How do I install the Rchive skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add vimalinx/rchive in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Rchive safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. Independent scanners report: SkillSpector: PASS, Skill Scanner: PASS. Capability flags: makes network calls. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Rchive?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Rchive free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Rchive?

vimalinx (@vimalinx) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Rchive by vimalinx — Agent Skill

Name: Rchive
Rating: 4.5 (4 reviews)
Author: vimalinx

File contents

rchive

rchive is the EDirect local-archive workhorse. The shell script in bin/ is only a platform dispatcher; it locates and execs a compiled binary such as rchive.Linux.

Quick Start

Command: rchive
Local wrapper: /home/vimalinx/miniforge3/envs/bio/bin/rchive
Version path: rchive -version

When To Use This Tool

Creating Entrez index XML from PubMed/Entrez records (-e2index)
Generating inverted indices for fast term searching (-e2invert, -merge)
Building local record caches with optional gzip compression (-archive, -gzip)
Querying indexed archives with Boolean formulas (-query, -title, -exact)

Common Patterns

# 1) Inspect available archive/index flags
rchive --help
rchive -version

# 2) Create Entrez index XML from input records
cat records.xml | rchive -strict -e2index

# 3) Query an existing local postings directory
rchive -path /data/postings -query 'brca1 AND breast'

Recommended Workflow

Decide whether you are archiving raw XML (-archive / -fetch) or working on the index side (-e2index, -e2invert, -merge, -promote).
Verify the wrapper can find the platform binary with rchive -version before launching long archive jobs.
Feed valid XML from stdin or use -input when building indexes.
Separate archive storage, postings storage, and scratch space early because local-cache trees grow quickly.

Guardrails

rchive -version prints a clean 24.0, but rchive --version is not equivalent; in local testing it fell through to a no-input error.
The wrapper script resets PATH and then execs a platform-specific binary such as rchive.Linux; if that compiled binary is missing it prints download instructions instead of running.
--help produced the full built-in help document in this environment, listing archive, index, query, and postings-management flags.
This is an operational local-archive tool, not a harmless inspector. Many flags create, merge, or delete cache/index artifacts.
XML-consuming modes require real stdin or -input; otherwise you can hit No data supplied to rchive from stdin or file.

---name: rchivedescription: Use when building, indexing, or querying local XML record archives from NCBI Entrez databases, creating inverted indices, or managing PubMed local caches.---# rchive`rchive` is the EDirect local-archive workhorse. The shell script in `bin/` is only a platform dispatcher; it locates and execs a compiled binary such as `rchive.Linux`.## Quick Start- **Command:** `rchive`- **Local wrapper:** `/home/vimalinx/miniforge3/envs/bio/bin/rchive`- **Version path:** `rchive -version`## When To Use This Tool- Creating Entrez index XML from PubMed/Entrez records (`-e2index`)- Generating inverted indices for fast term searching (`-e2invert`, `-merge`)- Building local record caches with optional gzip compression (`-archive`, `-gzip`)- Querying indexed archives with Boolean formulas (`-query`, `-title`, `-exact`)## Common Patterns```bash# 1) Inspect available archive/index flagsrchive --helprchive -version``````bash# 2) Create Entrez index XML from input recordscat records.xml | rchive -strict -e2index``````bash# 3) Query an existing local postings directoryrchive -path /data/postings -query 'brca1 AND breast'```## Recommended Workflow1. Decide whether you are archiving raw XML (`-archive` / `-fetch`) or working on the index side (`-e2index`, `-e2invert`, `-merge`, `-promote`).2. Verify the wrapper can find the platform binary with `rchive -version` before launching long archive jobs.3. Feed valid XML from stdin or use `-input` when building indexes.4. Separate archive storage, postings storage, and scratch space early because local-cache trees grow quickly.## Guardrails- `rchive -version` prints a clean `24.0`, but `rchive --version` is not equivalent; in local testing it fell through to a no-input error.- The wrapper script resets `PATH` and then execs a platform-specific binary such as `rchive.Linux`; if that compiled binary is missing it prints download instructions instead of running.- `--help` produced the full built-in help document in this environment, listing archive, index, query, and postings-management flags.- This is an operational local-archive tool, not a harmless inspector. Many flags create, merge, or delete cache/index artifacts.- XML-consuming modes require real stdin or `-input`; otherwise you can hit `No data supplied to rchive from stdin or file`.

Frequently asked questions

Rchive