are-help
SkillAI & modelsShow available ARE commands and usage guide
Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.
No other account needed.
Connect ahel once, and every AI you use reads what you have installed.
Then ask your AI: use the are-help skill
What this skill tells your AI
The instructions your AI receives, as published by geoloeg-ist/agents-reverse-engineer in .claude/skills/are-help/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.
First: Read .claude/ARE-VERSION → store as $VERSION. Show the user: agents-reverse-engineer v$VERSION
Then: Output ONLY the reference content below. Do NOT add:
- Project-specific analysis
- Git status or file context
- Next-step suggestions
- Any commentary beyond the reference
ARE generates AI-friendly documentation for codebases, creating structured summaries optimized for AI assistants.
Quick Start
/are-generate— Generate documentation for the codebase/are-update— Keep docs in sync after code changes/are-dashboard— View costs and telemetry
Configuration (.agents-reverse-engineer/config.yaml) is created automatically during installation.
Commands Reference
/are-discover
Discover files that would be analyzed for documentation.
Shows included files, excluded files with reasons, and generates a GENERATION-PLAN.md execution plan.
Options:
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
[path] | Target directory (default: current directory) |
--debug | Show verbose debug output |
--trace | Enable concurrency tracing to .agents-reverse-engineer/traces/ |
| Usage: |
/are-discover— Discover files and generate execution plan
CLI:
npx agents-reverse-engineer discover
npx agents-reverse-engineer discover ./src
/are-generate
Generate comprehensive documentation for the codebase.
Options:
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
[path] | Target directory (default: current directory) |
--concurrency N | Number of concurrent AI calls (default: auto) |
--dry-run | Show what would be generated without writing |
--eval | Namespace output by backend.model for comparison |
--fail-fast | Stop on first file analysis failure |
--debug | Show AI prompts and backend details |
--trace | Enable concurrency tracing to .agents-reverse-engineer/traces/ |
| Usage: |
/are-generate— Generate docs/are-generate --dry-run— Preview without writing/are-generate --eval— Generate variant docs for comparison/are-generate --concurrency 3— Limit parallel AI calls
CLI:
npx agents-reverse-engineer generate
npx agents-reverse-engineer generate --dry-run
npx agents-reverse-engineer generate ./my-project --concurrency 3
npx agents-reverse-engineer generate --debug --trace
How it works:
- Discovers files, applies filters, analyzes each file via concurrent AI calls, writes
.sumsummary files - Generates
AGENTS.mdfor each directory (post-order traversal) and writesCLAUDE.mdpointers
/are-update
Incrementally update documentation for changed files.
Options:
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
[path] | Target directory (default: current directory) |
--uncommitted | Include staged but uncommitted changes |
--dry-run | Show what would be updated without writing |
--eval | Namespace output by backend.model for comparison |
--concurrency N | Number of concurrent AI calls (default: auto) |
--fail-fast | Stop on first file analysis failure |
--debug | Show AI prompts and backend details |
--trace | Enable concurrency tracing to .agents-reverse-engineer/traces/ |
| Usage: |
/are-update— Update docs for committed changes/are-update --uncommitted— Include uncommitted changes
CLI:
npx agents-reverse-engineer update
npx agents-reverse-engineer update --uncommitted
npx agents-reverse-engineer update --dry-run
npx agents-reverse-engineer update ./my-project --concurrency 3
/are-specify (Experimental)
Generate a project specification from AGENTS.md documentation.
Collects all AGENTS.md files, synthesizes them via AI, and writes a comprehensive project specification. Auto-runs generate if no AGENTS.md files exist.
Options:
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
[path] | Target directory (default: current directory) |
--output <path> | Custom output path (default: specs/SPEC.md) |
--multi-file | Split specification into multiple files |
--force | Overwrite existing specification |
--dry-run | Show input statistics without making AI calls |
--debug | Show AI prompts and backend details |
--trace | Enable concurrency tracing to .agents-reverse-engineer/traces/ |
| Usage: |
/are-specify— Generate specification/are-specify --dry-run— Preview without calling AI/are-specify --output ./docs/spec.md --force— Custom output path
CLI:
npx agents-reverse-engineer specify
npx agents-reverse-engineer specify --dry-run
npx agents-reverse-engineer specify --output ./docs/spec.md --force
npx agents-reverse-engineer specify --multi-file
/are-rebuild (Experimental)
Reconstruct a project from specification documents.
Reads spec files from specs/, partitions them into ordered rebuild units, processes each via AI, and writes generated source files to an output directory. Supports checkpoint-based session continuity for resumable long-running rebuilds.
Options:
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
[path] | Target directory (default: current directory) |
--output <path> | Output directory (default: rebuild/) |
--force | Wipe output directory and start fresh |
--dry-run | Show rebuild plan without making AI calls |
--concurrency N | Number of concurrent AI calls (default: auto) |
--fail-fast | Stop on first failure |
--debug | Show AI prompts and backend details |
--trace | Enable concurrency tracing to .agents-reverse-engineer/traces/ |
| Usage: |
/are-rebuild --dry-run— Preview rebuild plan/are-rebuild --output ./out --force— Rebuild to custom directory
CLI:
npx agents-reverse-engineer rebuild --dry-run
npx agents-reverse-engineer rebuild --output ./out --force
npx agents-reverse-engineer rebuild --concurrency 3
How it works:
- Reads all spec files from
specs/directory - Partitions specs into ordered rebuild units (from Build Plan phases or top-level headings)
- Processes units in order: sequentially between groups, concurrently within each group
- Accumulates context (export signatures) after each group for dependent phases
- Writes generated source files via
===FILE:===delimited output parsing
Exit codes: 0 (success), 1 (partial failure), 2 (total failure)
/are-clean
Remove all generated documentation artifacts.
Options:
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--dry-run | Show what would be deleted without deleting |
What gets deleted:
.agents-reverse-engineer/GENERATION-PLAN.md- All
*.sumfiles (including eval variant.sumfiles) - All
AGENTS.mdandAGENTS.*.mdvariant files - Pointers:
CLAUDE.md
Usage:
/are-clean --dry-run— Preview deletions/are-clean— Delete all artifacts
CLI:
npx agents-reverse-engineer clean --dry-run
npx agents-reverse-engineer clean
/are-dashboard (Experimental)
Show telemetry dashboard with cost analysis, token usage, and trace timelines.
Options:
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--run <id> | Per-entry drill-down for a specific run (partial timestamp match) |
--trace <id> | ASCII timeline from trace file (partial timestamp match) |
--trends | Cost & usage trends across all runs |
--format html | Self-contained HTML report with Chart.js charts |
--format json | Raw data as JSON |
Usage:
/are-dashboard— Show run summary table/are-dashboard --run 2026-02-14— Drill into a specific run/are-dashboard --trace 2026-02-14— Show execution timeline/are-dashboard --trends— Cost trends over time
CLI:
npx agents-reverse-engineer dashboard
npx agents-reverse-engineer dashboard --run 2026-02-14
npx agents-reverse-engineer dashboard --trace 2026-02-14
npx agents-reverse-engineer dashboard --trends
npx agents-reverse-engineer dashboard --format html > report.html
/are-help
Show this command reference.
CLI Installation
Install ARE commands to your AI assistant:
npx agents-reverse-engineer install # Interactive mode
npx agents-reverse-engineer install --runtime claude -g # Global Claude
npx agents-reverse-engineer install --runtime codex -g # Global Codex
npx agents-reverse-engineer install --runtime claude -l # Local project
npx agents-reverse-engineer install --runtime all -g # All runtimes
Install/Uninstall Options:
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--runtime <name> | Target: claude, codex, opencode, gemini, all |
-g, --global | Install to global config directory |
-l, --local | Install to current project directory |
--force | Overwrite existing files (install only) |
Configuration
File: .agents-reverse-engineer/config.yaml
# Exclusion patterns
exclude:
patterns:
- "**/*.test.ts"
- "**/__mocks__/**"
vendorDirs:
- node_modules
- dist
- .git
binaryExtensions:
- .png
- .jpg
- .pdf
# Options
options:
followSymlinks: false
maxFileSize: 100000
# Output settings
output:
colors: true
Generated Files
Per Source File
*.sum — File summaries with YAML frontmatter + detailed prose.
---
file_type: service
generated_at: 2025-01-15T10:30:00Z
content_hash: abc123...
purpose: Handles user authentication and session management
public_interface: [login(), logout(), refreshToken(), AuthService]
dependencies: [express, jsonwebtoken, ./user-model]
patterns: [singleton, factory, observer]
related_files: [./types.ts, ./middleware.ts]
---
<300-500 word summary covering implementation, patterns, edge cases>
Per Directory
AGENTS.md — Directory overview synthesized from .sum files. Groups files by purpose and links to subdirectories.
Pointer Files
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
CLAUDE.md | Project entry point — imports root AGENTS.md |
Common Workflows
Initial documentation:
/are-generate
After code changes:
/are-update
Full regeneration:
/are-clean
/are-generate
Preview before generating:
/are-discover # Check files and exclusions
/are-generate --dry-run # Preview generation
Tips
- Custom exclusions: Edit
.agents-reverse-engineer/config.yamlto skip files - Context loading: Install creates a hook that auto-loads AGENTS.md context when reading project files
- Total session costs: Use
npx ccusage@latest(https://github.com/ryoppippi/ccusage) to see ALL Claude Code session costs, not just ARE subprocesses
Resources
- Repository: https://github.com/GeoloeG-IsT/agents-reverse-engineer
- Update:
npx agents-reverse-engineer install --force
Signals
- GitHub stars
- 20
- Forks
- 5
- Last commit
- Aug 2026
Advanced
- Catalog kind
- skill
- Gateway key
are-help- Source
- github.com/geoloeg-ist/agents-reverse-engineer