CodeScope Q&A

CodeScope indexes source code into a two-layer knowledge graph — structure (functions, calls, imports, classes, modules) and evolution (commits, file changes, function modifications) — plus semantic embeddings for every function. Supports Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, C, and Java (including Hadoop-scale repositories with 8K+ files). This combination enables analyses that grep, LSP, or pure vector search cannot do alone. It can also fetch GitHub issues and trace bugs to code — mapping bug reports to root cause candidates using the graph + vector infrastructure.

When to Use This Skill

• User asks about call chains, callers, callees, or dependencies
• User wants to find dead code, hotspots, or architectural layers
• User asks about code history, who changed what, or why something was modified
• User wants to find semantically similar functions across a codebase
• User wants a full architecture analysis or report
• User asks about module coupling, circular dependencies, or bridge functions
• User wants to index or analyze a Java project (Maven, Gradle, plain Java)
• User wants to analyze GitHub issues or bug reports to find root causes
• User asks "why does this project have so many bugs" or "what code is most buggy"
• User wants to trace a bug report to the most relevant code locations
• A .codegraph directory (or similar index) exists in the workspace

Getting Started

Installation

pip install codegraph-ai

Environment Variables (optional)

# Create Python virtural environment
python -m venv .venv

source .venv/bin/activate

# Point to a pre-built database (skip indexing)
export CODESCOPE_DB_DIR="/path/to/.linux_db"

# Offline mode for HuggingFace models
export HF_HUB_OFFLINE="1"

Check Index Status

codegraph status --db $CODESCOPE_DB_DIR

If no index exists, create one:

codegraph init --repo . --lang auto --commits 500

Supported languages: python, c, javascript, typescript, java, or auto (auto-detects from file extensions).

The --commits flag ingests git history (for evolution queries). Without it, only structural analysis is available. Add --backfill-limit 200 to also compute function-level MODIFIES edges (slower but enables change_attribution and co_change).

Two Interfaces: CLI vs Python

Use the CLI for status and reports:

codegraph status --db $CODESCOPE_DB_DIR
codegraph analyze --db $CODESCOPE_DB_DIR --output report.md

Use the Python API for queries and custom analyses:

import os
os.environ['HF_HUB_OFFLINE'] = '1'  # required

from codegraph.core import CodeScope
cs = CodeScope(os.environ['CODESCOPE_DB_DIR'])

# Cypher query
rows = list(cs.conn.execute('''
    MATCH (caller:Function)-[:CALLS]->(f:Function {name: "free_irq"})
    RETURN caller.name, caller.file_path LIMIT 10
'''))
for r in rows:
    print(r)

cs.close()  # always close when done

The Python API is more powerful — it gives you raw Cypher access and lets you chain queries.

Core Python API

Raw Queries

These are the building blocks for any custom analysis:

Structural Analysis

Semantic Search

Evolution (requires --commits during init)

Report Generation

from codegraph.analyzer import generate_report
report = generate_report(cs)  # full architecture analysis as markdown

Or via CLI:

codegraph analyze --output reports/analysis.md

The report covers: overview stats, subsystem distribution, top modules, architectural layers (with Mermaid diagrams), bridge functions, fan-in/fan-out hotspots, cross-module coupling, evolution hotspots, and dead code density.

Java Support

CodeScope includes a full Java adapter that handles enterprise-scale repositories like Apache Hadoop (~8K files, ~97K functions indexed in ~3.5 minutes).

What Gets Indexed

Indexing a Java Project

codegraph init --repo /path/to/java-project --lang java --commits 500

Or with auto-detection (auto-detects .java files):

codegraph init --repo /path/to/java-project --lang auto

Java-Specific Exclusions

By default, these directories are excluded when indexing Java projects: target/, build/, .gradle/, .idea/, .settings/, bin/, out/, test/, tests/, src/test/.

Java Query Examples

# Find all classes that extend a specific class
list(cs.conn.execute("""
    MATCH (c:Class)-[:INHERITS]->(p:Class {name: 'FileSystem'})
    RETURN c.name, c.file_path
"""))

# Find all methods in a specific class
list(cs.conn.execute("""
    MATCH (c:Class {name: 'DefaultParser'})-[:HAS_METHOD]->(f:Function)
    RETURN f.name, f.signature
"""))

# Find constructor call chains
list(cs.conn.execute("""
    MATCH (f:Function)-[:CALLS]->(init:Function {name: '<init>'})
    WHERE init.class_name = 'Configuration'
    RETURN f.name, f.file_path LIMIT 10
"""))

Bug Root Cause Analysis

CodeScope can fetch GitHub issues and map them to code using the graph + vector infrastructure. This is the core workflow for answering questions like "why does this project have so many bugs?" or "where in the code does this bug come from?"

Prerequisites

• A code graph must already be indexed for the target repository
• gh CLI must be installed and authenticated (gh auth login)

Bug Analysis API

Single Issue Analysis

# Analyze a specific GitHub issue against the indexed code graph
result = cs.analyze_issue("owner", "repo", 1234, topk=10)
print(result.format_report())

This:

1. Fetches the issue from GitHub (or loads from cache)
2. Parses file paths, function names, and stack traces from the issue body
3. Matches extracted paths to File nodes in the graph
4. Uses semantic search (cross_locate) to find related code
5. Traces callers of mentioned functions via impact()
6. Ranks and returns root cause candidates with explanation

Batch Bug Analysis

# Analyze top-k bug issues and get aggregated hotspot data
results = cs.analyze_top_bugs("owner", "repo", k=10, label="bug")
for r in results:
    print(f"#{r.issue.number}: {r.issue.title}")
    for c in r.candidates[:3]:
        print(f"  {c.function_name} ({c.file_path}) score={c.score:.2f}")

CLI Commands

# Fetch and parse a single issue (no graph needed)
codegraph fetch-issue owner repo 1234

# Fetch top-k bugs from a repo
codegraph fetch-bugs owner repo --top 10 --label bug

# Analyze a single bug against the code graph
codegraph analyze-bug owner repo 1234 --db .codegraph --topk 10

# Batch analyze top bugs
codegraph analyze-bugs owner repo --db .codegraph --top 10 --label bug

Lower-Level Components

For custom analysis pipelines, the components can be used individually:

from codegraph.issue_fetcher import fetch_and_parse_issue
from codegraph.bug_locator import (
    resolve_paths_to_files,
    find_semantic_matches,
    trace_callers,
    rank_root_causes,
    analyze_bug,
)

# Fetch and parse (with caching)
issue = fetch_and_parse_issue("owner", "repo", 1234)
print(issue.extracted_paths)   # file paths found in body
print(issue.extracted_funcs)   # function names from stack traces
print(issue.linked_commits)    # merge commit SHAs from linked PRs

# Match paths to graph nodes
path_matches = resolve_paths_to_files(cs, issue.extracted_paths)

# Semantic search using issue description
semantic_matches = find_semantic_matches(cs, f"{issue.title}\n{issue.body}")

# Trace callers of mentioned functions
caller_traces = trace_callers(cs, issue.extracted_funcs, max_hops=2)

# Combine into ranked candidates
candidates = rank_root_causes(path_matches, semantic_matches, caller_traces, issue.extracted_funcs)

Scoring System

Root cause candidates are scored by combining multiple signals:

Issue Cache

Parsed issues are cached at ~/.codegraph/issue_cache/{owner}_{repo}_{number}.json. Cache hits skip the GitHub API call entirely (sub-millisecond). To force a refresh, pass use_cache=False or use --no-cache on CLI.

from codegraph.issue_cache import clear_cache
clear_cache(owner="openclaw", repo="openclaw")  # clear specific repo
clear_cache()  # clear all

Stack Trace Parsing

The parser automatically extracts file paths and function names from stack traces in Python, C/C++, JavaScript/Node.js, Go, and Rust formats. It also extracts func_name() references in backticks and inline code.

How to Route Questions

The key decision is: does the user want an exact structural answer, a fuzzy semantic one, or a bug-to-code mapping?

For novel investigations not covered by pre-built methods, compose raw Cypher queries. See patterns.md for templates. For bug analysis patterns, see bug-analysis.md.

Important Filters for Cypher

When writing Cypher queries, these filters prevent misleading results:

• f.is_historical = 0 — exclude deleted/renamed functions that are still in the graph as historical records
• f.is_external = 0 (on File nodes) — exclude system headers/library files
• c.version_tag = 'bf' — only backfilled commits have MODIFIES edges; non-backfilled commits only have TOUCHES (file-level) edges
• Always use LIMIT — large codebases can return hundreds of thousands of rows

Checking Data Availability

Before running evolution queries, check what's available:

# How many commits are indexed?
list(cs.conn.execute("MATCH (c:Commit) RETURN count(c)"))

# How many have MODIFIES edges (backfilled)?
list(cs.conn.execute("MATCH (c:Commit) WHERE c.version_tag = 'bf' RETURN count(c)"))

If no commits exist, evolution methods will return empty results — guide the user to run codegraph ingest first. If commits exist but aren't backfilled, TOUCHES (file-level) queries still work but MODIFIES (function-level) queries won't.

Troubleshooting

The CLI auto-cleans lock issues on startup when possible.

References

• schema.md — Full graph schema: node types, edge types, properties, Cypher syntax notes
• patterns.md — Ready-to-use Cypher query templates and composition strategies
• bug-analysis.md — Bug analysis workflows: single issue, batch analysis, hotspot aggregation, custom pipelines