Codebase Memory

Follow reminder.md for the standing discovery policy; it is the one authored policy shared by this skill, the profile pointer, and the installed SessionStart hook.

Activate discovery guidance in Claude Code

After the standard skills installer copies this directory, run:

python3 ~/.claude/skills/codebase-memory/scripts/install.py

For a non-default Claude home:

python3 <installed-skill>/scripts/install.py --claude-home PATH

The installer owns three files under the selected Claude home's hooks/ directory and merges the skill's registrations into settings.json. It preserves unrelated settings and hook registrations. Malformed settings, conflicting registrations, symlinks, and unowned managed-path files are no-write failures. Its scope is the bundled files and registrations.

To merge the registrations into a settings file kept outside the Claude home, for example one versioned in a dotfiles checkout:

python3 <installed-skill>/scripts/install.py --claude-home PATH \
  --settings-file PATH/TO/settings.json

--settings-file moves only the settings file. The three hook files, and the paths rendered into the registrations, still follow --claude-home. The named target must be a regular non-symlink file, and its parent directory must already exist, be a directory, and be writable and searchable; a symlinked target or an unusable parent is a no-write failure. A parent reached through a symlinked directory is fine, which is how a versioned checkout is usually wired.

For a consumer that manages its own settings.json hook registrations, add --skip-settings:

python3 <installed-skill>/scripts/install.py --claude-home PATH --skip-settings

This installs the three managed hook files and stops there: it does not read, parse, validate, merge, or write settings.json at all. The consumer owns registering the installed hooks in its own settings. All the other guards still run: source ownership, the hooks-directory symlink check, and the unowned-managed-file check. --skip-settings and --settings-file name two different settings targets, so the installer refuses both together at the command-line level rather than picking one.

The external tool codebase-memory-mcp installs its own hooks at two of the same names (cbm-code-discovery-gate, cbm-session-reminder). Activation does not reclaim a name another tool already owns; it stops and names the likely owner and the repair (move the foreign files out of hooks/, remove that tool's registrations from settings.json, then rerun).

Graph-query vocabulary

• list_projects and index_status report indexed-project inventory and health.
• get_architecture summarizes repository structure and architectural relationships.
• search_graph locates symbols by name, label, or qualified-name pattern.
• trace_path follows callers, callees, data flow, and cross-service paths.
• get_code_snippet returns exact source for a resolved symbol.
• query_graph handles complex multi-hop graph questions.
• search_code searches literal source text.
• detect_changes maps a Git diff to its structural impact.
• index_repository creates or refreshes a repository graph.