symtext 0.1.0

Lightweight code graph indexer with incremental file watching and MCP server

symtext

A code-graph indexer for LLM agents. Parses your project with tree-sitter, stores the structure (functions, classes, calls, imports, inheritance) in a local graph database, and serves it to your LLM client over MCP. Supports 24 languages and incremental updates via file-watching.

Quick start

Install uv if you don't have it:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Add symtext to your MCP client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "symtext": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["symtext", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Where the snippet goes:

• Claude Code — ~/.claude.json (user-wide), or <project>/.mcp.json (committed, project-wide). One-liner equivalent: claude mcp add symtext -- uvx symtext mcp.
• Claude Desktop — ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows).
• Cursor / Cline / Windsurf / VS Code — see docs/install.md.

Open your editor inside any project. First call indexes the repo (seconds for small repos, ~1 min for large); subsequent calls are instant. Everything lives under ~/.symtext/projects/<hash>/ — nothing is written into your project tree. Diagnostics: uvx symtext doctor.

Don't use uv? pipx and plain pip install symtext work too — see docs/install.md.

MCP tools

Tool	Purpose
shape	Codebase dimensions: node/edge counts, language breakdown, directory tree
summarize	Per-file summaries: function counts, class names, top functions by caller count
symbols	Full symbol listing for a file or directory
search_symbols	Fuzzy search by name or docstring content
get_callers	All functions that call a given function, with source context
get_callees	All functions that a given function calls
get_importers	All files that import a given module
get_dependencies	Outbound imports for a file — modules + line numbers
get_hierarchy	Class inheritance — ancestors, descendants, or both
path_between	Shortest call chain between two functions
unused_symbols	Functions with zero callers (dead-code finder, with entrypoint heuristics)
changed_symbols	Git-aware blast radius: symbols changed vs a ref + their callers
describe_symbol	Full profile: source, callers, callees, imports — one round-trip

The tools form a natural hierarchy: shape (counts) → summarize (per-file) → symbols (every symbol). Start broad, drill down.

Supported languages

24 languages: Bash, C/C++, C#, Dart, Elixir, Go, Haskell, HCL, Java, Kotlin, Lua, Objective-C, Perl, PHP, Protobuf, Python, R, Ruby, Rust, Scala, SQL, Swift, TypeScript/JavaScript, Zig.

Docs

• docs/install.md — install variants, MCP setup, troubleshooting
• docs/cli.md — CLI reference
• docs/configuration.md — settings, env vars, monorepo override
• docs/storage.md — ~/.symtext/ layout
• docs/security.md — threat model, disk-read clamp, Cypher hardening
• docs/architecture.md — module layout (full spec in SPEC.md)
• CHANGELOG.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, SECURITY.md

Credits

Built on tree-sitter, graphdblite, and watchfiles. Inspired by codegraphcontext.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.