graphscout 0.2.0

Cached, incremental code-graph maps so AI agents query code structure instead of reading whole files. CLI + MCP server, wires into Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, and Cursor. Auto-sync watch mode.

graphscout

Cached, incremental code-graph maps so AI agents query code structure instead of reading whole files.

Agents burn most of their tokens reading source files to answer structural questions — "where is this defined?", "who calls this?", "what does this file import?". graphscout answers those questions from a cached tree-sitter AST graph in milliseconds, so the agent reads only the exact line ranges it needs.

$ graphscout sym cli_fallback
CLIFallback  [class]  agent/cli_fallback.py:24-210
run_cascade  [function]  agent/cli_fallback.py:96-158

$ graphscout callers run_cascade
handle_turn  [function]  agent/loop.py:311-360
retry_turn   [function]  agent/loop.py:402-431

One build per repo; after that, every query auto-refreshes only the files that changed since the last call (mtime-based). No forced background process, no database, no API keys — a JSON cache under ~/.cache/graphscout. Want it always fresh with zero per-query overhead instead? Run graphscout watch — see Auto-sync.

Formerly published as codegraph-kit (repo codegraph) — renamed to avoid confusion with the unrelated, much larger colbymchenry/codegraph project. Same tool, same cache format ($CODEGRAPH_CACHE still works as a fallback env var).

Install

pip install graphscout          # CLI
pip install "graphscout[mcp]"   # CLI + MCP server
pip install "graphscout[watch]" # CLI + instant filesystem-event auto-sync

Python ≥ 3.10. Parsing is done by graphify (tree-sitter), which extracts real defs/calls/imports for Python, JavaScript, TypeScript/TSX, Java, Groovy, C, C++, Ruby, C#, Kotlin, Scala, PHP, Lua, and Swift, and walks 40+ other extensions (Go, Rust, Vue, Svelte, Astro, Dart, Elixir, Terraform, and more) for outline/import-level structure.

Commands

Command	What it answers
graphscout build [dir]	full graph build (run once per repo)
graphscout map [dir]	repo overview: size, per-directory breakdown, top hub symbols
graphscout file <path>	outline of one file: definitions + line ranges
graphscout sym <name>	where is this symbol defined?
graphscout callers <name>	who calls it?
graphscout callees <name>	what does it call?
graphscout deps <path>	what does this file import?
graphscout ensure [dir]	incremental refresh (queries do this automatically)
graphscout watch [dir]	block, keeping the graph in sync as files change
graphscout touch <path>	re-extract one file (for editor/agent hooks)
graphscout agent	print an instruction snippet for your agent's context file
graphscout install [agent...]	wire the MCP server into detected agents
graphscout uninstall [agent...]	remove it again
graphscout mcp	run as an MCP server (stdio)

Integrate with any agent

graphscout is plain CLI-over-stdout, so any agent that can run shell commands can use it — Claude Code, Codex CLI, Cursor, Aider, OpenHands, Goose, custom agents. Two steps:

1. Tell the agent the graph exists. Append the ready-made snippet to your agent's context file:

graphscout agent >> AGENTS.md      # or CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules, .github/copilot-instructions.md

2. (Optional) Keep the graph fresh on every edit. For Claude Code, install the bundled PostToolUse hook so each Edit/Write re-extracts just that file:

cp integrations/claude-code/graphscout-touch.sh ~/.claude/hooks/
chmod +x ~/.claude/hooks/graphscout-touch.sh
# then merge integrations/claude-code/settings-snippet.json into ~/.claude/settings.json

Even without a hook, queries stay correct: every query runs an mtime check first and re-extracts anything stale.

MCP, wired automatically

pip install "graphscout[mcp]"
graphscout install          # auto-detects and wires every agent found on PATH
graphscout install cursor   # or target specific agents: claude-code, codex, gemini, cursor
graphscout uninstall        # reverse it

install shells out to each agent's own mcp add command where one exists (Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI — verified against their real CLIs, not guessed), and edits ~/.cursor/mcp.json directly for Cursor, which has no such subcommand. It's idempotent — safe to re-run.

Tools exposed: build_graph, graph_map, file_outline, find_symbol, callers, callees, file_deps — same output as the CLI.

Auto-sync (optional)

graphscout watch          # blocks, keeps the graph in sync as you/your agent edit files

Uses watchdog for instant, low-CPU filesystem events when installed (pip install "graphscout[watch]"); falls back to a ~1.5s mtime poll otherwise. This is the always-fresh alternative to the per-edit touch hook above — run one or the other, not both. Skip both and every query still self-heals via its own mtime check; watch just removes that per-query overhead.

Why not just let the agent read files?

Reading a 1,500-line file to find one function costs ~15k tokens; graphscout file returns the outline in ~200 tokens, and the agent then reads only the 40-line range it needs. On large repos the difference compounds — structural questions (symbol lookup, call tracing, import mapping) stop costing file-reads entirely.

Honest limitations, printed in the output when they apply:

• Dynamic dispatch isn't captured — call edges come from static AST analysis; getattr-style calls need grep.
• Unsupported/exotic languages fall back to "read it directly".
• Caps: 5,000 files per repo, 1 MB per file (warned, not silent).

How it works

1. build walks the repo (skipping node_modules, venv, dist, …), runs tree-sitter extraction via graphify, normalizes all paths root-relative, and writes graph.json + an mtime index to ~/.cache/graphscout/<repo-hash>/.
2. Every query calls ensure first: files whose mtime changed are re-extracted and spliced into the graph; deleted files are dropped. Typical refresh is a handful of files, so queries stay fast. watch does the same refresh on a timer/event loop instead of per-query.
3. Output is deliberately plain text with file:line locations — clickable in most agent UIs and trivially parseable.

Set GRAPHSCOUT_CACHE to relocate the cache (useful in CI and sandboxes).

License

MIT