reference-hunt
Use existing source code as the specification when the user can't describe what they want in words. Use when the user points at a library, module, folder, or site and says "like this," even if it's in a different language or stack.
How do I install this agent skill?
npx skills add https://github.com/neeeophytee/finding-unknowns-skills --skill reference-huntIs this agent skill safe to install?
- Gen Agent Trust Hubpass
The skill provides instructional guidance for the agent to analyze external source code and re-implement its logic. It contains no executable code, credentials, or malicious patterns.
- Socketpass
No alerts
- Snykpass
Risk: LOW · No issues
What does this agent skill do?
Reference hunt
Some requirements are too intricate or too tacit to write down, but working code somewhere already embodies them. The best reference is not a screenshot or a description — it's source. Read it like a spec, then reimplement the semantics, not the syntax.
Steps
- Get the reference: a repo path, a vendored folder, a library name, or a site whose underlying code can be read. Ask what specifically to extract from it — behavior, structure, visual system, API shape — so you don't imitate the wrong dimension.
- Read the reference and produce a semantics summary before writing any code:
- the behaviors and guarantees it implements (timing, ordering, error handling, edge cases),
- the decisions that look deliberate versus incidental,
- anything that won't translate to the target language or stack, with a proposed equivalent.
- Have the user confirm the semantics summary. This is the moment misreadings get caught cheaply.
- Reimplement in the target stack: same semantics, native idioms. Do not transliterate line by line, and do not copy code verbatim from references whose license doesn't allow it — note the license if it's unclear.
- Close the loop: list each behavior from the summary and where the new implementation honors it, plus any place you consciously diverged and why.
Guardrails
- The reference defines what; the target codebase's conventions define how.
- If the reference itself turns out to be buggy or inconsistent, surface that instead of faithfully reproducing the bug.
- Respect licenses: extracting semantics is fine; copying incompatible code is not.
How can the creator link this skill?
Add the canonical catalog link to the repository README so users can inspect current installs and available audits. The publishing guide covers the complete discovery path.
<a href="https://skillzs.dev/skills/neeeophytee/finding-unknowns-skills/reference-hunt">View reference-hunt on skillZs</a>