scip-cli 1.3.0

Fast code intelligence via SCIP indexes

scip-cli

Fast code intelligence CLI for TypeScript/JavaScript and Python projects. Query SCIP indexes directly via SQLite for instant results.

Features

• Fast: Direct SQLite queries, eliminating skippable overhead
• Simple: Single binary with subcommands
• Auto-indexing: Automatically indexes projects on first query
• Token-efficient: Clean, minimal output optimized for AI consumption

For AI Agents

If you're an AI agent, run this to see the quick reference:

scip-cli skill

Or install it to your skills folder:

scip-cli skill ~/.claude/skills/scip-cli/SKILL.md

This enables commands like def, refs, search, symbols, rdeps, and members - just ask "where is X?" or "find references to X".

Installation

1. Install scip-cli

From PyPI:

pip install scip-cli

From source (local development):

git clone https://github.com/flesler/scip-cli.git
cd scip-cli
pip install .

For editable development (where pip install -e . fails due to permissions):

export PYTHONPATH=/path/to/scip-cli:$PYTHONPATH
python -m scip_cli --help

2. Install prerequisites (optional)

On first index, scip-cli runs language indexers and builds a SQLite cache. You can let it fetch tools on demand, or install them globally ahead of time so the first run does not download via npx:

Option A: Zero extra setup (recommended)

Install scip-cli and run it. On first index, scip-cli will:

• Download scip-typescript / scip-python via npx when not already on PATH
• Download the scip converter binary from GitHub releases into ~/.cache/scip-cli/bin/ when not already on PATH
• Walk the repo for tsconfig*.json project roots (TypeScript monorepos), run scip-typescript per project (parallel by default), convert each partial index, then merge into one index.db

No .scip-cli.json required for discovery. Subsequent queries read the cached database only.

Option B: Install indexers globally ahead of time

Same indexing steps as Option A; this only avoids npx download on the first run:

# TypeScript/JavaScript indexer (also handles plain JS via --infer-tsconfig)
npm install -g @sourcegraph/scip-typescript

# Python indexer
npm install -g @sourcegraph/scip-python

# SCIP CLI for index conversion (GitHub release — not on npm)
# https://github.com/scip-code/scip/releases  (v0.8.1+ recommended)

Verify installation:

scip-cli --help
scip-typescript --version  # Only if you chose Option B
scip --version             # Install from GitHub releases; v0.8.1+ recommended

Usage

All commands are subcommands of scip-cli:

scip-cli <command> [arguments]

Commands

• refs <symbol> - Find all references to a symbol (--path to scope)
• def <symbol> - Find symbol definition with source code (--path, --max-lines)
• search <pattern> - Search symbols by name pattern (--path)
• symbols <file> - List all symbols in a file (--path; bare filename OK)
• rdeps <file> - Find files that depend on a file (--path)
• members <symbol> - List members of a class/interface (--path)
• reindex - Force re-indexing of the current project (--path to limit scope; repeatable)
• skill [path] - Install or dump the SKILL.md

Examples

# Find where greet is used
scip-cli refs greet

# Get definition of greet
scip-cli def greet

# Search for symbols matching "Widget"
scip-cli search Widget

# Scope to a subdirectory
scip-cli def greet --path packages/api

# List symbols by bare filename
scip-cli symbols helper.ts

# Find files that import from a module
scip-cli rdeps src/helper.ts

# List members of a class
scip-cli members Widget

# Install skill file
scip-cli skill ~/.claude/skills/scip-cli/SKILL.md

Pipelines

Stdout is one record per line; stderr carries warnings and ambiguity notices. Kinds are lowercase (function, class, method, property, variable). Pipe-friendly flags: refs --paths-only, search --names-only / --paths-only, members --names-only. rdeps already prints bare file paths.

# What do importers of this file export?
scip-cli rdeps src/helper.ts | xargs -I{} scip-cli symbols {}

# Which files reference a symbol?
scip-cli refs greet --paths-only

# Classes matching a name → list their members
scip-cli search Handler --kind class --names-only | xargs -I{} scip-cli members {}

# Walk class members to their definitions
scip-cli members Widget --names-only | xargs -I{} scip-cli def Widget.{}

How It Works

1. On first query, automatically detects project language from package.json (TS/JS) or pyproject.toml/setup.py (Python)
2. For TypeScript monorepos, walks the repository for tsconfig*.json project roots (nested ancestors deduped; root included only when its include is broad)
3. Runs scip-typescript per project (in parallel when there are multiple projects; set SCIP_CLI_INDEX_WORKERS=1 to force serial), or scip-python for Python
4. Converts each SCIP output to SQLite with scip expt-convert, then merges partial databases when needed
5. Caches the result in ~/.cache/scip-cli/projects/<dirname>-<hash>/index.db (e.g. my-monorepo-1a3f7a)
6. Subsequent queries are SQLite lookups against that cache (not re-indexing)

Configuration

Optional .scip-cli.json in the project root:

{
  "maxHeapMb": 8192,
  "indexRoots": ["packages/core", "apps/worker"],
  "onlyIndexRoots": false
}

• maxHeapMb — Node heap for scip-typescript / scip-python (default 8192 MB when omitted). Overridden by SCIP_CLI_MAX_HEAP_MB. This is the V8 heap cap, not total RAM usage.
• indexRoots — extra TypeScript project directories to include on first index, merged with auto-discovered projects.
• onlyIndexRoots — skip auto-discovery and index only indexRoots (smaller initial index when you only care about part of a monorepo).

SCIP_CLI_INDEX_WORKERS controls parallel scip-typescript runs during first index (default: up to 8). Merge into one database is always serial.

Scoped indexing without editing .scip-cli.json:

scip-cli reindex --path entrypoints/server
scip-cli reindex --path packages/api --path packages/worker

--path limits which discovered tsconfig projects are indexed (prefix match, same idea as query --path). The scope is saved as index-scope.json next to index.db and reused until you run a full scip-cli reindex with no --path.

Run scip-cli reindex after changing scope, .scip-cli.json index settings, or when you want a fresh index.

This is separate from .scipquery.json, which belongs to scip-query and configures its analyzers, watch mode, and diff-gate — not read by scip-cli.

Performance

Inspired by scip-query, scip-cli is a lightweight Python reimplementation optimized for speed. Compared to the original bash wrapper scripts:

• refs: 6.4s → 0.03s (213x faster)
• def: 2.8s → 0.05s (56x faster)
• search: 2.6s → 0.03s (87x faster)
• symbols: 0.3s → 0.02s (15x faster)
• rdeps: 0.2s → 0.02s (10x faster)
• members: 3.1s → 0.03s (103x faster)

The speedup comes from direct SQLite queries instead of shell command chains, eliminating subprocess overhead.

Architecture

scip_cli/
├── __init__.py
├── __main__.py      # CLI entry point
├── cli_args.py      # Shared argparse helpers
├── config.py        # .scip-cli.json loader
├── discover.py      # TypeScript project discovery
├── merge.py         # SQLite index merging
├── scip_tool.py     # scip binary download
├── constants.py     # Shared constants
├── sql.py           # SQLite helpers
├── paths.py         # --path scope filtering
├── project.py       # Project root + language detection
├── cache.py         # Index cache paths
├── indexing.py      # SCIP index build + get_db
├── symbols.py       # Symbol parsing and kinds
├── queries.py       # Symbol/file SQL queries
├── source.py        # Filesystem source reads
├── output.py        # CLI formatting helpers
├── session.py       # setup() and single-match resolution
└── commands/        # Subcommand implementations

Development

pip install -e .
pytest tests/ -q
pytest tests/ -m integration -q   # indexes tests/fixtures/sample-project (needs scip-typescript)

Debug Logging

Set SCIP_CLI_DEBUG=1 to enable SQL query logging to stderr:

SCIP_CLI_DEBUG=1 scip-cli refs MyFunction
# Shows: SQL: SELECT ... | params: (...)

This is useful for testing and debugging SQL queries without exposing a --debug flag to users.

License

MIT