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Updated 07.05.2026 · 19:39 CET
01 / Skill
massimodeluisa

recursive-decomposition-skill

Quality
9.0

This skill implements Recursive Language Model (RLM) strategies to overcome Claude's context window limitations and 'context rot'. It enables Claude Code to process inputs up to 2 orders of magnitude beyond normal limits by systematically filtering, chunking, recursing with sub-agents, verifying, and synthesizing information. Ideal for analyzing large codebases, multi-document QA, and complex information aggregation, it significantly improves accuracy and completeness on tasks involving 10+ files or over 50k tokens. Benchmarks show substantial improvements in multi-hop QA and quadratic reason

USP

Break free from Claude's context window limits. This skill leverages cutting-edge RLM research to enable systematic analysis of massive codebases and multi-document sets, improving accuracy and reducing hallucinations on long-context tasks…

Use cases

  • 01Analyzing large codebases for patterns, anti-patterns, or specific API usage.
  • 02Performing comprehensive multi-document Q&A and information extraction.
  • 03Aggregating information from dozens of scattered files or long documents.
  • 04Summarizing key decisions from extensive meeting notes or project documentation.
  • 05Identifying security vulnerabilities across an entire project's Python files.

Detected files (2)

  • plugins/recursive-decomposition/skills/recursive-decomposition/SKILL.mdskill
    Show content (7417 bytes)
    ---
    name: recursive-decomposition
    description: Based on the Recursive Language Models (RLM) research by Zhang, Kraska, and Khattab (2025), this skill provides strategies for handling tasks that exceed comfortable context limits through programmatic decomposition and recursive self-invocation. Triggers on phrases like "analyze all files", "process this large document", "aggregate information from", "search across the codebase", or tasks involving 10+ files or 50k+ tokens.
    ---
    
    # Recursive Decomposition Guidelines
    
    ## References
    
    Consult these resources as needed:
    
    - ./references/rlm-strategies.md -- Detailed decomposition patterns from the RLM paper
    - ./references/cost-analysis.md -- When to apply recursive vs. direct approaches
    - ./references/codebase-analysis.md -- Full walkthrough of codebase-wide analysis
    - ./references/document-aggregation.md -- Multi-document information extraction
    
    ## Core Principles
    
    **CRITICAL: Treat inputs as environmental variables, not immediate context.**
    
    Most tasks fail when context is overloaded. Instead of loading entire contexts into the processing window, treat inputs as **environmental variables** accessible through code execution. Decompose problems recursively, process segments independently, and aggregate results programmatically.
    
    **Progressive Disclosure**: Load information only when necessary. Start high-level to map the territory, then dive deep into specific areas.
    
    ### When Recursive Decomposition is Required
    
    -   Tasks involving 10+ files
    -   Input exceeding ~50k tokens where single-prompt context is insufficient
    -   Multi-hop questions requiring evidence from multiple scattered sources
    -   Codebase-wide pattern analysis or migration planning
    
    ### When Direct Processing Works
    
    -   Small contexts (<30k tokens)
    -   Single file analysis
    -   Linear complexity tasks with manageable inputs
    
    ## Operational Rules
    
    -   Always identify the search space size first.
    -   Always use `grep` or `glob` before `view_file` on directories.
    -   Always partition lists > 10 items into batches.
    -   Never read more than 5 files into context without a specific plan.
    -   Verify synthesized answers by spot-checking source material.
    -   Mitigate "context rot" by verifying answers on smaller windows.
    -   **Treat yourself as an autonomous agent, not just a passive responder.**
    
    ## Large File Handling Protocols
    
    **CRITICAL**: Do NOT read large files directly into context.
    
    1.  **Check Size First**: Always run `wc -l` (lines) or `ls -lh` (size) before `view_file`.
    2.  **Hard Limits**:
        *   **Text/Code**: > 2,000 lines or > 50KB -> **MUST** use `view_file` with `start_line`/`end_line` or `head`/`tail`.
        *   **PDFs**: > 30MB or > 100 pages -> **MUST** be split or processed by metadata only.
    3.  **Strategy**:
        *   For code: Read definitions first (`grep -n "function" ...`) then read specific bodies.
        *   For text: Read Table of Contents or Abstract first.
    
    ## Tool Preferences
    
    -   `grep` / `glob` not `ls -R` (unless mapping structure).
    -   `view_file` with line ranges (offset/limit) not full file reads for huge files.
    -   `wc -l` / `ls -lh` before reading unknown files.
    -   `run_command` (grep) not `read_file` for searching.
    -   `task` tool for sub-agents (recurse).
    
    ## Empowering Agentic Behavior
    
    To maximize effectiveness:
    
    -   **Self-Correction**: Always verify your own work. If a result seems empty or wrong, debug the approach (e.g., check grep arguments) before giving up.
    -   **Aggressive Context Management**: Regularly clear irrelevant history. Don't let the context window rot with dead ends.
    -   **Plan First**: For any task > 3 steps, write a mini-plan.
    -   **Safe YOLO Mode**: When appropriate (e.g., read-only searches), proceed with confidence without asking for permission on every single step, but stop for critical actions.
    
    ## Cost-Performance Tradeoffs
    
    -   **Smaller contexts**: Direct processing may be more efficient.
    -   **Larger contexts**: Recursive decomposition becomes necessary.
    -   **Threshold**: Consider decomposition when inputs exceed ~30k tokens or span 10+ files.
    
    Balance thoroughness against computational cost. For time-sensitive tasks, apply aggressive filtering. For comprehensive analysis, prefer exhaustive decomposition.
    
    ## Anti-Patterns to Avoid
    
    -   **Excessive sub-calling**: Avoid redundant queries over the same content.
    -   **Premature decomposition**: Simple tasks don't need recursive strategies.
    -   **Lost context**: Ensure sub-agents have sufficient context for their sub-tasks.
    -   **Unverified synthesis**: Always spot-check aggregated results.
    
    ## Scalability (Chunking & filtering)
    
    ### 1. Filter Before Deep Analysis
    
    Narrow the search space before detailed processing:
    
    ```
    # Instead of reading all files into context:
    1. Use Grep/Glob to identify candidate files by pattern
    2. Filter candidates using domain-specific keywords
    3. Only deeply analyze the filtered subset
    ```
    
    Apply model priors about domain terminology to construct effective filters. For code tasks, filter by function names, imports, or error patterns before full file analysis.
    
    ### 2. Strategic Chunking
    
    Partition inputs for parallel or sequential sub-processing:
    
    -   **Uniform chunking**: Split by line count, character count, or natural boundaries (paragraphs, functions, files).
    -   **Semantic chunking**: Partition by logical units (classes, sections, topics).
    -   **Keyword-based partitioning**: Group by shared characteristics.
    
    Process each chunk independently, then synthesize results.
    
    ### 3. Incremental Output Construction
    
    For generating long outputs:
    
    ```
    1. Break output into logical sections
    2. Generate each section independently
    3. Store intermediate results (in memory or files)
    4. Stitch sections together with coherence checks
    ```
    
    ## Agent Behavior
    
    ### Recursive Sub-Queries
    
    Invoke sub-agents (via Task tool) for independent segments:
    
    ```
    For large analysis:
    1. Partition the problem into independent sub-problems
    2. Launch parallel agents for each partition
    3. Collect and synthesize sub-agent results
    4. Verify synthesized answer if needed
    ```
    
    ### Answer Verification
    
    Mitigate context degradation by verifying answers on smaller windows:
    
    ```
    1. Generate candidate answer from full analysis
    2. Extract minimal evidence needed for verification
    3. Re-verify answer against focused evidence subset
    4. Resolve discrepancies through targeted re-analysis
    ```
    
    # Implementation Patterns
    
    ## Pattern A: Codebase Analysis
    
    Task: "Find all error handling patterns in the codebase"
    
    **Approach:**
    1.  Glob for relevant file types (`*.ts`, `*.py`, etc.)
    2.  Grep for error-related keywords (`catch`, `except`, `Error`, `throw`)
    3.  Partition matching files into batches of 5-10
    4.  Launch parallel Explore agents per batch
    5.  Aggregate findings into categorized summary
    
    ## Pattern B: Multi-Document QA
    
    Task: "What features are mentioned across all PRD documents?"
    
    **Approach:**
    1.  Glob for document files (`*.md`, `*.txt` in `/docs`)
    2.  For each document: extract feature mentions via sub-agent
    3.  Aggregate extracted features
    4.  Deduplicate and categorize
    5.  Verify completeness by spot-checking
    
    ## Pattern C: Information Aggregation
    
    Task: "Summarize all TODO comments in the project"
    
    **Approach:**
    1.  Grep for `TODO`/`FIXME`/`HACK` patterns
    2.  Group by file or module
    3.  Process each group to extract context and priority
    4.  Synthesize into prioritized action list
    
  • .claude-plugin/marketplace.jsonmarketplace
    Show content (521 bytes)
    {
      "name": "recursive-decomposition-skill",
      "owner": {
        "name": "Massimo De Luisa",
        "email": "massimodeluisa@me.com"
      },
      "metadata": {
        "description": "Recursive decomposition strategies for long-context tasks"
      },
      "plugins": [
        {
          "name": "recursive-decomposition",
          "source": "./plugins/recursive-decomposition",
          "description": "Agent skill for handling long-context tasks through recursive decomposition strategies based on RLM research (Zhang, Kraska, Khattab 2025)"
        }
      ]
    }
    

README

Recursive Decomposition Skill

Recursive Decomposition Skill

Handle long-context tasks with Claude Code through recursive decomposition

Claude Code Plugin arXiv Paper MIT License Agent Skills Format

What It DoesInstallationUsageHow It WorksBenchmarksAcknowledgments


The Problem

When analyzing large codebases, processing many documents, or aggregating information across dozens of files, Claude's context window becomes a bottleneck. As context grows, "context rot" degrades performance:

  • Missed details in long documents
  • Decreased accuracy on information retrieval
  • Hallucinated connections between distant content
  • Degraded reasoning over large evidence sets

The Solution

This skill implements Recursive Language Model (RLM) strategies from Zhang, Kraska, and Khattab's 2025 research, enabling Claude Code to handle inputs up to 2 orders of magnitude beyond normal context limits.

Instead of cramming everything into context, Claude learns to:

  1. Filter — Narrow search space before deep analysis
  2. Chunk — Partition inputs strategically
  3. Recurse — Spawn sub-agents for independent segments
  4. Verify — Re-check answers on smaller, focused windows
  5. Synthesize — Aggregate results programmatically

What It Does

Task TypeWithout SkillWith Skill
Analyze 100+ filesContext overflow / degraded resultsSystematic coverage via decomposition
Multi-document QAMissed informationComprehensive extraction
Codebase-wide searchManual iterationParallel sub-agent analysis
Information aggregationIncomplete synthesisMap-reduce pattern

Real Test Results

We tested on the Anthropic Cookbook (196 files, 356MB):

Task: "Find all Anthropic API calling patterns across the codebase"

Results:
├── Files scanned: 142
├── Files with API calls: 18
├── Patterns identified: 8 distinct patterns
├── Anti-patterns detected: 4
└── Output: Comprehensive report with file:line references

Installation

Via Claude Code Marketplace

# Add the marketplace
claude plugin marketplace add massimodeluisa/recursive-decomposition-skill

# Install the plugin
claude plugin install recursive-decomposition@recursive-decomposition

From Local Clone

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/massimodeluisa/recursive-decomposition-skill.git ~/recursive-decomposition-skill

# Add as local marketplace
claude plugin marketplace add ~/recursive-decomposition-skill

# Install the plugin
claude plugin install recursive-decomposition

Manual Installation (Skills Directory)

# Copy skill directly to Claude's skills directory
cp -r plugins/recursive-decomposition/skills/recursive-decomposition ~/.claude/skills/

After installation, restart Claude Code for the skill to take effect.

Updating

# Update marketplace index
claude plugin marketplace update

# Update the plugin
claude plugin update recursive-decomposition@recursive-decomposition

Usage

The skill activates automatically when you describe tasks involving:

  • Large-scale file analysis ("analyze all files in...")
  • Multi-document processing ("aggregate information from...")
  • Codebase-wide searches ("find all occurrences across...")
  • Long-context reasoning ("summarize these 50 documents...")

Example Prompts

"Analyze error handling patterns across this entire codebase"

"Find all TODO comments in the project and categorize by priority"

"What API endpoints are defined across all route files?"

"Summarize the key decisions from all meeting notes in /docs"

"Find security vulnerabilities across all Python files"

Trigger Phrases

The skill recognizes these patterns:

  • "analyze all files"
  • "process this large document"
  • "aggregate information from"
  • "search across the codebase"
  • Tasks involving 10+ files or 50k+ tokens

When to Use

The skill is designed for complex, long-context tasks. Use it when:

  • Analyzing 10+ files simultaneously
  • Processing documents exceeding 50k tokens
  • Performing codebase-wide pattern analysis
  • Extracting information from multiple scattered sources
  • Multi-hop reasoning requiring evidence synthesis

When NOT to use:

  • Single file edits → Direct processing is faster
  • Specific function lookup → Use Grep directly
  • Tasks < 30k tokens → Overhead not worth it
  • Time-critical operations → Latency matters more than completeness

How It Works

Decomposition Strategies

1. Filter Before Deep Analysis

1000 files → Glob filter → 100 files
100 files  → Grep filter → 20 files
20 files   → Deep analysis

Result: 50x reduction before expensive processing

2. Strategic Chunking

  • Uniform: Split by line count or natural boundaries
  • Semantic: Partition by logical units (functions, classes)
  • Keyword-based: Group by shared characteristics

3. Parallel Sub-Agents

Main Agent
├── Sub-Agent 1 (Batch A) ─┐
├── Sub-Agent 2 (Batch B) ─┼── Parallel
├── Sub-Agent 3 (Batch C) ─┘
└── Synthesize results

4. Verification Pass

Re-check synthesized answers against focused evidence to catch context rot errors.


Benchmarks

From the RLM paper:

TaskDirect ModelWith RLMImprovement
Multi-hop QA (6-11M tokens)70%91%+21%
Linear aggregationBaseline+28-33%Significant
Quadratic reasoning<0.1%58%Massive
Context scaling2^14 tokens2^18 tokens16x

Cost: RLM approaches are ~3x cheaper than summarization baselines while achieving superior quality.


Repository Structure

recursive-decomposition-skill/
├── .claude-plugin/
│   └── marketplace.json          # Marketplace manifest
├── plugins/
│   └── recursive-decomposition/
│       ├── .claude-plugin/
│       │   └── plugin.json       # Plugin manifest
│       ├── README.md             # Plugin documentation
│       └── skills/
│           └── recursive-decomposition/
│               ├── SKILL.md      # Core skill instructions
│               └── references/
│                   ├── rlm-strategies.md
│                   ├── cost-analysis.md
│                   ├── codebase-analysis.md
│                   └── document-aggregation.md
├── assets/
│   └── logo.png                  # Project logo
├── AGENTS.md                     # Agent-facing docs
├── CONTRIBUTING.md               # Contribution guidelines
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

Skill Contents

FilePurpose
SKILL.mdCore decomposition strategies and patterns
references/rlm-strategies.mdDetailed techniques from the RLM paper
references/cost-analysis.mdWhen to use recursive vs. direct approaches
references/codebase-analysis.mdFull walkthrough: multi-file error handling analysis
references/document-aggregation.mdFull walkthrough: multi-document feature extraction

Acknowledgments

This skill is based on the Recursive Language Models research paper. Huge thanks to the authors for their groundbreaking work:

Alex L. Zhang
@a1zhang
MIT CSAIL
Tim Kraska
@tim_kraska
MIT Professor
Omar Khattab
@lateinteraction
MIT CSAIL, Creator of DSPy

Paper

Recursive Language Models

Alex L. Zhang, Tim Kraska, Omar Khattab

arXiv:2512.24601 • December 2025

We propose Recursive Language Models (RLMs), an inference technique enabling LLMs to handle prompts up to two orders of magnitude beyond model context windows through programmatic decomposition and recursive self-invocation over prompt segments.

arXiv Paper PDF Download


References


Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.


Author

X (Twitter) GitHub

Massimo De Luisa@massimodeluisa


License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.