Comparison

How CodeLoupe differs from the two kinds of tool an agent might use instead: a code-graph server (GitNexus) and an IDE's built-in MCP server. Numbers marked measured come from Benchmarks.

	CodeLoupe	GitNexus 1.6.12	IDE-based MCP (IntelliJ IDEA's built-in server)
Needs a running IDE	No	No (README: CLI and MCP server, editors are clients)	Yes: the server is part of the IDE and serves "the projects opened in the IDE" (JetBrains docs)
Languages	Kotlin and Java	16 listed in its README: TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Java, Kotlin, C#, Go, Rust, PHP, Ruby, Swift, C, C++, Objective-C, Dart, Zig	Those the IDE supports
How references are resolved	Syntax only (the Kotlin compiler's parsers for Kotlin and Java, no classpath); unsure hits are marked candidate, never dropped	Graph built from tree-sitter parsers; answers carry an epistemic field (exact or lower-bound) and list unresolved boundaries	The IDE's own semantic model
Index	SQLite; the default branch, built from git objects	Embedded graph database (LadybugDB), no database server; built by gitnexus analyze	The IDE's indexes
Keeping it current	No watchers: the worktree is checked when a query arrives	Re-run analyze, or analyze --watch; running MCP servers reopen a new index (README)	The IDE
Worktrees	One base index, an overlay per worktree; first changes in a new worktree took 1.1–5.9 s (measured)	README: linked worktrees share one store, a checkout with uncommitted changes gets its own incrementally updated graph (not measured)	Each opened project
Writes into your checkout	Nothing (measured)	AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md section, .claude/skills/ by default (measured; flags turn it off)	n/a
Tool definitions in context	3,749 tokens, 13 tools (measured; more with a tracker configured)	22,140 tokens, 17 tools (measured)	Not measured by the script; an earlier one-off measurement of an older IDE server: 25 tools, about 12.4k tokens (context-audit)
Install	Bundle with its own Java runtime, 135 MB zip (Bundle); or JDK 25 and Gradle	Node.js 22.18+ (the package's engines) and the npm package, 231 MB unpacked (npm view gitnexus dist.unpackedSize)	Part of the IDE
Beyond navigation	Tracker mirror, task ↔ code links, jobs in the daemon, transcript metrics	Execution flows, impact analysis, route and API maps, Cypher queries, optional embeddings, web UI (README)	Refactorings, inspections, run configurations, debugger, database tools (JetBrains docs)
Licence	PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0	PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0; its README points to the maintainers for commercial licensing	Per the IDE's licence (not examined)

Sources

Facts about GitNexus and the JetBrains server were read from their public documentation and package metadata on 2026-10-08; "measured" means tools/benchmark.mjs.

When another tool fits better

• the repository is not Kotlin: GitNexus (16 languages) or the IDE;
• you need the compiler's exact answer, a refactoring or inspections: an IDE-based server;
• you ask conceptual questions ("how does checkout work"), want execution flows, blast-radius analysis or API route maps: GitNexus has tools for them, CodeLoupe has none;
• you search text in files that are not Kotlin or .kts: rg searches every file type;
• you want only the list of changed files: git diff --stat is smaller than changes (2,247 against 2,938 tokens);
• the repository is small enough that reading the files costs little.

Licences

Both CodeLoupe and GitNexus are source-available under the PolyForm Noncommercial licence, so neither is a free choice for commercial use; the IDE-based server follows the IDE's licence.