_reason. scripts/prior_work.py checkaccepts the receipt for this session.
retrieved is not verified; verified is not reused. Keep those states
separate so “I searched” cannot impersonate “I used our best prior work.”
Workflow
1. Read the local operating context first
Before querying, read the current project's AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md, navigation
index, and any North Star/current-decision file they name. Historical material
cannot override a newer explicit decision.
