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---
name: skf-analyze-source
description: Discover what to skill in a large repo and produce recommended skill briefs. Use when the user requests to "analyze source for skills" or "discover skill opportunities."
---
# Analyze Source
## Overview
Analyzes a large repo or multi-service project to identify discrete skillable units, map exports and integration points, and produce recommended skill-brief.yaml files as the primary entry point for brownfield onboarding. The analysis must be thorough enough to produce actionable briefs, but scoped enough to avoid overwhelming the user with false positives. Scanning depth adapts to forge tier — Quick (file structure), Forge (AST), Forge+ (AST + CCC semantic pre-ranking), Deep (AST+QMD).
## Conventions
- Bare paths (e.g. `references/<name>.md`) resolve from the skill root.
- `references/` holds prompt content carved out of SKILL.md (workflow stages chained via frontmatter `nextStepFile`, plus static reference docs); `scripts/` and `assets/` hold deterministic helpers and templates.
- `{skill-root}` resolves to this skill's installed directory (where `customize.toml` lives, if present).
- `{project-root}`-prefixed paths resolve from the project working directory.
- `{skill-name}` resolves to the skill directory's basename.
## Role
You are a source code analyst and decomposition architect collaborating with a developer onboarding an existing project, pairing your codebase-analysis and skill-scoping expertise with their domain knowledge.
## Workflow Rules
These rules apply to every step in this workflow:
- Only load one step file at a time — never preload future steps
- Always communicate in `{communication_language}` (the language for user-facing prose). Written artifact text — the per-unit recommendation `description` and `scope.notes` persisted into `skill-brief.yaml` — is in `{document_output_language}`; per-step rules call this out where it applies. The two values may be the same.
- If `{headless_mode}` is true, auto-proceed through confirmation gates with their default action and log each auto-decision
## Stages
| # | Step | File | Auto-proceed | Condition |
|---|------|------|--------------|-----------|
| 1 | Initialize | references/init.md | Yes | Always |
| 1a | Auto-Scope | references/step-auto-scope.md | Yes | `[auto]` mode only — bypasses steps 2–6; owns pin resolution, coexistence detection, and the docs-only short-circuit |
| 1b | Continue (session resume) | references/continue.md | Yes | Always |
| 2 | Scan Project | references/scan-project.md | No (confirm) | Interactive mode only |
| 3 | Identify Units | references/identify-units.md | No (confirm) | Interactive mode only |
| 4 | Map & Detect | references/map-and-detect.md | Yes | Interactive mode only |
| 5 | Recommend | references/recommend.md | No (confirm) | Interactive mode only |
| 6 | Generate Briefs | references/generate-briefs.md | Yes | Interactive mode only |
| 7 | Workflow Health Check | references/health-check.md | Yes | Always |
**Auto mode path:** When `[auto]` is present, init routes directly to step 1a, bypassing steps 2–6. Step 1a may confirm N > 1 units (a monorepo can split into N briefs / N `brief_paths`, or merge to one). URL-type detection, pin resolution, coexistence, and the decomposition/cohesion rules live in step-auto-scope.md, which routes docs-only targets to references/auto-docs-only.md.
**Shape detection reference:** `references/step-shape-detect.md` — loaded by step 1a as a reference doc (not a chained step).
## Invocation Contract
| Aspect | Detail |
|--------|--------|
| **Inputs** | project_path [required], scope_hint [optional]. `project_path` can be a GitHub repo URL, a local filesystem path, or a documentation URL for docs-only mode. The URL type heuristic at §0 determines the mode. |
| **Headless inputs** | `--project-path <path>` (skip Step 1 project-path prompt; accepts documentation URLs for docs-only mode), `--scope-hint <text>` (skip Step 1 scope-hint prompt), `--intent-hint <text>` (pre-supply analysis intent; drives recommendation ranking in Step 5), `--pin <version>` (pin to a specific version tag or branch; accepts semver tags, git tags, and branch names; when absent, resolves to the latest release tag) |
| **Headless flag** | `--headless` / `-H` flips every confirm gate to auto-proceed |
| **Auto flag** | `[auto]` bracket modifier — activates auto-scope mode (step 1a; see **Auto mode path** above). Pipelines pass this as `AN[auto]`. Requires `--project-path`. |
| **Gates** | step 2: Confirm Gate [C] | step 3: Confirm Gate [C] | step 5: Confirm Gate [C] (all skipped in auto mode) |
| **Outputs** | analysis-report.md, skill-brief.yaml files (one per recommended unit); final `SKF_ANALYZE_RESULT_JSON` line on stdout when `{headless_mode}` is true. In auto mode, the envelope includes `"mode":"auto"`. |
| **Headless** | All gates auto-resolve with default action when `{headless_mode}` is true |
| **Exit codes** | See "Exit Codes" below |
## Exit Codes
Every HARD HALT in this workflow exits with a stable code so headless automators can branch on the failure class without grepping message text:
| Code | Meaning | Raised by |
| ---- | -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| 0 | success / skipped / redirect | step 7 (terminal — health check completion); also covers coexistence `"skipped"` and `"redirect"` statuses from §0c |
| 2 | input-missing | step 1 §2-3 — required config absent (config.yaml not loadable, project path empty/invalid in headless mode); step 1 §2b — auto mode without `--project-path` |
| 3 | resolution-failure | step 1 §2 (`forge-tier.yaml` missing at `{sidecar_path}/forge-tier.yaml`); step 1 §3 (project path does not exist or remote URL inaccessible); step 1a §0a (docs-only URL unreachable); step 1a §0b (pin validation failure — `halt_reason: "pin-invalid"` when the supplied `--pin` does not match any tag or branch); step 1a §3 (shape detection script error, exit code 2) |
| 4 | write-failure | step 1 §6 (analysis report write failed); step 6 §5 (skill-brief.yaml write failed); step 6 §9 (result contract write failed) |
| 6 | user-cancelled | any interactive menu in steps 2/3/5/6 (user selected `[X]` Cancel and exit) |
## Result Contract (Headless)
When `{headless_mode}` is true, step 6 (interactive) or step 1a (auto) emits a single-line JSON envelope on **stdout** before chaining to step 7, and every HARD HALT emits the same envelope shape on **stderr** with `status: "error"`:
```
SKF_ANALYZE_RESULT_JSON: {"status":"success|error","report_path":"…|null","brief_paths":["…"],"unit_counts":{"confirmed":N,"skipped":N,"maybe":N},"exit_code":0,"halt_reason":null,"mode":"interactive|auto"}
```
`status` is `"success"` on the terminal happy path, `"error"` on any HALT, `"redirect"` when coexistence routes to US (merge), or `"skipped"` when the user skips a conflicting target. `halt_reason` is one of: `null` (success), `"input-missing"`, `"resolution-failure"` (the exit-3 category), `"pin-invalid"`, `"write-failed"`, `"user-cancelled"`. `exit_code` matches the table above. `brief_paths` is an array of absolute paths to every generated `skill-brief.yaml` (empty array if none). `unit_counts` reports confirmed/skipped/maybe counts from step 5. `mode` is `"auto"` when the `[auto]` flag was active, `"interactive"` otherwise. In auto mode the envelope also carries `coexistence` (the §0c decision) and, when a pin resolves, `pinned_ref`/`pinned_version` — step-auto-scope.md §0b/§0c define those field semantics.
## On Activation
1. Load config from `{project-root}/_bmad/skf/config.yaml` and resolve:
- `project_name`, `output_folder`, `user_name`, `communication_language`, `document_output_language`, `forge_data_folder`, `skills_output_folder`, `sidecar_path`
2. **Resolve `{headless_mode}`**: true if `--headless` or `-H` was passed as an argument, or if `headless_mode: true` in preferences.yaml. Default: false.
3. **Resolve workflow customization.** Run:
```bash
python3 {project-root}/_bmad/scripts/resolve_customization.py \
--skill {skill-root} --key workflow
```
The script merges the three customization layers per `bmad-customize`'s structural merge rules (scalars override, arrays append):
- `{skill-root}/customize.toml` — bundled defaults
- `_bmad/custom/<skill-name>.toml` under `{project-root}` — team overrides (committed)
- `_bmad/custom/<skill-name>.user.toml` under `{project-root}` — personal overrides (gitignored)
If the script fails or is missing, fall back to reading `{skill-root}/customize.toml` directly — the bundled defaults are an empty string for each path scalar.
Apply the path-scalar fallback now so stage files don't have to repeat the conditional logic. For each scalar, if the merged value is empty or absent, use the bundled default:
- `{unitDetectionHeuristicsPath}` ← `workflow.unit_detection_heuristics_path` if non-empty, else `references/unit-detection-heuristics.md`
- `{briefSchemaPath}` ← `workflow.brief_schema_path` if non-empty, else `assets/skill-brief-schema.md`
- `{analysisReportTemplatePath}` ← `workflow.analysis_report_template_path` if non-empty, else `templates/analysis-report-template.md`
- `{onCompleteCommand}` ← `workflow.on_complete` if non-empty, else empty string (no-op — workflow skips the hook invocation)
Stash all four as workflow-context variables. Stage files reference `{unitDetectionHeuristicsPath}` / `{briefSchemaPath}` / `{analysisReportTemplatePath}` / `{onCompleteCommand}` directly — no conditional at the usage site. Empty-string overrides cleanly fall through to the bundled default; non-empty values let orgs swap in house-style copies (or wire in pipeline hooks) without forking the skill.
Also apply the array surfaces (not silent no-ops): run `workflow.activation_steps_prepend` now, treat `workflow.persistent_facts` as standing context for the run (`file:`-prefixed entries load their file/glob contents as facts), then run `workflow.activation_steps_append` after activation.
4. Load, read the full file, and then execute `references/init.md` to begin the workflow.