What problem does it solve?
When multiple development agents or team members work on the same codebase, it is common to create duplicate services, utilities, or components without realizing they already exist, leading to technical debt and wasted development effort. This skill solves that problem by enforcing a centralized Codebase Inventory Protocol (CIP) that requires all agents to check for existing artifacts before creating new ones.
Core Features & Use Cases
- 4-Criteria Artifact Matching: Detects exact matches, same-domain overlaps, near-duplicates, and name-similar artifacts in the codebase inventory to flag potential redundancy.
- CIP Canary Gate: Catches post-context-summarization duplicate creation attempts before files are written, preventing DRY violations caused by LLM memory loss during long workflows.
- Inventory Drift Detection: Automatically identifies stale inventory entries where file paths no longer match disk state, or planned artifacts that have already been implemented, keeping the inventory accurate.
- Reuse Decision Protocol (RDR): Guides agents to reuse, extend, or create new artifacts with mandatory justifications for new creations, reducing redundant work across the team.
- Use Case: For example, when an implementation agent is about to create a new UserService in the auth module, the skill first checks the inventory, finds an existing matching service, and prompts the agent to reuse it instead of building a duplicate.
Quick Start
Use the factory-codebase-inventory skill to check for existing matching artifacts before creating any new code component.
