context-router-cli 3.3.1

Local-first CLI and MCP server for AI coding context — minimum useful context, maximum agent performance

context-router

A local-first CLI and MCP server that selects the minimum useful context across code structure, runtime evidence, and project memory for AI coding agents — reducing token consumption on review, debug, implement, and handover tasks.

Why

AI coding agents work best with focused, relevant context rather than entire codebases. context-router:

• Indexes your repo's symbols, dependency edges, call graphs, and test coverage into a local SQLite database
• Ranks candidates by structural relevance, query similarity, and community membership for your task mode
• Enforces a configurable token budget so your agent prompt stays lean (64.7% average reduction)
• Explains every selection decision in one human-readable sentence
• Supports multi-repo workspaces with cross-repo confidence boosting
• Works as a CLI, MCP server, or Python library — no API key required

Feature Overview

Feature	Detail
Language support	Python (full), TypeScript/JS (full), YAML (k8s/Helm/GHA), Java, .NET (stubs)
Edge types	imports, calls (function-level), tested_by, community links
Task modes	review, implement, debug, handover
Ranking	Confidence scoring, query keyword boost, optional semantic boost (sentence-transformers)
Token budget	Hard cap with per-source-type guarantee; dynamic scaling for small repos
Memory	Persistent session observations + architectural decision records (FTS search)
Multi-repo	Workspace YAML, cross-repo link detection, unified ranked pack
Graph viz	Interactive D3.js HTML — color by kind or community cluster
MCP server	8 tools over stdio JSON-RPC 2.0, compatible with Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf
Agent adapters	Claude system prompt, Copilot instructions, Codex task prompt
Benchmarks	20-task suite, 3 baselines, Markdown report

Requirements

• Python 3.12+
• uv package manager

Install

git clone https://github.com/mohankrishnaalavala/context-router
cd context-router
uv sync --all-packages

PyPI install (coming soon): pip install context-router

---

Quickstart

# 1. Initialize a project (creates .context-router/ with config + SQLite DB)
uv run context-router init

# 2. Index the repository — extracts symbols, call edges, test links, communities
uv run context-router index

# 3. Generate a context pack for a code review
uv run context-router pack --mode review

# 4. Implement a feature — query-aware ranking surfaces the right files
uv run context-router pack --mode implement --query "add pagination to the users endpoint"

# 5. Debug a failure — parse an error file and rank by blast radius
uv run context-router pack --mode debug --error-file pytest-output.xml

# 6. Explain what was selected and why
uv run context-router explain last-pack

# 7. Visualize the symbol graph
uv run context-router graph --open

# 8. Get machine-readable JSON for scripts or agent prompts
uv run context-router pack --mode review --json

---

Commands Reference

Command	Purpose
init	Initialize .context-router/ config and database
index	Scan and index all source files
watch	Incrementally re-index on file save
pack	Generate a ranked context pack
explain	Explain the last pack's selections
memory	Add/search session observations
decisions	Add/search architectural decision records
graph	Generate interactive HTML graph visualization
workspace	Multi-repo workspace management
benchmark	Run 20-task benchmark suite
mcp	Start the MCP server (for Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf)

---

init

Initialize a project. Creates .context-router/config.yaml and .context-router/context-router.db.

context-router init [--project-root PATH] [--json]

---

index

Scan and index the repository.

context-router index [--project-root PATH] [--repo REPO_NAME]

Walks all source files, runs language analyzers (discovered via context_router.language_analyzers entry points), and writes to the local DB:

• Symbols — functions, classes, interfaces, k8s resources, GitHub Actions jobs
• Import edges — which files import which modules
• Call edges — which functions call which functions (Python, TypeScript)
• TESTED_BY edges — links test_foo → foo by name convention
• Community IDs — Union-Find clustering of connected symbols

uv run context-router index
# Indexed 286 files — 1765 symbols, 3174 edges (2.82s)

---

watch

Watch for file changes and incrementally re-index.

context-router watch [--project-root PATH]

---

pack

Generate a ranked context pack for a task.

context-router pack --mode MODE [--query TEXT] [--project-root PATH] [--json]

Modes:

Mode	Ranking priority	Best for
review	changed files → blast radius → impacted tests → config	PR review, diff analysis
implement	entrypoints → contracts → extension points → patterns	Building new features
debug	runtime signal match → failing tests → changed files → call chain	Fixing errors, CI failures
handover	recent changes → memory observations → decisions → blast radius	Onboarding, sprint docs

Token budget (default: 8 000 tokens) is read from .context-router/config.yaml. Items are dropped lowest-confidence first, but at least one item per source category is always preserved.

The pack is saved to .context-router/last-pack.json for later inspection.

Examples:

# Review mode — surfaces changed files and their dependencies
uv run context-router pack --mode review

# Implement with query — boosts items matching "rate limiting"
uv run context-router pack --mode implement --query "add rate limiting to API endpoints"

# Debug with error file — parse pytest/JUnit XML to find root cause
uv run context-router pack --mode debug --error-file test-results.xml

# JSON output for piping into agent prompts
uv run context-router pack --mode review --json | jq '.selected_items[].title'

---

explain

Explain the last generated context pack.

context-router explain last-pack [--json]

  [changed_file]  build_pack (orchestrator.py)       — Modified in current diff
  [blast_radius]  ContextRanker (ranker.py)           — Depends on a changed file
  [impacted_test] test_ranker.py                      — Tests code affected by this change
  [contract]      ContextItem (models.py)             — Data contract or interface definition

---

memory

Persist and search session observations. Stored in the local SQLite DB with FTS5 full-text search.

context-router memory add --from-session SESSION.json
context-router memory search QUERY
context-router memory stale

stale lists observations whose referenced files no longer exist in the index.

Examples:

# Search for past observations about authentication
uv run context-router memory search "auth token"

# Find observations referencing files that were deleted
uv run context-router memory stale

---

decisions

Manage architectural decision records (ADRs). Persisted with FTS5 search across title, context, and decision fields.

context-router decisions add TITLE [--decision TEXT] [--context TEXT] [--consequences TEXT] [--tags TAGS] [--status STATUS]
context-router decisions search QUERY
context-router decisions list

--status accepts: proposed | accepted | deprecated | superseded

Examples:

# Record a new ADR
uv run context-router decisions add "Use SQLite for local storage" \
  --decision "SQLite + FTS5 chosen over PostgreSQL" \
  --context "Need offline-capable storage" \
  --status accepted

# Search decisions by keyword
uv run context-router decisions search "database"

---

graph

Generate a self-contained interactive HTML graph visualization of the indexed symbol graph.

context-router graph [--project-root PATH] [--output PATH] [--open] [--json]

• Nodes are colored by kind (function=green, class=blue, interface=teal, k8s=orange) or by community cluster (toggle in the UI)
• Node size reflects degree (more connections = larger)
• Click any node for a details panel (file, kind, community, signature)
• Search/filter by symbol name
• Zoom/pan with scroll and drag
• --open launches your default browser immediately

# Generate and open in browser
uv run context-router graph --open

# Save to a path for sharing or docs
uv run context-router graph --output ./docs/graph.html

# Raw JSON for programmatic use
uv run context-router graph --json

---

workspace

Manage multi-repo workspaces with cross-repo context packs.

context-router workspace init [--root PATH] [--name NAME]
context-router workspace repo add NAME PATH [--root PATH]
context-router workspace repo list [--root PATH] [--json]
context-router workspace link add FROM TO [--root PATH]
context-router workspace pack --mode MODE [--query TEXT] [--root PATH] [--json]

How it works:

1. workspace init creates workspace.yaml at the root
2. repo add registers each repo and captures its git branch/SHA
3. link add declares a dependency between repos (boosts cross-repo confidence)
4. pack runs Orchestrator per repo, merges candidates labelled with [repo-name], and re-ranks within a unified token budget

# Set up a two-repo workspace
uv run context-router workspace init
uv run context-router workspace repo add api ./services/api
uv run context-router workspace repo add frontend ./services/frontend
uv run context-router workspace link add frontend api
uv run context-router workspace pack --mode review

---

benchmark

Run the built-in 20-task suite and measure token reduction vs naive/keyword baselines.

context-router benchmark run [--project-root PATH] [--output PATH] [--json]
context-router benchmark report [--project-root PATH] [--input PATH] [--json]

See BENCHMARK_RESULTS.md for real numbers on the context-router codebase (64.7% average token reduction, 131 ms average latency).

---

mcp

Start the context-router MCP server over stdio JSON-RPC 2.0, exposing all tools to any MCP-compatible AI coding agent.

context-router mcp

Available MCP tools:

Tool	What it does
build_index	Full re-index of the repository
update_index	Incremental re-index for changed files
get_context_pack	Ranked pack for review / implement / debug / handover
get_debug_pack	Debug pack with optional error-file (pytest/JUnit XML) parsing
explain_selection	Why each item was selected + token count stats
generate_handover	Handover pack combining changes + memory + decisions
search_memory	Full-text search of session observations
get_decisions	Search or list architectural decision records

---

MCP Setup Guide

Claude Code

Add to .mcp.json in your project root (or ~/.claude/mcp.json for global config):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "context-router": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "--directory", "/path/to/your/project", "context-router", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Then in Claude Code:

/mcp

You'll see context-router listed. Use it with:

Use context-router to get a context pack for reviewing my recent changes

Cursor

Add to .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "context-router": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "context-router", "mcp"],
      "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}"
    }
  }
}

Restart Cursor. The tools appear in the Cursor agent panel under MCP.

Windsurf

Add to .windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "context-router": {
      "command": "uv run context-router mcp",
      "transport": "stdio"
    }
  }
}

Using MCP Tools in Practice

Once connected, your agent can call tools directly:

# Get context for a code review (agent calls get_context_pack)
"Review the auth changes in my PR. Use context-router to find all affected code."

# Debug a failing test (agent calls get_debug_pack)
"My tests are failing with AttributeError. Use context-router to find the root cause."

# Handover documentation (agent calls generate_handover)
"Generate a handover document for what I worked on this sprint."

# Search past decisions (agent calls get_decisions)
"What architectural decisions were made about the database layer?"

Programmatic Use (Python SDK)

from core.orchestrator import Orchestrator

# Get a context pack
pack = Orchestrator(project_root="/path/to/repo").build_pack(
    mode="implement",
    query="add rate limiting to the API"
)

print(f"Selected {len(pack.selected_items)} items, {pack.total_tokens} tokens")
for item in pack.selected_items:
    print(f"  [{item.source_type}] {item.title} — {item.reason}")

# With semantic ranking (requires: pip install sentence-transformers)
from ranking.ranker import ContextRanker

ranker = ContextRanker(token_budget=8000, use_embeddings=True)

# Agent adapters
from adapters_claude import ClaudeAdapter
from adapters_copilot import CopilotAdapter

pack = Orchestrator().build_pack("review", "fix the auth bug")
print(ClaudeAdapter().generate(pack))    # System prompt preamble for Claude
print(CopilotAdapter().generate(pack))  # .github/copilot-instructions.md

---

Configuration

Edit .context-router/config.yaml:

# Maximum tokens for a generated context pack (default: 8000)
token_budget: 8000

# Repository name (used as the key in the SQLite DB)
repo_name: default

capabilities:
  # Enable LLM-powered summarization (requires API key — future feature)
  llm_summarization: false

# fnmatch patterns to exclude from indexing
ignore_patterns:
  - ".git"
  - "__pycache__"
  - "*.pyc"
  - "*.egg-info"
  - ".venv"
  - "node_modules"
  - "dist"
  - "build"

---

Architecture

context-router is a uv workspace of focused packages with strict import boundaries:

packages/
  contracts/            # Pydantic models + plugin protocols (no internal deps)
  storage-sqlite/       # SQLite DB, migrations, FTS5, repositories
  graph-index/          # File scanner, language dispatch, git diff, community detection
  ranking/              # Token estimator, ContextRanker, query/semantic boost
  core/                 # Orchestrator — wires storage + graph + ranking
  language-python/      # Python AST (tree-sitter): symbols, imports, calls
  language-typescript/  # TypeScript/JS AST (tree-sitter): symbols, imports, calls
  language-yaml/        # YAML: k8s resources, Helm charts, GitHub Actions
  language-java/        # Java (stub)
  language-dotnet/      # .NET/C# (stub)
  memory/               # Observation store + FTS
  runtime/              # Stack trace + JUnit/pytest XML parsers
  workspace/            # Multi-repo workspace support
  benchmark/            # 20-task benchmark harness
  adapters-claude/      # Claude system-prompt adapter
  adapters-copilot/     # GitHub Copilot instructions adapter
  adapters-codex/       # Codex task prompt adapter
apps/
  cli/                  # Typer CLI (all commands)
  mcp-server/           # MCP server entry point

Module boundary rules (enforced in CI):

• contracts has zero internal dependencies
• Only storage-sqlite touches SQLite
• Only core imports from storage-sqlite, graph-index, and ranking
• CLI and MCP server only import from core and benchmark

---

Development

# Install all packages + dev dependencies
uv sync --all-packages --extra dev

# Run all 403 tests
uv run pytest --tb=short -q

# Lint
uv run ruff check .

# Install git pre-push hook (runs tests before every push)
git config core.hooksPath .githooks

# Re-index after code changes
uv run context-router index

# Check release readiness
/release-check

---

Adding a Language Analyzer

Implement the LanguageAnalyzer protocol and register via entry points:

# my_package/analyzer.py
from pathlib import Path
from contracts.interfaces import Symbol, DependencyEdge

class RustAnalyzer:
    def analyze(self, path: Path) -> list[Symbol | DependencyEdge]:
        ...

# pyproject.toml
[project.entry-points."context_router.language_analyzers"]
rs = "my_package.analyzer:RustAnalyzer"

Install your package into the workspace and context-router index will pick it up automatically.

---

Benchmark Results

Measured on the context-router codebase itself (286 files, 1 765 symbols, 3 174 edges):

Mode	Avg tokens selected	vs naive (all symbols)	Avg latency
review	1 420	−73%	118 ms
implement	1 680	−68%	124 ms
debug	1 290	−75%	142 ms
handover	1 510	−71%	139 ms
overall	1 475	−64.7%	131 ms

See BENCHMARK_RESULTS.md for the full per-task breakdown.

---

Contributing

See .handover/ for architecture context, decision records, and open tasks.

• Architecture: .handover/context/architecture.md
• Decision log: .handover/context/decisions.md
• Task list: .handover/work/tasks.md
• Coding standards: .handover/standards/coding-standards.md

---

License

MIT — see LICENSE.