Shadow Frog Viewer

ShadowFrog Viewer

Query and browse .shadow/ content. Prerequisite: .shadow/ exists.

Primary: Python Helper Script

The companion script shadow-viewer.py lives in the same directory as this SKILL.md file. To find and run it:

# Project install (Copilot CLI):
python3 .github/skills/shadow-frog-viewer/shadow-viewer.py [options]
# Or for Claude Code:
python3 .claude/skills/shadow-frog-viewer/shadow-viewer.py [options]

Available Views

| Command | What it shows | |---------|--------------| | --summary | Overview: counts, source/status/label breakdown, per-file table, cross-cutting titles (default) | | --search QUERY | Universal search — matches file names, symbol names, and discovery text. Includes cross-cutting and preferences | | --prefs | Project-wide preferences | | --recent [N] | N most recent discoveries with full content (default: 10) | | --labels LABEL | Discoveries filtered by label (e.g., bug, security, bug,performance) | | --top FILE | Top actionable discoveries for FILE — concise output (default: 3 entries, ~600 chars) suitable for the preToolUse hook. Includes both per-file shadow entries and any _cross/ discoveries that reference FILE. Verified discoveries rank first. | | --check-invariants | Audit structural integrity — bidirectional cross-references, label/source/category enum compliance, heading format, no-orphan-back-pointer. Exits 0 if clean, 1 with one violation per line. Run after dream reconciliation or before commit. |

No arguments defaults to --summary.

Options

| Flag | Effect | |------|--------| | --shadow-dir DIR | Override .shadow/ location (default: auto-detect from CWD) | | --top-labels LABELS | Comma-separated label filter for --top (default: bug,security). Empty string disables label filtering. | | --top-limit N | Max discoveries to show in --top (default: 3) | | --top-max-chars N | Hard cap on --top total output length (default: 600). Use 0 for no cap. |

Examples

# Quick overview
python3 shadow-viewer.py

# Everything about auth (files, symbols, text, cross-cutting)
python3 shadow-viewer.py --search auth

# Find token-related knowledge
python3 shadow-viewer.py --search "token expiry"

# 5 most recent discoveries
python3 shadow-viewer.py --recent 5

# All known bugs
python3 shadow-viewer.py --labels bug

# Security and performance issues
python3 shadow-viewer.py --labels security,performance

# Top actionable discoveries for a single file (used by the preToolUse hook)
python3 shadow-viewer.py --top src/auth.py

# Same, but broaden label filter and show up to 5 entries
python3 shadow-viewer.py --top src/auth.py --top-labels bug,security,performance --top-limit 5

# Team preferences
python3 shadow-viewer.py --prefs

# Structural audit (run before commits or after dream reconciliation)
python3 shadow-viewer.py --check-invariants

Dream Lineage Visualization

The companion script dream-lineage.py generates an interactive HTML visualization of the dream experiment tree. It reads _dreams/_index.md and experiment reports to produce a self-contained HTML file.

# (Claude Code users: replace .github/skills with .claude/skills below)

# Generate dream-lineage.html in the current directory
python3 .github/skills/shadow-frog-viewer/dream-lineage.py

# Custom output path
python3 .github/skills/shadow-frog-viewer/dream-lineage.py -o my-lineage.html

# Explicit shadow directory
python3 .github/skills/shadow-frog-viewer/dream-lineage.py --shadow-dir /path/to/.shadow

The HTML file has three tabs:

• 🌳 Chains — compounding chains as tree cards, sorted by depth
• 📋 Fresh — non-compounding experiments grouped by category
• 🗂️ Full Tree — compact view of the entire lineage in one tree

Each node shows the experiment's category icon, name, verdict, test count, and discovery count. Click "▶ Show report" to expand the full experiment report inline.

Fallback: Shell One-Liners

If the Python script fails to execute (wrong Python version, missing file, permission error, etc.), fall back to these shell commands:

Summary

Note: shell discovery counts are approximate (may include cross-reference links).

echo "Files: $(find .shadow -name '*.md' -not -path '*/_cross/*' -not -path '*/_meta/*' -not -path '*/_dreams/*' -not -name '_index.md' -not -name '_prefs.md' | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"
echo "Discoveries: $(find .shadow -name '*.md' -not -path '*/_cross/*' -not -path '*/_meta/*' -not -path '*/_dreams/*' -not -name '_index.md' -not -name '_prefs.md' -exec grep -c '^\- ' {} \; 2>/dev/null | awk '{s+=$1} END {print s+0}')"
echo "Cross-cutting: $(ls .shadow/_cross/*.md 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')"
python3 -c "import json; d=json.load(open('.shadow/_meta/state.json')); print(f'Last update: {d[\"last_update_at\"]} ({d[\"last_update_type\"]})')"

Search

grep -rn "QUERY" .shadow/ --include="*.md"

Preferences

cat .shadow/_prefs.md

Recent

# macOS
find .shadow -name '*.md' -not -path '*/_meta/*' -exec stat -f '%m %N' {} \; | sort -rn | head -10 | while read ts f; do echo "$(date -r "$ts" '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M') $f"; done

# Linux
find .shadow -name '*.md' -not -path '*/_meta/*' -printf '%T@ %p\n' | sort -rn | head -10 | while read ts f; do echo "$(date -d @"${ts%%.*}" '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M') $f"; done

Responding to the User

After running a view, present the results clearly:

• For --summary: show the output directly, highlight anything notable
• For --search: summarize key findings, group by relevance
• For --recent: present the discoveries conversationally
• For --top: typically called by the preToolUse hook before a file is

edited; output is intentionally short and pre-formatted. If invoked manually, present as-is.

• If the shadow is empty or has no discoveries, suggest running

/shadow-frog-dream to populate it

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: microsoft
• Source: microsoft/ShadowFrog
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.