# RepoRecon – a Claude Code plugin that validates project ideas against GitHub

> Source: <https://github.com/suleman-dawood/reporecon>
> Published: 2026-05-27 11:01:20+00:00

A Claude Code plugin that checks if your project idea already exists on GitHub before you build it.

```
🟢  No close match
🟡  Adjacent prior art — worth a closer look
🔴  Strong overlap — someone has likely shipped this
```

Run these inside the Claude Code chat.

```
/plugin marketplace add suleman-dawood/reporecon
/plugin install reporecon@reporecon
```

Fully quit and reopen Claude Code so the plugin registers (not `/clear`

— actually close the app process).

— authenticated GitHub CLI session (`gh auth login`

[gh CLI docs](https://cli.github.com)). Anonymous rate limits will fail preflight.`gh`

≥ 2.55`jq`

≥ 1.7in your Claude Code session — RepoRecon aborts the run if it isn't. Silent skips were a 0.1 bug; we'd rather fail loudly.`WebSearch`

tool must be enabled- macOS:
`brew install bash coreutils`

(GNU`timeout`

+`bash`

≥ 4)

Verify:

```
gh auth status && gh --version && jq --version
/reporecon I want to build a CLI that previews diffs as a side-by-side TUI
```

Or just describe an idea naturally in chat:

*"is there already a tool that does X"**"validate my idea before I start building"**"does this exist on github"*

You get a verdict in ~90 seconds. If it's 🟡 or 🔴, reply `deep search`

(or `yes`

/ `dig deeper`

) to clone the top candidates and get file-path-cited evidence (~10 min).

Reports land in `./reporecon-reports/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md`

. One file per idea.

A chat verdict block like this:

```
🟡  Some overlap — worth a closer look

Your idea: "side-by-side TUI diff previewer with syntax highlighting"
Top match: dandavison/delta (28k★, active) — WORTH_INSPECTING

Reply 'deep search' to clone the top candidates and judge
with file-path evidence (~10 min).

Report: ./reporecon-reports/2026-05-27-tui-diff-previewer.md
```

The on-disk report has the full per-candidate breakdown, axis scores, and — after a deep search — cited evidence by `path/file.ext:LINE`

.

If `/reporecon`

doesn't seem to do anything after install:

- Confirm the plugin shows up: type
`/plugin`

in chat - Try the natural-language trigger ("does this exist on github") — bypasses slash-command routing
`/plugin uninstall reporecon`

→`/plugin install reporecon@reporecon`

→**fully restart Claude Code**(close the app, not`/clear`

)

**GitHub-only.** GitLab, Codeberg, self-hosted forges, and package-registry-only tools are not searched.**WebSearch results drift.** Same query on different days can shift the verdict on borderline ideas.**Verify before you decide.** RepoRecon narrows the search; it doesn't replace you making the final call yourself before you commit to a project.

MIT — see [LICENSE](/suleman-dawood/reporecon/blob/main/LICENSE).