Audit Context Building

Understand a codebase before looking for bugs in it - what each function assumes, what it guarantees, and what it depends on elsewhere. Use when starting an audit, threat model, or architecture review on unfamiliar code, and before any vulnerability-hunting pass.

7,908 stars 675 forksSoftware DevelopmentOfficial

Install

skills CLI (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and more)
npx skills add trailofbits/skills --skill audit-context-building
Manual install
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/trailofbits/skills.git /tmp/skills
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/skills/plugins/audit-context-building/skills/audit-context-building ~/.claude/skills/audit-context-building

Personal skills live in ~/.claude/skills. Use .claude/skills in a project folder to share a skill with your team.

From the SKILL.md

# Audit Context Building

Build understanding, not verdicts. This runs before anyone hunts for bugs, and feeds that work.

## When to Use

At the start of an audit, a threat model, or an architecture review, when the code is unfamiliar. Also when
an earlier pass produced findings nobody could judge, because no one had mapped out how the system fits
together.

## When NOT to Use

Do not name vulnerabilities, suggest fixes, write proofs-of-concept, or rate severity. Those belong to the
hunting phase, which runs next and with the whole picture in hand. When the code counts on something and
nothing checks it, record that plainly and move on — whether it matters is decided later.

Not worth the tokens on code you already understand.

## Do not analyze in this context

The analysis is long, and this context needs to survive to use it. Dispatch it:

- **A codebase, or more than one function** — run `/audit-context-building:audit-context <path>`. It orients,
  analyzes each function in its own subagent, and writes `audit-context/DOSSIER.md` plus one file per
  function under `audit-context/functions/`. Only compact records return here.
- **A single function** — dispatch the `audit-context-building:function-analyzer` agent at it. It writes its
  prose to disk and returns a record.

Then work from what comes back: the index, the unenforced assumptions, the open questions. Read a function's
file when you need its detail.
Read the full skill on GitHub

Details

Skill name
audit-context-building
Repository
trailofbits/skills
Path
plugins/audit-context-building/skills/audit-context-building/SKILL.md
License
CC-BY-SA-4.0
Repo updated
28 October 2026
Listed in
BehiSecc/awesome-claude-skills, heilcheng/awesome-agent-skills, hesreallyhim/awesome-claude-code, travisvn/awesome-claude-skills

FAQ

What does the Audit Context Building skill do?

Understand a codebase before looking for bugs in it - what each function assumes, what it guarantees, and what it depends on elsewhere. Use when starting an audit, threat model, or architecture review on unfamiliar code, and before any vulnerability-hunting pass.

How do I install the Audit Context Building skill?

skills CLI (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and more): npx skills add trailofbits/skills --skill audit-context-building. Skills go in ~/.claude/skills (personal) or .claude/skills (project), and Claude loads them automatically when a task matches the description.

Is Audit Context Building popular?

It lives in trailofbits/skills, which has 7,908 GitHub stars and 675 forks, and is included in 4 curated skill lists.

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