| name | basemind-tools |
| description | How to use basemind's MCP tools and CLI for structural and historical code questions instead of grep, file reads, and naked git. Load when navigating the codebase, finding definitions or call sites, exploring git history, or coordinating with other agents in the repo. |
When basemind is available (its MCP tools or the basemind CLI), prefer it over grep, file reads, and naked git for structural and historical questions. Its tools return paths, line numbers, and signatures — a fraction of the tokens of reading source. Fall back to shell/grep/git only when basemind cannot answer.
- Outline a file before opening it, then read only the span you need (
outline; add l2: true for calls and docstrings).
- Find a definition with
search_symbols instead of grep.
- Find call sites with
find_references (any name) or find_callers (a specific definition) instead of grepping; map structure with call_graph, dependents, find_implementations.
- Search the tree with
workspace_grep instead of shelling out to ripgrep.
- Use the git tools —
recent_changes, commits_touching, symbol_history, blame_file / blame_symbol, diff_file / diff_outline, hot_files — instead of git log / git blame.
- Use
search_documents and the document pipeline for RAG, extraction, and NER over PDFs/docs; use web_scrape / web_crawl / web_map for web content.
- After making edits, run
rescan to refresh the index instead of reconnecting. Do not re-read a file basemind already mapped.
- When collaborating with other agents in the repo, use the comms tools (
room_list, room_join, room_post, room_history, inbox_read, message_get) to coordinate.
