File Operations

Analyze files and retrieve metadata using Claude's native tools without modifying files.

When to Use

• "analyze [file]"

• "get file info for [file]"

• "how many lines in [file]"

• "compare [file1] and [file2]"

• "file statistics"

Core Operations

File Size & Metadata

stat -f "%z bytes, modified %Sm" [file_path] # Single file ls -lh [directory] # Multiple files du -h [file_path] # Human-readable size

Line Counts

wc -l [file_path] # Single file wc -l [file1] [file2] # Multiple files find [dir] -name "*.py" | xargs wc -l # Directory total

Content Analysis

Use Read to analyze structure, then count functions/classes/imports.

Pattern Search

Grep(pattern="^def ", output_mode="count", path="src/") # Count functions Grep(pattern="TODO|FIXME", output_mode="content", -n=true) # Find TODOs Grep(pattern="^import ", output_mode="count") # Count imports

Find Files

Glob(pattern="**/*.py")

Workflow Examples

Comprehensive File Analysis

• Get size/mod time: stat -f "%z bytes, modified %Sm" file.py

• Count lines: wc -l file.py

• Read file: Read(file_path="file.py")

• Count functions: Grep(pattern="^def ", output_mode="count")

• Count classes: Grep(pattern="^class ", output_mode="count")

Compare File Sizes

• Find files: Glob(pattern="src/**/*.py")

• Get sizes: ls -lh src/**/*.py

• Total size: du -sh src/*.py

Code Quality Metrics

• Total lines: find . -name "*.py" | xargs wc -l

• Test files: find . -name "test_*.py" | wc -l

• TODOs: Grep(pattern="TODO|FIXME|HACK", output_mode="count")

Find Largest Files

find . -type f -not -path "./node_modules/*" -exec du -h {} + | sort -rh | head -20

Best Practices

• Non-destructive: Use Read/stat/wc, never modify

• Efficient: Read small files fully, use Grep for large files

• Context-aware: Compare to project averages, suggest optimizations

Integration

Works with:

• code-auditor: Comprehensive analysis

• code-transfer: After identifying large files

• codebase-documenter: Understanding file purposes