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Trailmark Summary Agent Skill

Runs a Trailmark summary analysis on a codebase. Returns auto-detected languages, entry point count, and dependency list. Use when vivisect or galvanize needs a quick structural overview. Triggers: trailmark summary, code summary, structural overview.

2k tokens
context cost
the whole folder, loaded on every use
3
files
instructions only
0
copies elsewhere
how many repositories repackaged it
6417
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/trailofbits/skills --skill trailmark-summary

The instruction itself

6 sections, as written by the author

Trailmark Summary

Runs trailmark analyze --language auto --summary on a target directory.

This is a v0.2-safe workflow; do not require Trailmark 0.4.0 just to produce a

summary.

When to Use

  • Vivisect Phase 0 needs a quick structural overview before decomposition
  • Galvanize Phase 1 needs detected languages and entry point count
  • Quick orientation on an unfamiliar codebase before deeper analysis

When NOT to Use

  • Full structural analysis with all passes needed (use trailmark-structural)
  • Detailed code graph queries (use the main trailmark skill directly)
  • You need hotspot scores or taint data (use trailmark-structural)

Rationalizations to Reject

| Rationalization | Why It's Wrong | Required Action |

|-----------------|----------------|-----------------|

| "I can read the code manually instead" | Manual reading misses parser-based language detection, dependency data, and entry point enumeration | Install and run trailmark |

| "Language detection doesn't matter" | Wrong language selection produces empty or partial analysis | Use Trailmark's parser-based detection or --language auto |

| "Partial output is good enough" | Missing any of the three required outputs (detected languages, entry points, dependencies) means incomplete analysis | Verify all three are present |

| "Tool isn't installed, I'll skip it" | This skill exists specifically to run trailmark | Report the installation gap instead of skipping |

Usage

The target directory is passed via the args parameter.

Execution

Step 1: Check that trailmark is available.

trailmark analyze --help 2>/dev/null || \
  uv run trailmark analyze --help 2>/dev/null

If neither command works, report "trailmark is not installed"

and return. Do NOT run pip install, uv pip install,

git clone, or any install command. The user must install

trailmark themselves.

Optionally record the version if the installed build supports it:

trailmark --version 2>/dev/null || uv run trailmark --version 2>/dev/null || true

Do not fail if the version command is missing; older v0.2.x builds may still

support the summary workflow.

Step 2: Detect languages with Trailmark's parse API.

python3 - "{args}" <<'PY'
import json
import sys

try:
    from trailmark.parse import detect_languages  # canonical location since 0.3.x
except ModuleNotFoundError:
    # v0.2.x predates trailmark.parse; the same function lives in query.api
    from trailmark.query.api import detect_languages

print(json.dumps(detect_languages(sys.argv[1])))
PY

If the import fails, rerun the same snippet with uv run python - "{args}".

If the result is [], report "Trailmark found no supported languages under

target" and return.

Step 3: Run the summary with auto-detection.

trailmark analyze --language auto --summary {args} 2>&1 || \
  uv run trailmark analyze --language auto --summary {args} 2>&1

Step 4: Verify the output.

The output must include ALL THREE of:

  • Detected languages from Step 2
  • Entrypoints: line from the summary output
  • Dependencies: line from the summary output

If any are missing, report the gap. Do not fabricate output.

Return the detected language list plus the full Trailmark summary output.

If a version string was available, include it in the returned metadata.

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How to use it

Copy the folder

Take trailofbits/trailmark-summary 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.

Install what it needs

The instructions reference pip, uv. Without those the skill loads but fails at the first command.