GitNexus/gitnexus
Gergő Magyar 152a0506c9
feat: shared resilient-fetch (retries + circuit breaker) (#1448)
* feat: shared resilient-fetch (retries + circuit breaker)

Add a small, runtime-agnostic resilience layer in gitnexus-shared and
migrate every backend HTTP outbound call (CLI, MCP, wiki LLM, web → backend)
through it.

Helpers (gitnexus-shared/src/integrations/):

- retry.ts            — withRetry(fn, opts) with caller-supplied
                        retryability classification and full-jitter
                        exponential backoff.
- circuit-breaker.ts  — closed/open/half-open per-process breaker with
                        injectable clock, plus a keyed registry so
                        callers targeting the same endpoint share state.
- resilient-fetch.ts  — composed wrapper: retries 5xx + 429 + retryable
                        network throws, treats AbortSignal.timeout()
                        and 4xx (other than 429) as terminal, honors
                        Retry-After (capped at 30s), throws
                        CircuitOpenError when the breaker opens.

Migrations (no behaviour regression — all existing tests pass):

- gitnexus/src/core/embeddings/http-client.ts (covers analyze + MCP
  query path) — replaces inline linear-backoff retry.
- gitnexus/src/core/wiki/llm-client.ts — preserves Azure content-filter
  branch; resilientFetch handles 5xx/429.
- gitnexus-web/src/services/backend-client.ts (fetchWithTimeout helper)
  — small retry budget (2 attempts, 250–1500 ms) so a dead local
  backend still fails fast for the user.
- gitnexus-web/src/core/llm/settings-service.ts (OpenRouter model list).

Deliberately not migrated:

- gitnexus-web/src/services/backend-client.ts streamJob() — Server-Sent
  Events stream; the existing reconnect-with-Last-Event-ID logic is
  not unary-fetch shaped.
- gitnexus-web/src/components/SettingsPanel.tsx checkOllamaStatus() —
  one-shot health probe; retrying delays the "Ollama not running"
  error rather than improving UX.

41 new helper tests cover backoff math, breaker state transitions,
Retry-After parsing (delta-seconds + HTTP-date), 401/422 terminal
classification, and breaker fail-fast on three exhausted retry batches.

* fix(review): apply autofix feedback

Address Claude's two MEDIUM blocking findings on PR #1448 plus the
CodeQL SSRF false-positive flag.

- backend-client `fetchWithTimeout` now uses `AbortSignal.timeout()`
  merged with the caller's signal via `AbortSignal.any()`. Timer-fired
  aborts surface as `DOMException(name='TimeoutError')` so
  resilientFetch routes them through the terminal-network branch
  (no retry, no breaker hit), instead of incrementing the breaker
  for user-side network slowness.
- Method-aware retry budget in `fetchWithTimeout`: idempotent verbs
  (GET/HEAD/OPTIONS) keep the 2-attempt budget; POST/PATCH/PUT/DELETE
  default to single-attempt so a 5xx on `startAnalyze` cannot start
  a duplicate job. New `forceRetry` parameter for callers that
  know-idempotent mutations (e.g. DELETE of a known-deleted resource).
- `resilient-fetch.ts` carries a documented suppression for CodeQL
  js/server-side-request-forgery on the inner fetch call. Every
  concrete caller passes a hardcoded URL constant or a value from
  configuration (env vars, saved settings); user request input never
  flows into the URL parameter.
- New test file `backend-client-retry.test.ts` covers all three
  paths: GET retries on 503, POST does not retry, timeout does not
  increment the breaker.

* fix(resilient-fetch): address Codex adversarial findings

Closes the three blocking issues from Codex's review on PR #1448.

U1 — Add `recordNeutral()` to CircuitBreaker.
  Third outcome path that's an explicit no-op for state and the
  consecutive-failure counter. Distinct from `recordSuccess` (closes
  the breaker) and `recordFailure` (may open it). Used for outcomes
  that are neither evidence of backend health nor evidence of
  backend failure.

U2 — Route terminal-client / terminal-network through `recordNeutral`.
  Previously a 401 or local timeout called `recordSuccess`, which
  reset `consecutiveFailures` to 0. A 5xx → 401 → 5xx → 401 → 5xx
  sequence would NEVER trip the breaker because each 4xx in between
  erased the running count. Also classify external `AbortError` as
  terminal-network (was retryable-network), so caller-driven
  cancellation no longer retries against an already-aborted signal
  or counts toward breaker failures on exhaustion.

U3 — Per-origin breaker key in web `fetchWithTimeout`.
  Was hardcoded to `'web-backend'` even though `_backendUrl` is
  mutable via `setBackendUrl`. Switching backend URLs after a
  circuit tripped on host-A would strand the user during the full
  cooldown. Key is now `web-backend:<origin>`, so each backend URL
  gets its own breaker state.

Tests: +5 recordNeutral, +4 resilient-fetch (interleaved 4xx/5xx,
external AbortError, prior-state preservation), +1 web switch-backend
regression. All 70 gitnexus integration tests + 15 web tests green.

* fix(resilient-fetch): tolerate header-less fetch mocks on 429

`classifyOutcome` called `resp.headers.get('Retry-After')` directly,
which crashed when a test stubs `fetch` with a plain object like
`{ ok: false, status: 429 }` (no `headers` field). Real `Response`
always has Headers, so this surfaces only in test setups, but the
helper has no business assuming caller-side correctness on this — the
defensive guard is cheap and a missing `Retry-After` falls through to
exponential-backoff retry like any 429 without the header.

Surfaced by `gitnexus/test/unit/http-embedder.test.ts > retries on
rate limit`, which the embeddings migration exercises against a
plain-object 429 stub. Locked in with a new
`classifies 429 from a header-less fetch mock without throwing` case.

* fix(review): apply autofix feedback

Closes findings from the third multi-agent review pass on PR #1448.

#1 (P1) callLLM had no per-attempt timeout
  Wiki LLM calls passed no `signal` to resilientFetch; each of three
  retry attempts could hang indefinitely on a frozen TCP connection.
  Add `signal: AbortSignal.timeout(60_000)` so the per-attempt budget
  matches what http-client.ts and backend-client.ts already provide.

#2 (P2) drop dead `lastRetryableResp` post-loop fallback
  Variable was set in one switch arm but only read in unreachable code
  after the loop. The retry loop always returns/throws on every
  iteration. Keep only the defensive `throw` so TypeScript's
  control-flow analysis still sees `Promise<Response>` as the return.

#5 (P2) gate test-only exports behind a subpath
  `__resetBreakerRegistry__` and `classifyOutcome` were reachable from
  the main `gitnexus-shared` barrel — production code calling
  `__resetBreakerRegistry__` from a tool implementation would silently
  nuke every circuit breaker process-wide. Move to a new
  `gitnexus-shared/test-helpers` subpath export. Production callers
  see the cleaner public API; tests import via the explicit
  `gitnexus-shared/test-helpers` path.

#6 (P2) exhaustiveness guard on Outcome switch
  Add a `default: const _: never = outcome` arm so a future sixth
  `Outcome.kind` won't compile silently — it'll surface at the switch
  site rather than fall through to a retry/no-retry default.

#9 (P3) document cumulative wall-clock budget
  Add a "Cumulative wall-clock budget" paragraph to resilientFetch's
  JSDoc explaining the worst-case total wait (`maxAttempts × (per-attempt
  timeout + capDelayMs)` ≈ 60s with defaults) and pointing callers at
  outer `AbortSignal.timeout()` when they want a tighter bound.

Deferred to follow-up PRs (per review's Auto-resolve recommendation):
  - #3 idempotency knob to shared API (forceRetry into ResilientFetchOptions)
  - #4 publish.ts migration to resilientFetch
  - #7 parseRetryAfter past-HTTP-date / negative-seconds asymmetry
  - #8 recordNeutral counter time-decay (documented breaker semantic)

* fix(circuit-breaker): gate half-open to a single in-flight probe

Closes the Codex adversarial-review finding on PR #1448 that flagged a
recovery-time thundering herd: when cooldown expired, every concurrent
caller transitioned the breaker to half-open and probed the still-
recovering dependency in lockstep, defeating the breaker's "fail fast"
promise.

U1 — probe-permit gate in CircuitBreaker.check()
  Added a `probeInFlight: boolean` field. After cooldown expires, the
  first `check()` admits the probe and consumes the permit; subsequent
  callers throw `CircuitOpenError` with a configurable
  `halfOpenRetryAfterMs` (default 1000ms) until the probe resolves.

  Critical design point: `recordNeutral` now RELEASES the permit but
  does NOT transition state. Without that split, a single `TimeoutError`
  from per-attempt `AbortSignal.timeout` (which routes through neutral
  classification) would permanently park the breaker in half-open. By
  separating permit-release from state-resolution, we keep the
  "neutral doesn't claim health" semantic without creating that wedge.

  Other changes:
  - `halfOpenRetryAfterMs` is now a constructor option for consumers
    with long-running protected ops (LLM streaming, large uploads).
  - `getState()` is documented as a pure read; the implicit
    Open -> Half-Open transition lives in `check()` only, so tests
    that inspect state never inadvertently consume a probe permit.
  - `isProbeInFlight()` test-only accessor for assertion clarity.
  - JSDoc on `check()` records the JS event-loop atomicity dependency
    and the load-bearing `try/finally` pairing invariant.

U2 — End-to-end concurrency regression through resilientFetch
  Three new scenarios in resilient-fetch.test.ts (26 -> 29):
  - 3 concurrent calls + probe gets 200 -> 1 hits fetch, 2 throw
    CircuitOpenError, breaker closes.
  - 3 concurrent calls + probe gets 503 -> ResilientFetchExhaustedError
    on probe; concurrent callers see halfOpenRetryAfterMs (1000ms);
    fresh caller after probe resolves sees the FULL new cooldown
    (10000ms), not the probe-in-flight default.
  - Probe cancelled mid-flight via AbortError -> permit released,
    state stays half-open, next caller becomes the new probe and
    succeeds.

Plus 9 new circuit-breaker unit tests (16 -> 25) covering the permit
gate, recordNeutral-releases-permit semantic, fresh-cooldown distinction,
default vs configurable halfOpenRetryAfterMs, getState() purity, and
the three-probes-via-neutrals chain.

Total integration test count: 70 -> 82. All 106 gitnexus + 15 web
tests pass; both packages typecheck.

Maintainer decisions (deferred per plan 003 Open Questions):
  - Plan 002's deferral judgement was reversed on Codex's argument
    without new measurement / incident data. The reversal is defensible
    on principle (Hystrix / Resilience4j alignment) but lacks workload-
    driven evidence.
  - Probe-blocked callers throw silently (no log / event hook). R4's
    "no new public API" prevents adding observability; loosen if a
    debug log on probe-blocked is wanted.

* refactor(embeddings): replace bespoke HF breaker with shared CircuitBreaker

Deleted the local `HfDownloadCircuitBreaker` class and the manual
retry loop in `withHfDownloadRetry`. Both are now backed by the
shared `gitnexus-shared` primitives:

- `hfDownloadCircuit` is `new CircuitBreaker({ failureThreshold,
  cooldownMs, key: 'hf-download' })` — same state machine as before
  PLUS the single-permit half-open gate that prevents recovery-time
  stampedes when CLI + MCP embedders concurrently re-load the model.
- `withHfDownloadRetry` delegates the loop to `withRetry` from the
  shared package. Per-attempt timeout (`withDownloadTimeout`),
  network-vs-non-network classification, circuit recording, and the
  `onRetry` callback wire through `withRetry`'s `isRetryable`
  callback.

Behaviour preserved:
- Pre-flight `CIRCUIT_OPEN_TAG` rejection when the breaker is open.
- Mid-loop `CIRCUIT_OPEN_TAG` "opened after N consecutive failures"
  when a network error trips the threshold.
- Non-network errors (e.g. CUDA unavailable) bypass retry and go
  through `recordNeutral` instead of resetting the breaker's
  failure-count progress.
- `onRetry(attempt+1, max, err)` fires only when there's a next
  attempt, matching the prior semantic.

Generic CircuitBreaker gained two inspection accessors:
- `getOpenedAt(): number | null`
- `getCooldownMs(): number`
Used by `withHfDownloadRetry` to compute `secsUntilReset` without
consuming a probe permit (which `check()` would do).

Test consolidation: the 7 bespoke `HfDownloadCircuitBreaker`
state-machine tests in hf-env.test.ts were 1:1 duplicates of
existing tests in `circuit-breaker.test.ts` and were deleted.
Remaining 42 hf-env tests all pass; full integration sweep (148
gitnexus + 15 web) green.
2026-05-09 15:18:09 +01:00
..
.claude feat: configure prettier with pre-commit hook (#563) 2026-03-28 14:58:04 +00:00
hooks/claude fix(hook): resolve canonical repo root + guard read-only FTS ensure (#1226) 2026-04-30 18:12:03 +01:00
scripts fix(mcp): close MCP server timeout — stdout discipline + cold-start friction (#1383) 2026-05-07 09:14:33 +01:00
shadow-parity-dashboard feat(ingestion): shadow-mode parity harness + static dashboard (#923, RFC #909 Ring 2 PKG) (#972) 2026-04-18 21:30:43 +01:00
skills docs: clarify PostToolUse hook is notification-only, not auto-reindex (#1070) 2026-04-26 06:06:15 +01:00
src feat: shared resilient-fetch (retries + circuit breaker) (#1448) 2026-05-09 15:18:09 +01:00
test feat: shared resilient-fetch (retries + circuit breaker) (#1448) 2026-05-09 15:18:09 +01:00
vendor fix(swift): use official prebuilt parser runtime (#1130) 2026-04-28 09:57:42 +01:00
.env.example feat: add .env.example, empty batch guard, dimension mismatch warning 2026-03-20 20:15:59 -04:00
.npmignore fix: add preinstall cleanup to prevent ENOTEMPTY on global upgrade (#843) 2026-04-15 14:10:49 +01:00
CHANGELOG.md chore: release v1.6.3 (#1064) 2026-04-24 16:33:59 +01:00
Dockerfile.test fix(swift): use official prebuilt parser runtime (#1130) 2026-04-28 09:57:42 +01:00
package-lock.json chore(deps)(deps-dev): bump @types/node in /gitnexus (#1436) 2026-05-09 07:30:05 +01:00
package.json feat(core): adopt pino structured logger (#1336) 2026-05-07 20:56:25 +01:00
README.md fix(lbug): prevent DuckDB extension install hangs (#1129) 2026-04-27 23:09:17 +01:00
tsconfig.json feat: configure prettier with pre-commit hook (#563) 2026-03-28 14:58:04 +00:00
tsconfig.test.json test: add test suite with vitest (unit + integration + fixtures) 2026-03-01 20:07:02 +05:30
vitest.config.ts fix(lbug): robust Windows lock acquisition for CI integration tests (#1430) 2026-05-08 11:58:01 +01:00

GitNexus

Graph-powered code intelligence for AI agents. Index any codebase into a knowledge graph, then query it via MCP or CLI.

Works with Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode, and any MCP-compatible tool.

npm version License: PolyForm Noncommercial


Why?

AI coding tools don't understand your codebase structure. They edit a function without knowing 47 other functions depend on it. GitNexus fixes this by precomputing every dependency, call chain, and relationship into a queryable graph.

Three commands to give your AI agent full codebase awareness.

Quick Start

# Index your repo (run from repo root)
npx gitnexus analyze

That's it. This indexes the codebase, installs agent skills, registers Claude Code hooks, and creates AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md context files — all in one command.

To configure MCP for your editor, run npx gitnexus setup once — or set it up manually below.

gitnexus setup auto-detects your editors and writes the correct global MCP config. You only need to run it once.

Editor Support

Editor MCP Skills Hooks (auto-augment) Support
Claude Code Yes Yes Yes (PreToolUse) Full
Cursor Yes Yes — MCP + Skills
Codex Yes Yes — MCP + Skills
Windsurf Yes — — MCP
OpenCode Yes Yes — MCP + Skills

Claude Code gets the deepest integration: MCP tools + agent skills + PreToolUse hooks that automatically enrich grep/glob/bash calls with knowledge graph context.

Community Integrations

Agent Install Source
pi pi install npm:pi-gitnexus pi-gitnexus

MCP Setup (manual)

If you prefer to configure manually instead of using gitnexus setup:

Claude Code (full support — MCP + skills + hooks)

# macOS / Linux
claude mcp add gitnexus -- npx -y gitnexus@latest mcp

# Windows
claude mcp add gitnexus -- cmd /c npx -y gitnexus@latest mcp

Codex (full support — MCP + skills)

codex mcp add gitnexus -- npx -y gitnexus@latest mcp

Cursor / Windsurf

Add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (global — works for all projects):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "gitnexus": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "gitnexus@latest", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

OpenCode

Add to ~/.config/opencode/config.json:

{
  "mcp": {
    "gitnexus": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "gitnexus@latest", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

How It Works

GitNexus builds a complete knowledge graph of your codebase through a multi-phase indexing pipeline:

  1. Structure — Walks the file tree and maps folder/file relationships
  2. Parsing — Extracts functions, classes, methods, and interfaces using Tree-sitter ASTs
  3. Resolution — Resolves imports and function calls across files with language-aware logic
    • Field & Property Type Resolution — Tracks field types across classes and interfaces for deep chain resolution (e.g., user.address.city.getName())
    • Return-Type-Aware Variable Binding — Infers variable types from function return types, enabling accurate call-result binding
  4. Clustering — Groups related symbols into functional communities
  5. Processes — Traces execution flows from entry points through call chains
  6. Search — Builds hybrid search indexes for fast retrieval

The result is a LadybugDB graph database stored locally in .gitnexus/ with full-text search and semantic embeddings.

MCP Tools

Your AI agent gets these tools automatically:

Tool What It Does repo Param
list_repos Discover all indexed repositories —
query Process-grouped hybrid search (BM25 + semantic + RRF) Optional
context 360-degree symbol view — categorized refs, process participation Optional
impact Blast radius analysis with depth grouping and confidence Optional
detect_changes Git-diff impact — maps changed lines to affected processes Optional
rename Multi-file coordinated rename with graph + text search Optional
cypher Raw Cypher graph queries Optional

With one indexed repo, the repo param is optional. With multiple, specify which: query({query: "auth", repo: "my-app"}).

MCP Resources

Resource Purpose
gitnexus://repos List all indexed repositories (read first)
gitnexus://repo/{name}/context Codebase stats, staleness check, and available tools
gitnexus://repo/{name}/clusters All functional clusters with cohesion scores
gitnexus://repo/{name}/cluster/{name} Cluster members and details
gitnexus://repo/{name}/processes All execution flows
gitnexus://repo/{name}/process/{name} Full process trace with steps
gitnexus://repo/{name}/schema Graph schema for Cypher queries

MCP Prompts

Prompt What It Does
detect_impact Pre-commit change analysis — scope, affected processes, risk level
generate_map Architecture documentation from the knowledge graph with mermaid diagrams

CLI Commands

gitnexus setup                   # Configure MCP for your editors (one-time)
gitnexus analyze [path]          # Index a repository (or update stale index)
gitnexus analyze --force         # Force full re-index
gitnexus analyze --embeddings    # Enable embedding generation (slower, better search)
gitnexus analyze --skip-agents-md  # Preserve custom AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md gitnexus section edits
gitnexus analyze --verbose       # Log skipped files when parsers are unavailable
gitnexus analyze --max-file-size 1024  # Skip files larger than N KB (default: 512, cap: 32768)
gitnexus analyze --worker-timeout 60  # Increase worker idle timeout for slow parses
gitnexus mcp                     # Start MCP server (stdio) — serves all indexed repos
gitnexus serve                   # Start local HTTP server (multi-repo) for web UI
gitnexus index                   # Register an existing .gitnexus/ folder into the global registry
gitnexus list                    # List all indexed repositories
gitnexus status                  # Show index status for current repo
gitnexus clean                   # Delete index for current repo
gitnexus clean --all --force     # Delete all indexes
gitnexus wiki [path]             # Generate LLM-powered docs from knowledge graph
gitnexus wiki --model <model>    # Wiki with custom LLM model (default: gpt-4o-mini)

# Repository groups (multi-repo / monorepo service tracking)
gitnexus group create <name>                                   # Create a repository group
gitnexus group add <group> <groupPath> <registryName>          # Add a repo to a group. <groupPath> is a hierarchy path (e.g. hr/hiring/backend); <registryName> is the repo's name from the registry (see `gitnexus list`)
gitnexus group remove <group> <groupPath>                      # Remove a repo from a group by its hierarchy path
gitnexus group list [name]                                     # List groups, or show one group's config
gitnexus group sync <name>                                     # Extract contracts and match across repos/services
gitnexus group contracts <name>  # Inspect extracted contracts and cross-links
gitnexus group query <name> <q>  # Search execution flows across all repos in a group
gitnexus group status <name>     # Check staleness of repos in a group

Remote Embeddings

Set these env vars to use a remote OpenAI-compatible /v1/embeddings endpoint instead of the local model:

export GITNEXUS_EMBEDDING_URL=http://your-server:8080/v1
export GITNEXUS_EMBEDDING_MODEL=BAAI/bge-large-en-v1.5
export GITNEXUS_EMBEDDING_DIMS=1024          # optional, default 384
export GITNEXUS_EMBEDDING_API_KEY=your-key   # optional, default: "unused"
gitnexus analyze . --embeddings

Works with Infinity, vLLM, TEI, llama.cpp, Ollama, LM Studio, or OpenAI. When unset, local embeddings are used unchanged.

Multi-Repo Support

GitNexus supports indexing multiple repositories. Each gitnexus analyze registers the repo in a global registry (~/.gitnexus/registry.json). The MCP server serves all indexed repos automatically.

Supported Languages

TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Java, C, C++, C#, Go, Rust, PHP, Kotlin, Swift, Ruby

Language Feature Matrix

Language Imports Named Bindings Exports Heritage Type Annotations Constructor Inference Config Frameworks Entry Points
TypeScript ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
JavaScript ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ — ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Python ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Java ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ — ✓ ✓
Kotlin ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ — ✓ ✓
C# ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Go ✓ — ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Rust ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ — ✓ ✓
PHP ✓ ✓ ✓ — ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Ruby ✓ — ✓ ✓ — ✓ — ✓ ✓
Swift — — ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
C — — ✓ — ✓ ✓ — ✓ ✓
C++ — — ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ — ✓ ✓

Imports — cross-file import resolution · Named Bindings — import { X as Y } / re-export tracking · Exports — public/exported symbol detection · Heritage — class inheritance, interfaces, mixins · Type Annotations — explicit type extraction for receiver resolution · Constructor Inference — infer receiver type from constructor calls (self/this resolution included for all languages) · Config — language toolchain config parsing (tsconfig, go.mod, etc.) · Frameworks — AST-based framework pattern detection · Entry Points — entry point scoring heuristics

Agent Skills

GitNexus ships with skill files that teach AI agents how to use the tools effectively:

  • Exploring — Navigate unfamiliar code using the knowledge graph
  • Debugging — Trace bugs through call chains
  • Impact Analysis — Analyze blast radius before changes
  • Refactoring — Plan safe refactors using dependency mapping

Installed automatically by both gitnexus analyze (per-repo) and gitnexus setup (global).

Requirements

  • Node.js >= 18
  • Git repository (uses git for commit tracking)

Release candidates

Stable releases publish to the default latest dist-tag. When a pull request with non-documentation changes merges into main, an automated workflow also publishes a prerelease build under the rc dist-tag, so early adopters can try in-flight fixes without waiting for the next stable cut. (Docs-only merges are skipped.)

# Try the latest release candidate (pre-stable — may change at any time)
npm install -g gitnexus@rc
# — or —
npx gitnexus@rc analyze

Release-candidate versions follow the standard semver prerelease format X.Y.Z-rc.N, where X.Y.Z is the next stable target (bumped from the current latest by patch by default; minor or major when kicking off a bigger cycle) and N increments per published rc. Example sequence: 1.6.2-rc.1, 1.6.2-rc.2, …, then once 1.6.2 ships stable, 1.6.3-rc.1. See the Releases page for the full list; stable latest is unaffected.

Troubleshooting

Cannot destructure property 'package' of 'node.target' as it is null

This crash was caused by a dependency URL format that is incompatible with certain npm/arborist versions (npm/cli#8126). It is fixed in gitnexus v1.6.2+. Upgrade to the latest version:

npx gitnexus@latest analyze          # always uses the newest release
# — or —
npm install -g gitnexus@latest       # upgrade a global install

If you still hit npm install issues after upgrading, these generic workarounds may help:

npm install -g npm@latest            # update npm itself
npm cache clean --force              # clear a possibly corrupt cache

Installation fails with native module errors

Some optional language grammars (Dart, Kotlin, Swift) require native compilation. If they fail, GitNexus still works — those languages will be skipped.

If npm install -g gitnexus fails on native modules:

# Ensure build tools are available (Linux/macOS)
# Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install python3 make g++
# macOS: xcode-select --install

# Retry installation
npm install -g gitnexus

Analyze warns about unavailable FTS or VECTOR extensions

GitNexus uses optional DuckDB extensions for BM25 and vector search. The gitnexus serve and MCP read paths only ever try to LOAD the extensions — they never block on a network install. The analyze command, by default, attempts one bounded out-of-process INSTALL if LOAD fails and proceeds even when that install times out, so the index is always written to disk; BM25/vector search degrade gracefully until the extensions become available.

Configure the behavior with two environment variables:

Variable Values Default Effect
GITNEXUS_LBUG_EXTENSION_INSTALL auto, load-only, never auto auto runs one bounded INSTALL if LOAD fails. load-only only uses already-installed extensions (recommended for offline / firewalled environments). never skips optional extensions entirely.
GITNEXUS_LBUG_EXTENSION_INSTALL_TIMEOUT_MS positive integer 15000 Wall-clock budget for the out-of-process INSTALL child before it is killed.
# Offline/airgapped: never reach the network for extensions
GITNEXUS_LBUG_EXTENSION_INSTALL=load-only npx gitnexus analyze

# Slow network: give extension downloads more time
GITNEXUS_LBUG_EXTENSION_INSTALL_TIMEOUT_MS=30000 npx gitnexus analyze

Analysis runs out of memory

For very large repositories:

# Increase Node.js heap size
NODE_OPTIONS="--max-old-space-size=16384" npx gitnexus analyze

# Exclude large directories
echo "vendor/" >> .gitnexusignore
echo "dist/" >> .gitnexusignore

Large files are being skipped

By default the walker skips files larger than 512 KB (see log line Skipped N large files (>512KB)). Raise the threshold via either the CLI flag or the environment variable — both accept a value in KB:

# CLI flag (takes precedence over the env var)
npx gitnexus analyze --max-file-size 2048     # skip only files > 2 MB

# Environment variable (persists across commands)
export GITNEXUS_MAX_FILE_SIZE=2048
npx gitnexus analyze

Values above 32768 KB (32 MB) are clamped to the tree-sitter parser ceiling; invalid values fall back to the 512 KB default with a one-time warning. When an override is active, analyze prints the effective threshold in its startup banner (e.g. GITNEXUS_MAX_FILE_SIZE: effective threshold 2048KB (default 512KB)).

Analyze reports a worker timeout

Worker parse timeouts are recoverable. GitNexus retries stalled worker jobs with backoff, splits large jobs to isolate slow files, and falls back to the sequential parser when needed. If a large repository needs more time per worker job, use either:

# CLI flag, in seconds
npx gitnexus analyze --worker-timeout 60

# Environment variable, in milliseconds
export GITNEXUS_WORKER_SUB_BATCH_TIMEOUT_MS=60000
npx gitnexus analyze

For repositories with very large source files, GITNEXUS_WORKER_SUB_BATCH_MAX_BYTES controls the worker job byte budget. The default is 8388608 bytes (8 MB).

Privacy

  • All processing happens locally on your machine
  • No code is sent to any server
  • Index stored in .gitnexus/ inside your repo (gitignored)
  • Global registry at ~/.gitnexus/ stores only paths and metadata

Web UI

GitNexus also has a browser-based UI at gitnexus.vercel.app — 100% client-side, your code never leaves the browser.

Local Backend Mode: Run gitnexus serve and open the web UI locally — it auto-detects the server and shows all your indexed repos, with full AI chat support. No need to re-upload or re-index. The agent's tools (Cypher queries, search, code navigation) route through the backend HTTP API automatically.

License

PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0

Free for non-commercial use. Contact for commercial licensing.