Code Atlas

A code intelligence graph that gives AI coding agents deep, token-efficient understanding of your codebase — structure, docs, and dependencies in one searchable graph.

Map your codebase. Search it three ways. Feed it to agents.

---

The Problem

Every time an AI agent touches your codebase, it burns tokens just figuring out where things are. Grep for a function name. Read five files to understand the call chain. Search docs for context. Repeat — across every task, every session. On a large project, agents can spend 30–50% of their context window on orientation before they write a single line of code.

Many tools solve one piece of this: semantic search, or graph traversal, or keyword lookup. But a developer doesn't understand a codebase through one lens — they build a mental model that connects structure, meaning, and names simultaneously. Agents need the same thing.

Code Atlas is that mental model, externalized as a graph.

What Is This?

Code Atlas builds a graph database of your entire codebase — code structure, documentation, and dependencies — and exposes it via MCP tools that AI coding agents can use to understand, navigate, and reason about your code.

Three search types, one system:

• Graph traversal — follow relationships: who calls this function? What does this class inherit from? What services depend on this library?
• Semantic search — find code by meaning: "authentication middleware" finds relevant code even if it's named verify_token_chain
• BM25 keyword search — exact matches: find that specific error message, config key, or function name

All powered by Memgraph as a single backend.

Key Features

• Monorepo-native — auto-detects sub-projects, tracks cross-project dependencies, scoped queries
• Documentation as first-class — indexes markdown docs, ADRs, and READMEs with links to the code they describe
• AST-level incremental indexing — only re-indexes the entities that actually changed, not entire files
• Pattern detection — pluggable detectors for decorator routing, event handlers, DI, test→code mappings, and more
• Library awareness — lightweight stubs for external dependencies, full indexing for internal libraries
• Self-hosted — runs locally with Docker. No data leaves your machine
• No additional API costs — agent-first design means all intelligence runs through your existing subscription; local embeddings via TEI, no extra API keys
• Token-efficient — budget-aware context assembly that prioritizes what matters most
• Pluggable AI — TEI for embeddings, LiteLLM for LLM calls, or bring your own
• MCP server — works with Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, or any MCP-compatible client

How Does This Compare?

Several excellent tools exist in this space — graph-based analyzers, semantic search engines, wiki generators, and IDE-integrated indexers. Code Atlas builds on their ideas while addressing a gap: no single tool combines graph traversal, semantic search, and BM25 keyword search with documentation intelligence and MCP exposure.

For a detailed comparison covering DeepWiki, Cursor, Sourcegraph Cody, Kit, code-graph-rag, codegraph-rust, and more, see docs/landscape.md.

MCP Tools

15 tools exposed via the Model Context Protocol, designed to minimize context window overhead.

Tool	What it does	Search	Full
Search
hybrid_search	Primary tool — fuses graph + BM25 + vector via RRF. Auto-adjusts weights by query shape.	~117	~497
text_search	BM25 keyword search. Quoted phrases, wildcards, field-specific queries.	~90	~275
vector_search	Semantic similarity via embeddings. Finds code by meaning, not name.	~67	~297
get_node	Find entities by name. Cascade: exact uid → name → suffix → prefix → contains.	~100	~254
Navigation
get_context	Expand a node's neighborhood: parent, siblings, callers, callees, docs.	~64	~273
cypher_query	Run read-only Cypher against the graph. Auto-limited, write-protected.	~59	~168
Analysis
analyze_repo	Structure, centrality, dependencies, or pattern analysis.	~41	~266
generate_diagram	Mermaid diagrams: packages, imports, inheritance, module detail.	~37	~254
Guidance
get_usage_guide	Quick-start or topic-specific guidance for the agent.	~35	~106
plan_search_strategy	Recommends which search tool + params for a question.	~40	~97
validate_cypher	Catches Cypher errors before execution.	~58	~116
schema_info	Full graph schema: labels, relationships, Cypher examples.	~75	~96
Status
index_status	Projects, entity counts, schema version, index health.	~72	~93
list_projects	Monorepo project list with dependency relationships.	~56	~77
health_check	Infrastructure diagnostics: Memgraph, TEI, Valkey, schema.	~55	~76

Token counts measured from MCP JSON tool definitions (tiktoken cl100k_base). Search = name + description (~966 total); Full = name + description + parameter schema with field descriptions, enums, and constraints (~2,945 total). All parameters are self-documented — agents can one-shot any tool without calling get_usage_guide first.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose
• uv (Python package manager)

1. Start infrastructure

Download the compose file and start Memgraph + Valkey:

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SerPeter/code-atlas/main/docker-compose.yml
docker compose up -d

Optional — add local embeddings (no API keys needed):

docker compose --profile tei up -d

2. Index your project

uvx --from code-atlas-mcp atlas index /path/to/your/project
uvx --from code-atlas-mcp atlas status

3. Connect to your AI agent

Claude Code:

claude mcp add code-atlas -- uvx --from code-atlas-mcp atlas mcp

Cursor / other MCP clients — add to your MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "code-atlas": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "code-atlas-mcp", "atlas", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

See CLI usage guide for more commands and options.

Development

If you want to contribute or run from source:

git clone https://github.com/SerPeter/code-atlas.git
cd code-atlas
uv sync --group dev
uv run pre-commit install

Performance

Metric	Value
Parse throughput	600–700 files/sec
Graph search (p50)	8 ms
BM25 search (p50)	10 ms
Vector search (p50)	47 ms
Concurrent QPS	238 (zero errors)

Full benchmark tables and methodology: docs/benchmarks.md

Documentation

• Architecture — system design, pipelines, deployment model
• Landscape — code intelligence tools comparison and design rationale
• Configuration — atlas.toml, .atlasignore, environment variables
• CLI Usage — indexing, searching, daemon mode
• Benchmarks — parsing, query latency, concurrency
• Repository Guidelines — structure your code for better indexing

Supporting Code Atlas

I built Code Atlas because my AI agents kept burning half their context just figuring out where things are in larger codebases. Nothing combined the search types I needed in one place, so I built it and open-sourced it so you can benefit as well.

If Code Atlas saves you time, tokens, or makes your agents noticeably better — consider sponsoring the project.

License

Apache License 2.0