M5 — AST Code Knowledge Graph for AI Coding Agents

When AI agents work on your codebase, they spend most of their time (and your tokens) doing clumsy discovery: grepping files one by one, wandering through directory listings, and trying to reconstruct call hierarchies in their head.

M5 fixes that. It parses your codebase with Tree-sitter into an embedded, zero-overhead SQLite knowledge graph (.m5/local_graph.db). When your agent asks a question, M5 returns the exact code, upstream callers, downstream dependencies, and blast radius in one single call.

• 100% Local: No Docker, no heavy background daemons, no cloud dependency.
• Sub-50ms Incremental Sync: Watches your files and updates only what changed when you save.
• Zero-Friction MCP Integration: Works with Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code / Copilot, Gemini CLI, Antigravity, and Codex.
• Interactive Browser UI: Visualize your architecture and dependency chains at http://127.0.0.1:5555.

🚀 Quickstart

1. Install M5

Install globally using pip or pipx:

pip install m5-engine
# or with pipx:
pipx install m5-engine

2. Connect Your AI Agent

Run the interactive setup wizard to get clean, copy-pasteable MCP config snippets for your editor:

m5 setup

(Or specify your tool directly: m5 setup claude, m5 setup cursor, m5 setup vscode)

Paste the provided JSON block into your editor's MCP configuration. We don't silently rewrite your system files behind your back — you stay in full control.

3. Build Your Project Index

Navigate to any project repository and build the graph:

cd your-project
m5 build

This scans your workspace and indexes all AST symbols and call edges into .m5/local_graph.db in under a second.

4. Keep It Fresh While You Code

Start the background watcher:

m5 live

Whenever you or your AI agent edits a file, M5 catches the change and updates the graph in $<50\text{ms}$.

🔍 CLI Commands

🖥️ Visual Graph Browser (m5 view)

Want to see what your AI agent sees? Run:

m5 view

Opens a fast, dark-mode browser interface at http://127.0.0.1:5555:

• Search & Filter: Find any function, method, or class across your repo with instant fuzzy search.
• Live Code Inspection: Read exact symbol bodies with line numbers and AST metadata.
• Dependency Panels: See direct callers, outgoing calls, and affected files on the side.
• Zero External Server: Powered by Python's built-in HTTP server, so it starts instantly without npm or heavy node packages.

🤖 Agent Instructions (CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md / GEMINI.md)

To help subagents and command-line agents make the most of M5, paste this snippet into your project's CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, or GEMINI.md:

<!-- M5 CONTEXT ENGINE START -->
## M5 Code Context & AST Knowledge Graph
This project uses M5 for instant AST code intelligence and dependency navigation.
Instead of repeatedly reading entire files or running multiple grep commands:
- Run `m5 trace "<query>"` to retrieve relevant symbol definitions, call hierarchies, and blast radius in 1 step.
- Run `m5 peek <symbol>` to view the exact implementation and callers of any function or class.
- Run `m5 callers <symbol>` or `m5 callees <symbol>` to navigate the call graph.
- Run `m5 diff-tests` to see tests affected by modified files.
<!-- M5 CONTEXT ENGINE END -->

🌐 Supported Languages

M5 extracts full AST symbol trees and resolves cross-file call edges across:

• Web & Backend: Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, Go, Rust, Java, C++, C, C#, Ruby, PHP
• Mobile & Modern: Swift, Kotlin, Dart, Scala

📄 License

MIT License. Free and open source for developers and teams.