# Code Intelligence > Route codebase-structure questions (who calls X, where used, change-impact) to an existing code-graph first: impact, tests-for, dead cheaper, never more precise; grep routine. Also 'call graph'. - Skill: `event4u-app/code-intelligence` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add event4u-app/code-intelligence` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/event4u-app/code-intelligence/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: event4u-app (https://skillmd.com/u/event4u-app) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/event4u-app/code-intelligence --- # code-intelligence > For a **structure** question — *who calls X*, *where is Y used*, *what > imports Z*, *what breaks if I change this symbol* — ask an index that already > exists before rebuilding the relationship by hand: it is already built, its > answer is structured, and it costs a fraction of the tokens. It is **not** more > precise than a blind `grep` — measured on this repository's own source, zero > classes met the win bar (§ Measured twice) — so grep is the arm you fall back > to routinely and **with a stated reason**, not grudgingly. This skill routes > such questions to the native code-graph engine (ADR-124, Class A) or a > consumer-shipped index first. It is the executable side of > [`external-code-graph-interop`](../../rules/external-code-graph-interop.md): > *orchestrator first, owner where it wins*. ## When to use - The question is about **relationships between code symbols**, not content: callers/callees, references, imports, inheritance, change-impact. - You are about to `grep`/`Read` across many files to reconstruct a call or import graph by hand. **When NOT to use:** content/semantic questions ("what does this function *mean*", "find the string 'password'"), single-file edits, or a repo with no code-graph and no appetite to build one — plain `grep`/read is right there. ## Procedure 1. **Detect the source.** `agent-config code-graph detect` — is a fresh consumer `graph.json` or native cache present? (A consumer-shipped fresh index wins; the native engine covers stale-or-absent — ADR-124 § 2.) 2. **Build if absent and worthwhile.** No graph + a repo in the launch set (PHP / TS / JS)? `agent-config code-graph build` (deterministic, LLM-free, ~seconds). Skip for a one-off question in an unsupported stack — grep instead. 3. **Query.** Pick the verb: - `agent-config code-graph query ` — direct relations of a symbol. - `agent-config code-graph affected ` — reverse: who calls / references it (the "impact of changing X" question). `--since ` seeds from a git diff. - `agent-config code-graph path ` — how two symbols connect. - `agent-config code-graph explain ` — 2-hop neighbourhood. Pass `--budget ` to cap output. 4. **Read the confidence.** `EXTRACTED` = syntactic fact — a symbol declared in the file, or a name bound to the module specifier the file names; `INFERRED` = resolved by hierarchy, or by a repo-wide same-name lookup with no binding in the file to justify it; `AMBIGUOUS` = dynamic dispatch / facade, carries candidates — treat its target as *one of* the candidates, never as certain. Two target shapes are **not nodes** and resolve to nothing you can read: `symbol:` (a name this repository does not declare) and `external:` / `external:#` (a name imported from outside the indexed root — `external:node:path`). 5. **Fall back honestly.** If the graph has no entry for the symbol, grep — and say so: *"the graph has no entry for X, so I grepped."* If this command is not available, grep and say so. ## Output Every answer built with this skill MUST: - **Name the source** that answered — `native`, `consumer`, or `grep-fallback` — so the reader knows the provenance and freshness of the relationship claim. - **Preserve the confidence class** for each relationship surfaced — never present an `AMBIGUOUS` edge as a definite call; list its candidates or say "ambiguous (dynamic dispatch)". ## Gotcha - **A stale graph lies confidently.** If `detect` reports the index is N commits behind, rebuild (`agent-config code-graph build --update`) before trusting relationship answers, or say the answer is from a stale index. - **Dynamic dispatch is honestly ambiguous — where there is anything to be ambiguous ABOUT.** A `$obj->m()` whose name matches a method declared somewhere in the repo is `AMBIGUOUS` and carries those candidates: the engine being honest, not broken — do not "resolve" them yourself by guessing. A dynamic call whose name matches **no** in-repo method (`xs.push()`, `map.get()`) is not emitted at all, and the count is published as `suppressed_edge_counts.dynamic_no_candidate`. It used to be 39 % of this engine's own graph, pointing at `symbol:push`, which is not a node and which no query verb could reach. - **The AMBIGUOUS share is a property of the code, not a constant.** Measured 2026-09-04 over the three roots the v2 benchmark uses: `AMBIGUOUS` is 0 of 495 edges under the package's own graph-engine root, 0 of 181 under `src/shared`, and 121 of 4,002 (3.0 %) under its council root — class-free TypeScript has almost no in-repo method to be ambiguous between. A Laravel codebase, where facades and injected services dispatch onto real in-repo methods, is the opposite case. Read the counts in the graph rather than a remembered ratio. ## Measured twice, and it has not won (v2, 2026-08-29) Pre-registered, published whichever way it landed: `internal/bench/reports/code-graph-vs-grep-inrepo-v2-2026-08-29.md`. The native engine scored against disciplined `git grep` over three in-repo TypeScript roots, 19 questions, per-class bars fixed before the run and unchanged from v1. | Class | grep R | graph R | Δ pp | grep P | graph P | verdict | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | `callers` | 1.000 | 1.000 | +0.0 | 0.611 | 0.667 | TIE | | `transitive-impact` | 0.611 | 0.500 | −11.1 | 1.000 | 0.667 | NULL | | `path-between` | 0.917 | **1.000** | +8.3 | 0.778 | **1.000** | TIE | | `references` | 1.000 | 0.333 | −66.7 | 0.833 | 0.333 | NULL | **Zero classes met the win bar.** On `path-between` the graph is exact and is the only class where it out-precises grep; it still ties, because the delta is +8.3 pp against a +10 pp bar that was fixed before the run. **The v1 run of 2026-08-28 published a false root cause, corrected 2026-08-29.** It reported `path-between` as `VOID` because *"both arms measured nothing"*. Only the grep arm did. The graph answered all three questions and v1's scorer discarded the answer — it compared each returned symbol against the whole probe string `"cmdBuild -> getParser"`. v1 also never invoked the shipped `path ` verb, and counted unresolved `symbol:` pseudo-nodes as files, which is the sole reason its `callers` verdict was NULL with recall tied. v1's numbers are not retro-edited — they were faithful to v1's own registration — and v1's report now carries the correction. Do not quote a `path-between` delta near +89 pp: that figure comes from repairing the graph arm and leaving grep on the broken probe. **The rule's own wording was corrected by this result.** `external-code-graph-interop` used to open by saying a committed index answers "far more precisely than a fresh `grep`". That was never measured, and when it was, it was false for the native engine on this repository's own code. The rule now gives the reasons that survive measurement — an index that exists is already built and structured, so it is the cheap first question — and drops the precision claim its own benchmark refuted. ## Re-run after the extractor repair (2026-09-04) — still no class won `internal/bench/reports/code-graph-vs-grep-inrepo-v2-rerun-2026-09-04.md`. The SAME registration, the same corpus SHA, the same per-class bars and the same arm-B verbs, re-run after the import-binding repair. The 2026-08-29 report is untouched; this is a second report beside it, which is how v1 was handled too. | Class | graph R then | graph R now | graph P then | graph P now | verdict then → now | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | `callers` | 1.000 | 1.000 | 0.667 | 0.667 | TIE → TIE | | `transitive-impact` | 0.500 | **0.611** | 0.667 | **1.000** | **NULL → TIE** | | `path-between` | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | TIE → TIE | | `references` | 0.333 | **1.000** | 0.333 | **1.000** | **NULL → TIE** | **Zero classes met the win bar, again.** Two NULLs became TIEs and nothing regressed, so the routing verdict below is unchanged — a TIE is not a win, and no bar was renegotiated after the repair. Read with two caveats the report states in full. A measured root is live source: `src/shared` is byte-identical between the runs, the council root moved by 27 files on `main` in between, and the graph-engine root IS the engine, so its content necessarily moves whenever the engine does — which is also why the GREP arm's macro precision moved (0.806 → 0.764) in a run that changed nothing about grep. Both classes that changed verdict did so on rows whose root did not drift: `references` moved on the graph-engine and shared roots, `transitive-impact` on `shared` alone. **No class is graph-first.** Query the index first because an index that already exists is cheap to ask and its answer is structured — not because it answers better. When it returns nothing, that is the common case, and grep remains the arm to fall back to rather than a grudging afterthought. The sentence that stood here — *"the arm that won every valid class on this corpus"* — is withdrawn. It is the framing v1's own report forbids: that report says the defensible statement is *"zero classes met the pre-registered win criterion"*, **not** that grep proved superior. It was also false on its own terms under v2: grep wins two classes, ties two, and is out-precised on both ties. Scope, stated so this table is not over-read: it measured the **native** engine on **this repository's TypeScript**, with a corpus of 19 questions. It is not comparable to the 2026-07-28 external-corpus run, it is not comparable to v1 either (corpus, arm-B verb set and scorer all moved), and it says nothing about a consumer-shipped SCIP index. Literal-string probes are reported as a separate `capability-boundary` class with no floor derived from them: a symbol index cannot answer them at all, which is where grep stays necessary rather than a defect in the engine. ## Staleness delivery — which hosts get it for free, and which do not Migrated verbatim from `external-code-graph-interop` so the obligation stays in the rule and the per-host delivery detail is paid only on activation. On a host with a verified `pre_tool_use` contract, the `code-graph-context` concern supplies this for free: once per session, on the first search or code read, it delivers the graph's state as structured `additionalContext` — `code-graph: fresh` or `code-graph: N commit(s) behind`. It is silent when no graph exists, so hearing nothing is not evidence that the graph is fresh. **On every other host that carrier does not exist**, and this section is the delivery: run `agent-config code-graph detect --format json` before trusting a relationship answer, and say which state you got. Which hosts those are is `agent-config hooks:status` — resolved from the platform table, never guessed from the host's name. Either way the disposition is the same: `behind:N` → `agent-config code-graph refresh` first, or use grep and say so. This is a freshness obligation, not an ordering claim; the rule's query-first ordering still governs which source to reach for. ## The four gate verbs — a diff, not a symbol (2026-09-08) `query` / `affected` / `path` / `explain` answer a question about a SYMBOL. Four more answer a question about a DIFF, and they are documented here rather than in § Procedure for a mechanical reason worth stating: step 4.3 of `road-to-a-graph-that-is-shipped` verifies that this file's line 164 — the **No class is graph-first** sentence — is unchanged, and inserting anything above it moves that line. So the ordering claim K5 protects stays byte-fixed and the new material sits below it. Each of the four walks only edges whose resolution mechanism is a stated fact (never a repo-wide same-name guess, never an untyped receiver), and each prints the mechanisms it accepted, the mechanisms it refused, and the graph's staleness — so a narrow answer is distinguishable from a decoupled one: - `agent-config code-graph impact --diff ` — callers, dependents and test files reachable from the changed symbols, plus the producing edges and a minimal read set. - `agent-config code-graph tests-for ` — the test files that import it. An empty list is a finding, not an error. - `agent-config code-graph untested --diff ` — changed symbols that no test file imports. - `agent-config code-graph dead [--entry-points F | --accept-missing-exports]` — symbols with no accepted reference that no declared entry point names. It **refuses** rather than answering while an entry-point source cannot be read: this engine records no exportedness, so without a supplied list an exported-but-unimported symbol is indistinguishable from a dead one, and a confident false "dead" invites a deletion the graph cannot justify. Nothing it lists is a deletion recommendation. These answers reach an agent over MCP without shelling out, and the mapping is **not** one tool per verb — corrected after an independent review found this paragraph claiming "the same five answers" directly after a list of four: | MCP tool | answers | |---|---| | `graph_impact` | `impact --diff`, **and** `untested --diff` via `untested_only: true` | | `graph_tests_for` | `tests-for` | | `graph_dead` | `dead` | | `graph_query` | `query` | | `graph_path` | `path` | `untested` has no tool of its own; it is a flag on `graph_impact`, because the two answer the same question over the same diff and a sixth tool would have cost standing context for a boolean. `graph_impact` is the only one that is not read-only — it runs `git diff --name-only` to resolve its rev — and `graph_dead`'s refusal arrives as `status: "refused"`, never as `status: "ok"` with an empty list. **No ordering claim is added here, and no measurement claim either.** These verbs are cheaper than reconstructing the same relationship by hand — that is a claim about the ALTERNATIVE being a manual reconstruction, not about grep. Nothing on this page says they beat grep, none of the four appears in the v2 benchmark corpus (which measures `callers`, `transitive-impact`, `path-between` and `references`), and § Measured twice still governs that question. ## Do NOT - Do NOT rebuild a **fresh** consumer-shipped index — query it (interop courtesy). - Do NOT block or defer a read waiting on the graph — it is an accelerator, not a gate. - Do NOT treat the cache as a source of truth for anything beyond the last build; it is a rebuildable artifact. ## See also - [`external-code-graph-interop`](../../rules/external-code-graph-interop.md) — the rule that routes structure questions here. - [`source-discovery`](../source-discovery/SKILL.md) — evidence-before-structure discipline; the graph is one evidence source, still confirmed against the real code when load-bearing. - `agent-config code-graph` — the CLI surface over the engine (build / query / detect / affected). - [`discovery_graph`](../../scripts/discovery_graph.ts) — this suite's OWN artifact relation-graph (`affected`/`explain`). The external code-graph is the *source-code* analogue; keep the two apart when answering.