agent/claude/code/skills/project-archaeology/SKILL.md

Project Archaeology

Deep excavation of abandoned CryptoNote projects before they vanish.

Purpose

When a CryptoNote project dies, its artifacts scatter:

• GitHub repos get deleted or archived
• BitcoinTalk threads go stale
• Websites go offline
• Block explorers shut down
• Discord servers empty out

This skill orchestrates a full dig on a dead project — running all collectors in sequence to preserve everything salvageable before it's gone forever.

Usage

# Full excavation of a project
./excavate.sh masari

# Quick scan (just check what's still accessible)
./excavate.sh masari --scan-only

# Specific collectors only
./excavate.sh masari --only=github,bitcointalk

# Resume interrupted dig
./excavate.sh masari --resume

What Gets Collected

Source	Collector Used	Priority
GitHub repos	github-history	P1 - often deleted first
GitHub releases	wallet-releases	P1 - binaries disappear
BitcoinTalk ANN	bitcointalk	P2 - usually persists
Website (Wayback)	job-collector wayback	P2 - snapshots exist
Block explorer	block-explorer	P3 - chain data
CoinMarketCap	coinmarketcap	P3 - historical prices
Whitepapers	whitepaper-archive	P1 - research value
Reddit	job-collector reddit	P4 - community context
Medium posts	job-collector medium	P4 - announcements

Output Structure

digs/
└── <project-name>/
    ├── EXCAVATION.md       # Dig log with timestamps
    ├── SALVAGE-REPORT.md   # What's worth keeping
    ├── LESSONS.md          # What killed it, what we learned
    ├── github/             # All repo history
    ├── releases/           # Wallet binaries, checksums
    ├── bitcointalk/        # Thread archive
    ├── website/            # Wayback snapshots
    ├── explorer/           # Chain data samples
    ├── market/             # Price history, volume
    ├── papers/             # Whitepapers, docs
    └── community/          # Reddit, Medium, etc

Report Templates

SALVAGE-REPORT.md

What code/ideas are worth extracting:

• Unique protocol innovations
• Wallet features
• Mining algorithms
• Community tools
• Documentation patterns

LESSONS.md

Post-mortem analysis:

• Timeline of decline
• Root causes (dev burnout, drama, funding, tech debt)
• Warning signs to watch for
• What could have saved it

Integration with cryptonote-discovery

# Get list of abandoned projects
cd ../cryptonote-discovery
./discover.sh --list-abandoned

# Excavate all abandoned projects (batch mode)
for proj in $(./discover.sh --list-abandoned); do
    ../project-archaeology/excavate.sh "$proj"
done

Known Dig Sites

Projects confirmed dead/dying that need excavation:

Project	Symbol	Death Year	Urgency	Notes
TurtleCoin	TRTL	2023	HIGH	Team burned out, great docs
Masari	MSR	2022	HIGH	Uncle mining code valuable
Aeon	AEON	2021	MEDIUM	Pruning/lightweight work
Nerva	XNV	2022	MEDIUM	Anti-pool algo interesting
Sumokoin	SUMO	2021	LOW	Drama-killed, large ring research
Ryo	RYO	2023	LOW	GPU algo work

Requirements

• All collector skills installed
• gh CLI authenticated
• jq installed
• Sufficient disk space for archives
• Patience (full dig can take hours)

Adding New Dig Sites

When you discover a dead CryptoNote project:

1. Add to ../cryptonote-discovery/registry.json
2. Include "salvageable": [...] field
3. Run ./excavate.sh <project> --scan-only first
4. If sources still accessible, run full dig

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"The past is not dead. It's not even past." — but GitHub repos definitely are.