Overview Cipher builds a complete dependency map of your codebase and helps AI coding assistants understand what will break before making changes.

Key concept: When an AI deletes a file, Cipher knows which 30 files depend on it and warns the AI before the change happens.

Installation bash npm install -g cipher-cli Requires Node.js 18+.

Quick Start bash

Map your codebase

cipher parse .

Check what breaks before deleting

cipher whatif . --simulate delete --target src/helpers.ts

Scan for security issues

cipher security .

View architecture health

cipher health . Commands Command Description cipher whatif Simulate delete/move/rename and see impact cipher security Scan for vulnerabilities cipher health Get architecture score (0-100) cipher dead-code Find unused code cipher viz Visual dependency map cipher diff Compare commits cipher verify-change Check if a change is safe Example Before deleting a file:

bash cipher whatif . --simulate delete --target src/auth.ts Output:

text Health Score: 67 → 63 (-4) Affected Files: 12 Broken Imports: 15 • src/server.ts imports verifyToken • src/api/users.ts imports hashPassword • src/middleware/auth.ts imports validateSession [12 more files...] AI Integration (MCP) Cipher provides 24 tools for AI assistants:

get_file_context - What depends on this file?

impact_analysis - What breaks if I change this?

security_scan - Find vulnerabilities

simulate_change - Test changes before applying

Connect to Claude Desktop:

json { "mcpServers": { "cipher": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "cipher-cli", "mcp"] } } } Supported Languages TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Go, Rust, C, C#, Java, C++, Kotlin, PHP, Swift, Ruby, Dart, R, Mojo, HTML/Angular

Benchmarks 80-file refactor on a large TypeScript codebase:

Mode Time Cost Without Cipher 16m 46s $9.03 With Cipher 10m 43s $7.35 36% faster. 19% cheaper.

Documentation Full Documentation

MCP Integration

API Reference

Contributing Fork the repo

Create a feature branch

Submit a pull request

See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.