nia-oracle — Claude Code subagent: repo and docs research
A Claude subagent that finds repositories and documentation through Nia tools, indexes them, and pulls answers back out.
npx claude-code-templates@latest --agent deep-research-team/nia-oracleWhat nia-oracle does
nia-oracle is a Claude subagent built for outside knowledge. It does not edit files or run git commands — its job is to find a repo or a docs site, index it, and extract the code you need. The main agent calls it when a codebase or an API is not part of your project.
Under the hood it wires up Nia's MCP tools: index to make a source searchable, search_codebase and search_documentation for semantic queries, regex_search for exact patterns, read_source_content to pull whole files, get_github_file_tree for repo layout, plus nia_web_search and nia_deep_research_agent for discovery. A context tool handles handoffs to other agents. The subagent keeps a nia-sources.md file listing what has already been indexed and read, so later sessions skip the repeat work.
Indexing is not instant. You check progress with manage_resource(action="status"), and searching a source before it finishes returns nothing useful. Nia's MCP tools have to be connected first — without them the subagent is left with Read, Grep and Glob, which defeats the point of installing it. The model is inherited from the main agent (model: inherit).
What it helps with
- get oriented in an unfamiliar GitHub repository
- find real examples of a pattern in someone else's code
- index a documentation site and query it later
- compare two libraries by reading their source
- hand research results off to another agent
Example prompts for the agent
- Find a repo with JWT authentication examples and index it
- Search the indexed docs for how dependency injection works
- Save this research context so I can hand it to Cursor
How to install nia-oracle
1claude-code-templates
npx claude-code-templates@latest --agent deep-research-team/nia-oracle2Manually: put the files in place
.claude/agents/nia-oracle.mdFor all projects use ~/.claude/agents/. Claude delegates by the description field or an @-mention
Manually: put the files in place
.codex/agents/nia-oracle.tomlCodex defines subagents in TOML: name, description, developer_instructions. Move the Markdown text into developer_instructions by hand. For all projects use ~/.codex/agents/
Manually: put the files in place
.cursor/agents/nia-oracle.mdCursor also reads .claude/agents/
Step by step, with commands for each platform: Claude Code subagents: how to create one, call it and keep context clean
Questions about nia-oracle
How do I install nia-oracle in Claude?
Use the templates CLI: npx claude-code-templates@latest --agent deep-research-team/nia-oracle. The subagent file lands at .claude/agents/nia-oracle.md.
What does nia-oracle do?
It discovers repositories and documentation, indexes them with Nia's tools, and returns code and explanations from them. It leaves file edits to the main agent.
What does nia-oracle need to work?
Nia's MCP tools connected. Without them only Read, Grep and Glob remain, and searching external sources stops working.
