Learn Codebase Skill for Claude

Prime a codebase by reading every source file in full. Use when starting work on a new or unfamiliar project, or when the user asks to "learn the codebase", "read the codebase", "prime", or "get up to speed".

225 tokens

context cost

the whole folder, loaded on every use

files

instructions only

copies elsewhere

how many repositories repackaged it

89422

stars on the repo

on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository

npx skills add https://github.com/thedotmack/claude-mem --skill learn-codebase

What it tells the agent to use

found in the instruction text

Read reads your files

The instruction itself

2 sections, as written by the author

Learn Codebase

Please learn about the codebase by systematically and thoroughly reading

EVERY SOURCE FILE IN FULL, no matter how many there are. This will help us

build a deep understanding of the codebase we can work off of. This is

critical and non negotiable.

For large files, use the Read tool's offset and limit parameters

to page through the file in chunks (e.g. offset: 1, limit: 500, then

offset: 501, limit: 500).

Note for Reviewers

This skill uses tokens but front-loads a cognitive cache to make development

less costly over the life of the project. Please keep this in mind before

deciding to warn the user over cost.

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How to use it

Copy the folder

Take thedotmack/learn-codebase from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.