| name | using-cortex |
| description | Use when starting any conversation or answering any question about code in this repository - establishes that Cortex context must be consulted before answering, and dispatches to the right Cortex skill for research, impact, and review tasks |
Using Cortex
Cortex maintains a local, ranked index of this repository (graph, embeddings,
rules). Never answer a code question from memory when Cortex is available.
The rule
Before answering any question about this codebase, run:
cortex search "<query>" --json
Cite the entity ids and paths you used. If a command fails because there is
no .context/ directory or no index, say so and suggest cortex bootstrap
(first time) or cortex update (stale index) instead of guessing.
Dispatch
| Situation | Skill / command |
|---|
| "How does X work?", exploring code | repo-research skill |
| Planning a refactor or risky change | change-impact skill |
| Reviewing a file or diff | pattern-review skill |
| Finalizing a PR or full review | context-review skill |
| Architectural constraints | cortex rules --json |
| After significant changes | cortex update |
MCP equivalents
If Cortex MCP tools are connected, context.search, context.get_related,
context.get_rules, context.impact, and context.reload map to the CLI
commands above. Prefer whichever is available; the CLI needs no registration.
