GitNexus/AGENTS.md

Last reviewed: 2026-04-23

Project: GitNexus · Environment: dev · Maintainer: repository maintainers (see GitHub)

Scope

Boundary	Rule
Reads	gitnexus/, gitnexus-web/, eval/, plugin packages, .github/, .gitnexus/, docs.
Writes	Only paths required for the change; keep diffs minimal. Update lockfiles when deps change.
Executes	npm, npx, node under gitnexus/ and gitnexus-web/; uv run for Python under eval/; documented CI/dev workflows.
Off-limits	Real .env / secrets, production credentials, unrelated repos, destructive git ops without confirmation.

Model Configuration

• Primary: Use a named model (e.g. Claude Sonnet 4.x). Avoid Auto or unversioned latest when reproducibility matters.
• Notes: The GitNexus CLI indexer does not call an LLM.

Execution Sequence (complex tasks)

For multi-step work, state up front:

1. Which rules in this file and GUARDRAILS.md apply (and any relevant Signs).
2. Current Scope boundaries.
3. Which validation commands you will run (cd gitnexus && npm test, npx tsc --noEmit).

On long threads, "Remember: apply all AGENTS.md rules" re-weights these instructions against context dilution.

Claude Code hooks

PreToolUse hooks can block tools (e.g. git_commit) until checks pass. Adapt to this repo: cd gitnexus && npm test before commit.

Context budget

Commands and gotchas live under Repo reference below and in CONTRIBUTING.md. If always-on rules grow, split into .cursor/rules/*.mdc (globs). Cursor: project-wide rules in .cursor/index.mdc. Claude Code: load STANDARDS.md only when needed.

Reference docs

• ARCHITECTURE.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, GUARDRAILS.md
• Call-resolution DAG (legacy path): See ARCHITECTURE.md § Call-Resolution DAG. Typed 6-stage DAG inside the parse phase; language-specific behavior behind inferImplicitReceiver / selectDispatch hooks on LanguageProvider. Shared code in gitnexus/src/core/ingestion/ must not name languages. Types: gitnexus/src/core/ingestion/call-types.ts.
• Scope-resolution pipeline (RFC #909 Ring 3): See ARCHITECTURE.md § Scope-Resolution Pipeline. Replaces the legacy DAG for languages in MIGRATED_LANGUAGES (see registry-primary-flag.ts). A language plugs in by implementing ScopeResolver (scope-resolution/contract/scope-resolver.ts) and registering it in SCOPE_RESOLVERS. CI parity gate runs BOTH paths per migrated language on every PR.
• Cursor: .cursor/index.mdc (always-on); .cursor/rules/*.mdc (glob-scoped). Legacy .cursorrules deprecated.
• GitNexus: skills in .claude/skills/gitnexus/; MCP rules in gitnexus:start block below.

Changelog

Date	Version	Change
2026-04-23	1.7.0	TypeScript added to MIGRATED_LANGUAGES (registry-primary call resolution by default).
2026-04-20	1.6.0	Added scope-resolution pipeline pointer (RFC #909 Ring 3); Python migrated to registry-primary.
2026-04-19	1.5.0	Cross-repo impact (#794): impact/query/context accept repo: "@<group>" + service. Removed group_query/group_contracts/group_status MCP tools; added gitnexus://group/{name}/contracts and gitnexus://group/{name}/status resources.
2026-04-16	1.4.0	Fixed: web UI description, pre-commit behavior, MCP tools (7->16), added gitnexus-shared, removed stale vite-plugin-wasm gotcha.
2026-04-13	1.3.0	Updated GitNexus index stats after DAG refactor.
2026-03-24	1.2.0	Fixed gitnexus:start block duplication.
2026-03-23	1.1.0	Updated agent instructions, references, Cursor layout.
2026-03-22	1.0.0	Initial structured header and changelog.

---

GitNexus — Code Intelligence

This project is indexed by GitNexus as gitnexus (18208 symbols, 25369 relationships, 300 execution flows). Use the GitNexus MCP tools to understand code, assess impact, and navigate safely.

If any GitNexus tool warns the index is stale, run npx gitnexus analyze in terminal first.

Always Do

• MUST run impact analysis before editing any symbol. Before modifying a function, class, or method, run gitnexus_impact({target: "symbolName", direction: "upstream"}) and report the blast radius (direct callers, affected processes, risk level) to the user.
• MUST run gitnexus_detect_changes() before committing to verify your changes only affect expected symbols and execution flows.
• MUST warn the user if impact analysis returns HIGH or CRITICAL risk before proceeding with edits.
• When exploring unfamiliar code, use gitnexus_query({query: "concept"}) to find execution flows instead of grepping. It returns process-grouped results ranked by relevance.
• When you need full context on a specific symbol — callers, callees, which execution flows it participates in — use gitnexus_context({name: "symbolName"}).

When Debugging

1. gitnexus_query({query: "<error or symptom>"}) — find execution flows related to the issue
2. gitnexus_context({name: "<suspect function>"}) — see all callers, callees, and process participation
3. READ gitnexus://repo/gitnexus/process/{processName} — trace the full execution flow step by step
4. For regressions: gitnexus_detect_changes({scope: "compare", base_ref: "main"}) — see what your branch changed

When Refactoring

• Renaming: MUST use gitnexus_rename({symbol_name: "old", new_name: "new", dry_run: true}) first. Review the preview — graph edits are safe, text_search edits need manual review. Then run with dry_run: false.
• Extracting/Splitting: MUST run gitnexus_context({name: "target"}) to see all incoming/outgoing refs, then gitnexus_impact({target: "target", direction: "upstream"}) to find all external callers before moving code.
• After any refactor: run gitnexus_detect_changes({scope: "all"}) to verify only expected files changed.

Never Do

• NEVER edit a function, class, or method without first running gitnexus_impact on it.
• NEVER ignore HIGH or CRITICAL risk warnings from impact analysis.
• NEVER rename symbols with find-and-replace — use gitnexus_rename which understands the call graph.
• NEVER commit changes without running gitnexus_detect_changes() to check affected scope.

Tools Quick Reference

Tool	When to use	Command
query	Find code by concept	gitnexus_query({query: "auth validation"})
context	360-degree view of one symbol	gitnexus_context({name: "validateUser"})
impact	Blast radius before editing	gitnexus_impact({target: "X", direction: "upstream"})
detect_changes	Pre-commit scope check	gitnexus_detect_changes({scope: "staged"})
rename	Safe multi-file rename	gitnexus_rename({symbol_name: "old", new_name: "new", dry_run: true})
cypher	Custom graph queries	gitnexus_cypher({query: "MATCH ..."})
api_impact	Pre-change API route impact	gitnexus_api_impact({route: "/api/users", method: "GET"})
route_map	Route → handler → consumer map	gitnexus_route_map({})
tool_map	MCP/RPC tool definitions	gitnexus_tool_map({})
shape_check	Response shape vs consumer access	gitnexus_shape_check({route: "/api/users"})
group_list	List repo groups	gitnexus_group_list({})
group_sync	Rebuild group Contract Registry	gitnexus_group_sync({name: "myGroup"})
query (group mode)	Cross-repo search in a group (RRF-merged)	gitnexus_query({repo: "@myGroup", query: "auth"})
context (group mode)	360° view across all member repos	gitnexus_context({repo: "@myGroup", name: "validateUser"})
impact (group mode)	Cross-repo blast radius via Contract Bridge	gitnexus_impact({repo: "@myGroup", target: "X", direction: "upstream"})

Group mode: pass repo: "@<groupName>" to fan out across all member repos, or repo: "@<groupName>/<memberPath>" to target a single member (path keys from group.yaml). Optional service: "<monorepo/path>" filters by service root. Group-level state (contracts, staleness) lives in the resources table below — there are no group_query / group_context / group_impact / group_contracts / group_status MCP tools.

For a full walkthrough of setting up a group across multiple repos that communicate over gRPC, see docs/guides/microservices-grpc.md.

Impact Risk Levels

Depth	Meaning	Action
d=1	WILL BREAK — direct callers/importers	MUST update these
d=2	LIKELY AFFECTED — indirect deps	Should test
d=3	MAY NEED TESTING — transitive	Test if critical path

Resources

Resource	Use for
gitnexus://repo/GitNexus/context	Codebase overview, index freshness
gitnexus://repo/GitNexus/clusters	All functional areas
gitnexus://repo/GitNexus/processes	All execution flows
gitnexus://repo/GitNexus/process/{name}	Step-by-step execution trace
gitnexus://group/{name}/contracts	Group Contract Registry (provider/consumer rows + cross-links)
gitnexus://group/{name}/status	Per-member index + Contract Registry staleness report

Self-Check Before Finishing

Before completing any code modification task, verify:

1. gitnexus_impact was run for all modified symbols
2. No HIGH/CRITICAL risk warnings were ignored
3. gitnexus_detect_changes() confirms changes match expected scope
4. All d=1 (WILL BREAK) dependents were updated

Keeping the Index Fresh

After committing code changes, the GitNexus index becomes stale. Re-run analyze to update it:

npx gitnexus analyze

If the index previously included embeddings, preserve them by adding --embeddings:

npx gitnexus analyze                 # incremental by default; preserves embeddings
npx gitnexus analyze --force         # full rebuild from scratch (opt out of incremental)
npx gitnexus analyze --embeddings    # also generate embeddings for new/changed nodes
npx gitnexus analyze --drop-embeddings  # explicit opt-in to wipe existing embeddings

analyze runs incrementally by default. The pipeline still parses every file every run (cross-file resolution requires it), but tree-sitter parsing is served from a content-addressed cache under .gitnexus/parse-cache/ (per-chunk JSON shards plus index.json) for chunks whose file contents haven't changed since the last run. Older installs may still have a legacy single file .gitnexus/parse-cache.json, which is read for backward compatibility but no longer written. Only changed-file rows (and their importers) are rewritten in LadybugDB; unchanged-file rows are preserved. Output is byte-equivalent to a full rebuild. Pass --force to wipe and re-index from scratch (e.g., to recover from a corrupt index, or after upgrading GitNexus).

The parse cache key is content-addressed and version-tagged: it survives --force runs, and is automatically invalidated by a gitnexus package upgrade (so a new tree-sitter grammar doesn't silently replay stale parse output). Safe to delete the whole .gitnexus/parse-cache/ directory (and remove any legacy .gitnexus/parse-cache.json if present) at any time — it'll be rebuilt on the next analyze.

Check .gitnexus/meta.json stats.embeddings (0 = none). A plain analyze no longer drops existing vectors — pass --drop-embeddings to wipe.

Claude Code: PostToolUse hook detects a stale index after git commit and git merge and prompts the agent to run analyze. The hook does not invoke analyze itself.

CLI

Task	Read this skill file
Understand architecture / "How does X work?"	.claude/skills/gitnexus/gitnexus-exploring/SKILL.md
Blast radius / "What breaks if I change X?"	.claude/skills/gitnexus/gitnexus-impact-analysis/SKILL.md
Trace bugs / "Why is X failing?"	.claude/skills/gitnexus/gitnexus-debugging/SKILL.md
Rename / extract / split / refactor	.claude/skills/gitnexus/gitnexus-refactoring/SKILL.md
Tools, resources, schema reference	.claude/skills/gitnexus/gitnexus-guide/SKILL.md
Index, status, clean, wiki CLI commands	.claude/skills/gitnexus/gitnexus-cli/SKILL.md

Hook env knobs

The Claude Code hook (gitnexus/hooks/claude/gitnexus-hook.cjs and the mirrored plugin copy under gitnexus-claude-plugin/hooks/) honours these env vars. Defaults work for normal installations; set them only to override resolution. All path overrides ignore values that do not exist on disk and fall through to the standard resolution chain.

Env var	Type	Default	Purpose
GITNEXUS_HOOK_CLI_PATH	path	resolved via package layout / require.resolve	Override path to the gitnexus CLI entry the hook spawns for augment.
GITNEXUS_HOOK_LSOF_PATH	path	lsof on PATH (with /usr/bin/lsof, /usr/sbin/lsof, /sbin/lsof fallbacks)	Override POSIX lsof location for the DB-lock probe.
GITNEXUS_HOOK_PS_PATH	path	ps on PATH (with /bin/ps, /usr/bin/ps fallbacks)	Override POSIX ps location.
GITNEXUS_HOOK_POWERSHELL_PATH	path	%SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe (then SysWOW64, then powershell.exe on PATH)	Override Windows PowerShell location used by the Restart-Manager probe.
GITNEXUS_HOOK_LINUX_PROC_BUDGET_MS	integer ms	1200	Max wall-clock for the Linux /proc fd scan before bailing out to the lsof fallback.
GITNEXUS_HOOK_RM_TARGET	path	derived	Restart-Manager target file (the LadybugDB path under .gitnexus/). Set internally by the hook; rarely overridden manually.
GITNEXUS_DEBUG	boolean (1/true)	unset	Verbose stderr from the hook: prints discarded augment-stderr prefixes and one-shot .ps1 load-failure warnings.

Repo reference

Packages

Package	Path	Purpose
CLI/Core	gitnexus/	TypeScript CLI, indexing pipeline, MCP server. Published to npm.
Web UI	gitnexus-web/	React/Vite thin client. All queries via gitnexus serve HTTP API.
Shared	gitnexus-shared/	Shared TypeScript types and constants.
Claude Plugin	gitnexus-claude-plugin/	Static config for Claude marketplace.
Cursor Integration	gitnexus-cursor-integration/	Static config for Cursor editor.
Eval	eval/	Python evaluation harness (Docker + LLM API keys).

Running services

cd gitnexus && npm run dev                 # CLI: tsx watch mode
cd gitnexus-web && npm run dev             # Web UI: Vite on port 5173
npx gitnexus serve                         # HTTP API on port 4747 (from any indexed repo)

Testing

CLI / Core (gitnexus/)

• npm test — full vitest suite (~2000 tests)
• npm run test:unit — unit tests only
• npm run test:integration — integration (~1850 tests). LadybugDB file-locking tests may fail in containers (known env issue).
• npx tsc --noEmit — typecheck

Web UI (gitnexus-web/)

• npm test — vitest (~200 tests)
• npm run test:e2e — Playwright (7 spec files; requires gitnexus serve + npm run dev)
• npx tsc -b --noEmit — typecheck

Pre-commit hook (.husky/pre-commit): formatting (prettier via lint-staged) + typecheck for staged packages. Tests do not run in pre-commit — CI only.

Gotchas

• npm install in gitnexus/ triggers prepare (builds via tsc) and postinstall (patches tree-sitter-swift, builds tree-sitter-proto). Native bindings need python3, make, g++.
• tree-sitter-kotlin and tree-sitter-swift are optional — install warnings expected.
• ESLint configured via eslint.config.mjs (TS, React Hooks, unused-imports). No npm run lint script; use npx eslint .. Prettier runs via lint-staged. CI checks both in ci-quality.yml.