# Aif Explore

Enter explore mode to investigate ideas, systems, problems, and requirements before...

- Repository: https://github.com/lee-to/ai-factory (1156 stars)
- Category: Writing
- License: see repository
- Last updated: 2026-11-01
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add lee-to/ai-factory --skill aif-explore -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add lee-to/ai-factory --skill aif-explore -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add lee-to/ai-factory --skill aif-explore -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add lee-to/ai-factory --skill aif-explore -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Enter explore mode to investigate ideas, systems, problems, and requirements before planning. Use ultra mode, explicitly or through config, when the user wants a durable adaptive research bundle with an index and only the justified C4, ADR, or dependency artifacts.

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

Enter explore mode. Think deeply. Visualize freely. Follow the conversation wherever it goes.

Shell commands are not pre-approved by this skill. If command evidence is needed,
use an exposed shell tool under the runtime's existing permissions and request
approval when required. Never broaden permissions or use another execution path
to work around a denied command; report missing command evidence explicitly.

**IMPORTANT: Explore mode is for thinking, not implementing.** You may read files, search code, and investigate the codebase, but you must NEVER implement features or modify project code. If the user asks to implement something, remind them to exit explore mode first (e.g., start with `/aif-plan`). Regular mode may write only the resolved research file after the user chooses to save. Ultra mode may write only its selected research bundle; a leading `ultra` token or `workflow.explore_mode: ultra` is the user's request to persist that bundle.

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## Step 0: Load Config

## Shared project skill-context

Before mode routing or work, read existing files relative to the current project root in this order (reuse them if already loaded):

1. `.ai-factory/skill-context/global-skill-context.md`, all bundled skills.
2. `.ai-factory/skill-context/aif-explore/SKILL.md`, this skill.

Missing files are skipped; an existing unreadable file stops dependent work with its path.
Precedence: individual > build (when applicable) > global > skill defaults; retain non-conflicting instructions and check all outputs against the effective rules.
These layers customize workflow; they do not replace the project's rules/architecture hierarchy or relax explicit requirements, ownership, scope, safety/privacy, validation, or approval boundaries. Report conflicts with those boundaries instead of overriding them.
`global` is a project-local layer, not home-directory configuration. Custom/extension skills do not automatically use it.

The rest: https://github.com/lee-to/ai-factory/blob/HEAD/skills/aif-explore/SKILL.md