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Colby McHenry
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codegraph_trace was absent from every steering intent map — all three guidance files routed "how does X reach Y" to context+explore, never to the trace tool. So agents used trace only by chance; when one didn't, it floundered reconstructing the path with search+callers (an 18-call run vs ~6 for trace-users). Add codegraph_trace to the intent map + a "flow" common chain (trace from->to FIRST = the whole path in one call, then ONE explore for bodies) across all three synced files (server-instructions, instructions-template, .cursor rule). Validated on excalidraw (hard "to the screen" Q, n=4 before/after): - call count 3-10 -> 3-4 (over-drill outlier gone) - duration 64-112s -> 51-74s - trace adoption 3/4 -> 4/4; search+callers path-reconstruction -> 0 - fully-clean runs (0 Read, 0 Grep) 0/4 -> 2/4; best 3 cg / 0 / 0 / 51s Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
40 lines
3.0 KiB
Plaintext
40 lines
3.0 KiB
Plaintext
---
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description: CodeGraph MCP usage guide — when to use which tool
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alwaysApply: true
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---
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<!-- CODEGRAPH_START -->
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## CodeGraph
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This project has a CodeGraph MCP server (`codegraph_*` tools) configured. CodeGraph is a tree-sitter-parsed knowledge graph of every symbol, edge, and file. Reads are sub-millisecond and return structural information grep cannot.
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### When to prefer codegraph over native search
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Use codegraph for **structural** questions — what calls what, what would break, where is X defined, what is X's signature. Use native grep/read only for **literal text** queries (string contents, comments, log messages) or after you already have a specific file open.
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| Question | Tool |
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|---|---|
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| "Where is X defined?" / "Find symbol named X" | `codegraph_search` |
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| "What calls function Y?" | `codegraph_callers` |
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| "What does Y call?" | `codegraph_callees` |
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| "How does X reach/become Y? / trace the flow from X to Y" | `codegraph_trace` (one call = the whole path, incl. callback/React/JSX dynamic hops) |
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| "What would break if I changed Z?" | `codegraph_impact` |
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| "Show me Y's signature / source / docstring" | `codegraph_node` |
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| "Give me focused context for a task/area" | `codegraph_context` |
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| "See several related symbols' source at once" | `codegraph_explore` |
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| "What files exist under path/" | `codegraph_files` |
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| "Is the index healthy?" | `codegraph_status` |
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### Rules of thumb
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- **Answer directly — don't delegate exploration.** For "how does X work" / architecture questions, answer with 2-3 codegraph calls: `codegraph_context` first, then ONE `codegraph_explore` for the source of the symbols it surfaces. For a specific **flow** ("how does X reach Y") start with `codegraph_trace` from→to — one call returns the whole path with dynamic hops bridged — then ONE `codegraph_explore` for the bodies; don't rebuild the path with `codegraph_search` + `codegraph_callers`. Codegraph IS the pre-built index, so spawning a separate file-reading sub-task/agent — or running a grep + read loop — repeats work codegraph already did and costs more for the same answer.
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- **Trust codegraph results.** They come from a full AST parse. Do NOT re-verify them with grep — that's slower, less accurate, and wastes context.
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- **Don't grep first** when looking up a symbol by name. `codegraph_search` is faster and returns kind + location + signature in one call.
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- **Don't chain `codegraph_search` + `codegraph_node`** when you just want context — `codegraph_context` is one call.
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- **Don't loop `codegraph_node` over many symbols** — one `codegraph_explore` call returns several symbols' source grouped in a single capped call, while each separate node/Read call re-reads the whole context and costs far more.
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- **Index lag**: the file watcher debounces ~500ms behind writes; don't re-query immediately after editing a file in the same turn.
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### If `.codegraph/` doesn't exist
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The MCP server returns "not initialized." Ask the user: *"I notice this project doesn't have CodeGraph initialized. Want me to run `codegraph init -i` to build the index?"*
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<!-- CODEGRAPH_END -->
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