cortexcode 0.2.2

Lightweight code indexing for AI assistants — save 90%+ tokens with structured context

CortexCode

Lightweight code indexing for AI assistants
Save 90%+ tokens by giving AI agents structured context instead of raw source files.

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The Problem

AI coding assistants (Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.) need to understand your codebase. The current approach: dump entire source files into the context window. This is:

• Expensive — A 150-file project can cost 200K+ tokens per query
• Slow — More tokens = slower responses
• Wasteful — Most of those tokens are irrelevant to the question

The Solution

CortexCode indexes your codebase using AST parsing (tree-sitter) and provides a structured, searchable index. Instead of feeding 200K tokens of raw code, you feed ~500 tokens of relevant context.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Without CortexCode          With CortexCode    │
│                                                  │
│  200,000 tokens    →         500 tokens          │
│  $0.006/query      →         $0.00002/query      │
│  All files dumped  →         Only relevant syms  │
│  No structure      →         Call graph + types   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Run cortexcode stats on your project to see your actual savings.

Quick Start

# Install from PyPI
pip install cortexcode

# Or install from source
git clone https://github.com/cortexcode/cortexcode.git
cd cortexcode && pip install -e .

# Index your project
cd your-project
cortexcode index

# See token savings
cortexcode stats

# Get context for AI
cortexcode context "handleAuth"

# Generate interactive docs
cortexcode docs --open

Features

Multi-Language AST Indexing

Parses source code into structured symbols using tree-sitter grammars.

Language	Extensions	Frameworks Detected
Python	.py	FastAPI, Django
JavaScript	.js, .jsx	React, Express, Angular
TypeScript	.ts, .tsx	Next.js, NestJS, Angular
Go	.go	—
Rust	.rs	—
Java	.java	Spring Boot
C#	.cs	ASP.NET

What Gets Indexed

• Symbols — Functions, classes, methods with parameters and return types
• Call Graph — Which functions call which (and who calls them)
• Imports/Exports — Module dependencies
• API Routes — Express, FastAPI, NestJS, Spring Boot endpoints
• Entities — Database models and ORM definitions
• Framework Detection — React components, Angular services, etc.

Token Savings

CortexCode dramatically reduces the tokens needed to give AI assistants useful context:

$ cortexcode stats

╭──────── Token Savings Analysis ────────╮
│ Source files         154 files          │
│ Raw project tokens   203,847            │
│ Full index tokens    45,291             │
│ Context query tokens 487                │
│                                         │
│ Tokens saved         203,360            │
│ Savings              99.8%              │
│ Compression ratio    418.6x             │
╰─────────────────────────────────────────╯

Interactive HTML Documentation

Generate a full interactive documentation site with:

• File tree browser
• Symbol list with filtering
• D3.js call graph visualization (draggable nodes)
• Global search across all symbols
• Import/Export browser
• API route listing
• Framework detection summary

cortexcode docs --open

Incremental Indexing

Only re-index files that changed since last run:

cortexcode index -i    # Skip unchanged files

VS Code Extension

Install from: VS Code Marketplace

The bundled VS Code extension provides:

• Hover tooltips — Hover any symbol to see type, params, callers
• Go to definition — Ctrl+Click using indexed data
• Context panel — View symbol details in a side panel
• Status bar — Shows indexed symbol count

cd cortexcode-vscode
npm install && npm run compile
# Press F5 to launch in VS Code

Commands

Command	Description
cortexcode index [path]	Index a directory
cortexcode index -i	Incremental index (changed files only)
cortexcode context [query]	Get relevant context for AI
cortexcode context [query] --tokens	Show token savings for query
cortexcode search [query]	Grep-like symbol search with type/file filters
cortexcode find [query]	Semantic search by meaning ("auth handler")
cortexcode diff	Show changed symbols since last commit
cortexcode diff --ref HEAD~3	Compare against any git ref
cortexcode stats	Show project stats and token savings
cortexcode scan	Scan dependencies for security warnings
cortexcode docs --open	Generate and open interactive docs
cortexcode dead-code	Detect potentially unused symbols
cortexcode complexity	Analyze code complexity (cyclomatic, nesting, line count)
cortexcode complexity --min-score 50	Show only high-complexity functions
cortexcode impact <symbol>	Change impact analysis — what breaks if you modify a symbol
cortexcode dashboard	Launch live dashboard with auto-refresh on index changes
cortexcode workspace init	Initialize a multi-repo workspace
cortexcode workspace add <path>	Add a repo to the workspace
cortexcode workspace list	List repos in workspace
cortexcode workspace index	Index all workspace repos
cortexcode workspace search <q>	Search symbols across all repos
cortexcode watch	Auto-reindex on file changes
cortexcode mcp	Start MCP server for AI agent integration
cortexcode lsp	Start Language Server Protocol server

How AI Agents Use This

1. Context Command (simplest)

# Paste this output into your AI chat
cortexcode context "useAuth" --tokens

2. JSON Index (programmatic)

import json

index = json.load(open('.cortexcode/index.json'))

# Get all functions
for path, data in index['files'].items():
    for sym in data['symbols']:
        print(f"{sym['type']}: {sym['name']} in {path}:{sym['line']}")

# Trace call graph
for caller, callees in index['call_graph'].items():
    for callee in callees:
        print(f"{caller} -> {callee}")

3. MCP Server

AI agents can query the index directly via the Model Context Protocol:

# Start the MCP server (stdin/stdout)
cortexcode mcp

Configuration Examples:

// Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json)
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortexcode": {
      "command": "cortexcode",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

// Cursor / Windsurf
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortexcode": {
      "command": "cortexcode",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

// Open WebUI / AnythingLLM
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cortexcode": {
      "command": "cortexcode",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Available MCP tools:

• cortexcode_search — Search symbols by name
• cortexcode_context — Get rich context with callers/callees
• cortexcode_file_symbols — List all symbols in a file
• cortexcode_call_graph — Trace call graph for a symbol
• cortexcode_diff — Get changed symbols since last commit
• cortexcode_stats — Get project statistics
• cortexcode_deadcode — Find potentially unused symbols
• cortexcode_complexity — Find most complex functions
• cortexcode_impact — Analyze change impact of a symbol
• cortexcode_file_deps — Get file dependency graph

4. LSP Server

Any LSP-compatible editor can use CortexCode for hover, go-to-definition, and document symbols:

cortexcode lsp

5. Git Diff Context

See only what changed — perfect for code review:

# What symbols changed since last commit?
cortexcode diff

# Compare against a branch
cortexcode diff --ref main

6. Copilot Chat (@cortexcode)

In VS Code with the CortexCode extension, use @cortexcode in Copilot Chat:

@cortexcode search handleAuth
@cortexcode /context authentication
@cortexcode /impact createUser
@cortexcode /deadcode
@cortexcode /complexity

Commands:

• /search — Find symbols by name
• /context — Get ranked context for a query (relevance + call graph connectivity)
• /impact — Change impact analysis (direct/indirect callers, affected files/tests)
• /deadcode — List potentially unused symbols
• /complexity — Show most complex functions by params + outgoing calls

7. Semantic Search

Find symbols by meaning, not just name:

cortexcode find "authentication handler"
cortexcode find "database models"
cortexcode find "user login flow"

8. Code Analysis

# Find unused symbols
cortexcode dead-code

# Show top 10 most complex functions
cortexcode complexity --top 10

# What breaks if I change createUser?
cortexcode impact createUser

Index Format

The index is stored at .cortexcode/index.json:

{
  "project_root": "/path/to/project",
  "last_indexed": "2024-03-01T12:00:00",
  "languages": ["javascript", "typescript", "python"],
  "files": {
    "src/auth.ts": {
      "symbols": [
        {
          "name": "AuthService",
          "type": "class",
          "line": 10,
          "params": [],
          "calls": ["validateToken", "hashPassword"]
        }
      ],
      "imports": [{ "module": "bcrypt", "imported": ["hash", "compare"] }],
      "exports": [{ "name": "AuthService", "type": "class" }],
      "api_routes": [{ "method": "POST", "path": "/auth/login" }]
    }
  },
  "call_graph": {
    "AuthService": ["validateToken", "hashPassword"],
    "validateToken": ["jwt.verify"]
  }
}

Configuration

CortexCode respects .gitignore files (including nested ones) and has built-in ignore patterns for:

• node_modules/, __pycache__/, .git/
• Build directories (dist/, build/, .next/)
• IDE files (.idea/, .vscode/)
• Package manager files (vendor/, .venv/)

Roadmap

• MCP server for direct AI agent integration
• Tiktoken-based accurate token counting
• Semantic search over symbols (TF-IDF + synonym expansion)
• Cross-file type inference
• Git diff-aware context (show only changed symbols)
• Language server protocol (LSP) support
• Dependency vulnerability scanning
• CI/CD integration (GitHub Action)
• Multi-repo workspace support
• Custom plugin system for framework-specific extractors
• Web dashboard for index visualization
• Flutter/Dart language support (regex-based)
• React Native / Expo framework detection
• Native Android (Kotlin/Java) framework detection
• Native iOS (Swift/SwiftUI/UIKit) framework detection
• Django / Flask framework detection
• VS Code Marketplace publishing

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

# Development install
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
pytest

# Lint
ruff check cortexcode/

License

MIT — See LICENSE