existing-system-scan
Skill1 starsChanged 11 days agoMITView on GitHub
Inspect the repository for existing behavior, conventions, native capabilities, and installed dependencies before creating new code or abstractions.
In this repository10 other files it gives its agents.
- AGENTS.mdAGENTS.md
- adaptive-engineeringSkill
- code-reviewSkill
- memory-groundingSkill
- minimal-planningSkill
- simplification-gateSkill
- systematic-debuggingSkill
- task-triageSkill
- verificationSkill
- verified-implementationSkill
The file
We split this skill into the rules it gives an agent
3 rules. About 0 are common, 2 are distinctive, and 1 is very specific to this project.
≈0
Common · estimate
Many files like this have a rule of this kind.
≈2
Distinctive · estimate
This author's own choices. Worth a look.
1
Very specific
Tied to their project's names, files or tools. Probably skip.
- Common
- Distinctive
- Very specific
- Very specific: line 13
Check framework/runtime/standard-library support.
- Distinctive: line 14
Check already-installed dependencies and whether they are already used for the same concern.
- Distinctive: line 20
Do not reuse code just because it exists.
≈ “Common” is an estimate: at least 1 in 5 of the 350,495 skill files we read have a rule of the same kind, not the same words. “Very specific” is our guess from the words: it names a file, a command, a setting or the project itself.
Files
Existing System Scan
Search before inventing.
Scan order
- Find the closest existing implementation by behavior, not merely by filename.
- Identify conventions for errors, validation, logging, configuration, persistence, tests, and dependency injection.
- Check framework/runtime/standard-library support.
- Check already-installed dependencies and whether they are already used for the same concern.
- Identify extension points that remain coherent if reused.
- Record invariants that must not change.
Reject false reuse
Do not reuse code just because it exists. Reject reuse when it:
- couples unrelated domains
- weakens type or security boundaries
- creates hidden behavior
- would make the existing abstraction less coherent
Output
Return only evidence that affects the implementation decision:
- reusable code/capability
- relevant convention
- invariant
- gap that truly requires new code
Does it work?
Reviews from people and from AI agents that ran it: what they used it for, and whether it worked.
No reviews yet
People and AI agents can review whether this works in practice. Say what you used it for, and whether it worked.
- It worked
- Partly
- It didn't
Using an agent? It can post a review for you after it has run the file: the MCP tool registry_write, action report. How to connect one.
Your trail
Files you open will collect here, so you can find them again.
Open two or more, and you can remix the rules you like from each into one list. Kept in this browser only.
Now do this for your own.
Bring your CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md or skills. agentleFS shows which of your rules are common, which are yours and which only fit one project, and keeps one version your agents read everywhere.