git:20260905.f66d195 to git:20260915.fe062d3

8 added, 3 removed. Audit A to A.

---

name: inspect-repository

description: Read and analyze the source of any GitHub repository — public or one this install has a token for — without a local checkout. Clones broker-side and pulls file content back; use it to answer questions about code, not to change it.

---

# inspect-repository - Read a repository this pod has no checkout of

This pod has no `git` of its own and no `.git` anywhere it can write. To read

somebody else's code, ask the credential broker to clone it and pull the file

content back. What lands locally is source without a repository around it: files

you can open, grep and reason about, and no `.git/config` for anything to

execute out of.

The script is `./skills/inspect-repository/scripts/inspect_repository.py`. Every subcommand prints one JSON

object on stdout.

## When to Use

- **Answering a question about code you do not have.** "How does upstream

implement this controller?", "which release added this flag?"

- **Reading a dependency or an upstream project** named in an issue, a design

doc, or a user's question.

- **Reading the GitOps repository for context** when you are not editing it.

## When NOT to Use

- **Changing a repository.** Use **submit-suggestion** (a pull request against

the GitOps repo) or **fleet-audit** (fixes for its own findings). This skill

opens read-only workspaces and the broker refuses to commit from one.

- **Reading a file the GitOps workflow already handed you.** `fleet-audit` and

`submit-suggestion` give you a workspace or a handle of their own; use theirs

rather than opening a second view of the same repository.

## Two shapes, and which to pick

**Copy the tree** when the repository is small enough to read on disk:

```bash

python3 ./skills/inspect-repository/scripts/inspect_repository.py clone --repo kubernetes-sigs/kustomize --depth 1

```

Copies into `/opt/data/scratch/repos/<owner>__<name>` unless `--into` names

- somewhere else, and prints `written`, `bytes`, `skipped`, `stopped` and

- `complete`. Narrow with `--prefix api` when only part of it matters.

+ somewhere else, and prints `written`, `bytes`, `skipped`, `stopped`,

+ `complete` and, in content mode, `sha`, the commit the copy was taken from.

+ Narrow with `--prefix api` when only part of it matters.

**Search first, take what it names** when the repository is large — which is

most of them:

```bash

H=$(python3 ./skills/inspect-repository/scripts/inspect_repository.py open --repo kubernetes-sigs/kustomize --depth 1 | jq -r .handle)

python3 ./skills/inspect-repository/scripts/inspect_repository.py grep --handle "$H" --pattern 'func NewCmdBuild'

python3 ./skills/inspect-repository/scripts/inspect_repository.py fetch --handle "$H" --into ./src kustomize/commands/build/build.go

python3 ./skills/inspect-repository/scripts/inspect_repository.py close --handle "$H"

```

The handle survives between turns; the shell does not. Keep it, and **close it

when you are done** — an open handle holds a clone on the broker's volume.

+ `open` also prints `sha`, the commit the workspace was cloned at; a report

+ that has to say which commit it read (the fleet-audit declared-intent record

+ names each repository as `owner/name@sha`) takes it from there, since there

+ is no `.git` on this side to ask.

## Rules

- **`--depth 1` unless you need history.** A full clone of a large repository

can exceed the broker's ceiling and be refused outright. A shallow workspace

reads identically; it just cannot commit.

- **Never invent a path.** Fetch only paths that `list` or `grep` returned. A

path you inferred is how a read comes back empty for a file that exists under

a different name.

- **Read `truncated` and `stopped` before you conclude anything.** `list` pages:

when `truncated` is true, call it again with `--after <next>`. `clone` reports

`stopped: maxFiles` or `maxBytes` when a bound bit, and `complete: false`

means you are looking at part of a repository. "The repository does not

contain X" is not a claim a truncated result supports.

- **Read `skipped`.** `tooLarge` means that file is never coming through this

route; `requestBudget` means ask again for the rest; `symlink` means the file

is there and the broker will not follow a link to it, so name the target

instead; `notAFile` means no such file in the checkout.

- **Do not run `git` against what lands.** There is no repository there, on

purpose.

- **Say which repository and which ref** in anything you report, and treat a

shallow read as a read of one commit on one branch.

## Reference

| Subcommand | What it does |

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

| `clone` | Copy a repository (or a `--prefix`) into a scratch directory and close |

- | `open` | Open a broker-side workspace, print a handle |

+ | `open` | Open a broker-side workspace, print a handle and the `sha` it is at |

| `list` | One page of the checkout's paths; page with `--after` |

| `grep` | Search tracked files; fixed-string unless `--regex` |

| `fetch` | Copy named paths into `--into` |

| `close` | Drop the broker-side clone |

On an install whose broker has not been armed for content-passing, `clone`

reports `"mode": "directory"` and hands back a leased checkout on the shared

volume; the other subcommands say the broker does not serve them. Read the files

in that checkout directly and do not commit in it.