code-comments

name	code-comments
description	Extract comment locations from code files for analysis. Use when cleaning comments, auditing documentation, or analyzing comment patterns across languages.
allowed-tools	Bash, Read
metadata	{"category":"quality","is_workflow":false}

Comments Extraction Skill

Extract comment locations from manifest-owned code lines for analysis by the comment-cleaner agent.

What This Skill Does

• Detects comments inside a tightly scoped change manifest
• Extracts all comments with line numbers and context
• Outputs structured JSON for downstream processing
• Supports multiple programming languages

When to Use

Activate this skill when:

• Preparing manifest-owned comment cleanup operations
• Auditing code documentation coverage
• Analyzing comment patterns in a codebase
• Working with the comment-cleaner agent

Supported Languages

Extension	Single-line	Multi-line
.py, .sh, .rb, .yml, .yaml	#	N/A
.js, .ts, .tsx, .jsx, .go, .rs, .java, .kt, .swift, .c, .cpp, .h, .hpp	//	/* */
.html, .xml, .vue, .svelte	N/A	<!-- -->
.css, .scss, .less	N/A	/* */
.php	//, #	/* */

Usage

Extract Comments from a Change Manifest

Use a generated or validated change manifest as the cleanup boundary. This skill extracts comments inside that boundary; it does not decide which files or lines are cleanup-owned.

# Required for comment-cleaner
rp1 agent-tools comment-extract manifest manifest --change-manifest .rp1/work/features/example/change-manifest-001.json --code-root .

Manifest shape:

{
  "version": 1,
  "source": "build",
  "codeRoot": "/absolute/path/to/repo",
  "files": [
    {
      "path": "src/auth.ts",
      "ownedHunks": [{ "startLine": 20, "endLine": 28 }],
      "allowedOperations": ["remove_comments"]
    }
  ]
}

Generated manifests can come from /build, /build-fast, or /code-clean-comments. Build workflows generate manifests from their recorded baseline; standalone cleanup uses rp1 agent-tools change-manifest generate with --source code-clean-comments --scope ... to convert file, directory, git ref, git range, or existing-manifest input into the same manifest shape.

Audit-Only Git Scopes

Git scopes remain available for audit/reporting use. Do not use them as a comment-cleaner cleanup boundary. For cleanup, first generate a change manifest and then extract with --change-manifest.

rp1 agent-tools comment-extract branch main
rp1 agent-tools comment-extract unstaged main
rp1 agent-tools comment-extract "abc123..def456" main --line-scoped

Output Format

{
  "success": true,
  "tool": "comment-extract",
  "data": {
    "scope": "manifest",
    "base": "manifest",
    "filesScanned": 1,
    "linesAdded": 11,
    "lineScoped": true,
    "changeManifest": ".rp1/work/features/example/change-manifest-001.json",
    "comments": [
      {
        "file": "src/auth.py",
        "line": 45,
        "type": "single",
        "content": "# Check if user is active",
        "contextBefore": "def validate_user(user):",
        "contextAfter": "    if user.is_active:"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Output Fields

Field	Description
success	Whether extraction completed successfully
tool	Tool name (comment-extract)
data.scope	The extraction scope used (manifest, branch, unstaged, or commit range); only manifest is valid for cleanup
data.base	Base branch for comparison, or manifest for manifest extraction
data.filesScanned	Number of files processed
data.linesAdded	Total lines added in diff, or manifest-owned line count
data.lineScoped	Whether line-scoped filtering was applied
data.changeManifest	Manifest path used for extraction, when applicable
data.comments	Array of comment objects
data.comments[].file	Relative file path
data.comments[].line	Line number (1-indexed)
data.comments[].type	Comment type (single or multi)
data.comments[].content	The comment text
data.comments[].contextBefore	Line before the comment
data.comments[].contextAfter	Line after the comment

Error Handling

The tool handles:

• Git command failures (not a repo, invalid branch)
• Missing files (deleted in working tree)
• Binary files (automatically skipped)
• Encoding issues (UTF-8)

Error output format:

{
  "success": false,
  "tool": "comment-extract",
  "data": {
    "scope": "branch",
    "base": "main",
    "filesScanned": 0,
    "linesAdded": 0,
    "comments": []
  },
  "errors": [{ "message": "Not a git repository" }]
}

Integration

This skill is used by the comment-cleaner agent to:

1. Get a manifest-owned list of comments
2. Avoid reading entire files for comment detection
3. Process comments efficiently with context and line/hunk boundaries

The comment-cleaner agent should call this skill through the manifest path it was given. It should not pass branch names, commit ranges, dirty-state labels, or task-builder-authored hunks as cleanup authority.

Limitations

• Does not detect comments inside string literals (best effort)
• Multi-line string docstrings in Python are not extracted (intentional - docstrings are kept)
• Very large files (>10000 lines) are skipped to prevent memory issues
• Manifest cleanup includes multi-line comments only when every comment line is inside owned lines/hunks