ClaudSkills / Science & Research / science-misc

Excavate

Q: What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Excavate skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Excavate is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the Science & Research category. Learn more at https://claudskills.com/learn/what-is-skill-md/.

Category: Science & Research · Sub-category: science-misc · Last updated: 2026-10-25

type:review

User-invoked side-route for onboarding to a legacy repo with no docs/solutions/, research archive, or written decisions. Mines the last 12 months of git history and, when gh is available, PR bodies and review threads, into ranked hotspots, cited recovered decisions, and a who-to-ask map, then offers a PR of docs/solutions/ entries. Not for repos that already compound, not for judging people, not model-invoked.

Security AStatic scan found no risk patternsHow grading works ›

From the source SKILL.md

Recover what a legacy repo already knows about itself before the first feature runs blind on it. The output is an off-tree dossier (hotspots, coupling, recovered decisions, a who-to-ask map, and a Coverage block saying what the history could and could not tell you) plus an opt-in PR of docs/solutions/ entries in /compound's format, so /research, /write-a-prd, and /execute read them through the keyword grep they already run.

What this skill does

Excavate is a community-contributed Claude Code skill in the science-misc sub-category. It ships as a SKILL.md file that Claude Code auto-discovers under ~/.claude/skills/excavate/ and loads when your prompt matches the skill's trigger.

Who uses this skill

The Excavate Claude Code skill is built for researchers, data scientists, academics, and analysts working with complex data and scientific literature. It's part of ClaudSkills (also referred to as Claude Skills or Claude Code Skills) — the open community-curated registry of 213,000+ SKILL.md files for Anthropic's Claude Code agent and the wider Claude ecosystem (Claude API, Claude Agent SDK).

How to install

Free

Manual install (2 steps)

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/excavate
curl -L https://claudskills.com/skills/excavate/SKILL.md \
  -o ~/.claude/skills/excavate/SKILL.md

Or just download SKILL.md directly and drop it into ~/.claude/skills/excavate/. Claude Code auto-discovers it on next session.

Skills live at ~/.claude/skills/excavate/SKILL.md on macOS/Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\excavate\SKILL.md on Windows. See the full install guide for step-by-step instructions.

📱 Install from your phone or desktop Telegram

Open @claudskills_bot on Telegram, tap Open Desktop App, and the desktop app installs this skill for you. Or share the bot link with a colleague — they get the same one-tap install. Learn more →

Pro

One-click install via the desktop app

The ClaudSkills desktop app installs any skill directly into ~/.claude/skills/ with one click — no terminal required. Pro starts at $9/mo or $149 lifetime.

Pro

For the full experience including quality scoring and one-click install features for each skill — upgrade to Pro.

See pricing → Download desktop app

Frequently asked questions

How do I install the Excavate Claude Code skill?

Install via the ClaudSkills desktop app (one click) or copy SKILL.md from the source repository to ~/.claude/skills/excavate/SKILL.md and restart Claude Code. Both flows are detailed at claudskills.com/install/.

What does the Excavate skill do?

Is this skill free to install?

Yes. ClaudSkills is an open registry — every skill keeps its source repository's license, and manual install via copy is free. ClaudSkills Pro ($9/mo, $79/yr, or $149 one-time) adds one-click install via the desktop app and a multi-signal Quality Score.

When should I use the Excavate skill?

Use Excavate when your Claude Code task falls under the Science & Research category — specifically in the science misc area. Claude Code auto-discovers installed skills and invokes the right one based on the task description, so you can also ask Claude directly (e.g. "use Excavate" or describe the task and let Claude pick). Browse related skills at /category/science/.

What is a Claude Code skill and how does the Excavate skill fit in?

A Claude Code skill is a SKILL.md file that lives under ~/.claude/skills/<name>/ and tells the Claude Code CLI agent how to perform a specific task (instructions, prompts, allowed tools). Skills are auto-discovered at session start. Excavate is one of 67,000+ skills indexed in the open ClaudSkills catalog, classified under the Science & Research category. Learn more at /learn/what-is-a-claude-skill/.

Attribution & license

Source: https://github.com/chrislacey89/skills/blob/HEAD/excavate/SKILL.md
License: MIT
Author: chrislacey89
Website: https://chrislacey89.github.io/skills/

Cite this skill

If you reference this skill in a blog post, paper, or documentation, you can cite it as:

APA

chrislacey89. (2026). Excavate [Claude Code skill]. ClaudSkills. https://claudskills.com/skills/excavate/

BibTeX

@misc{excavate-2026,
  author    = {chrislacey89},
  title     = {Excavate [Claude Code skill]},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {ClaudSkills},
  url       = {https://claudskills.com/skills/excavate/}
}

Embed this skill

Promote, attribute, or link this skill from your own README, blog post, or documentation. All three snippets are free to use — no sign-up, no API key. More distribution surfaces →

Badge

[![ClaudSkills](https://claudskills.com/badge/excavate.svg)](https://claudskills.com/skills/excavate/?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=readme&utm_campaign=skill_badge)

Security scan

Grade A · scanned 2026-11-01 — free static scan against the OWASP Agentic Skills Top 10.

No risk patterns were found in any of the ten OWASP-aligned categories. How grading works ›

✓ Prompt injection
✓ Data exfiltration
✓ Supply chain
✓ Reverse shell
✓ Credentials
✓ Execution
✓ Filesystem
✓ Persistence
✓ Obfuscation
✓ Network

Show this grade on your repo (click to copy):

[![Security: A](https://img.shields.io/badge/Security-A-2e7d32)](https://claudskills.com/skills/excavate/#security)

More Science & Research skills

Browse all Science & Research skills in the ClaudSkills registry, or explore these other picks from the same category:

Browse all Science & Research skills → Top 100 skills

Part of ClaudSkills — the open registry for Claude Skills & Claude Code Skills. · What's New · Install guide · About · llms.txt

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