Codigest MCP server

Codigest

<!-- mcp-name: io.github.NaNIsaac/codigest -->

Codigest is a standalone CLI tool designed to extract, structure, and track the context of your codebase for Large Language Models (LLMs).

Unlike simple copy-paste tools, Codigest employs a Context Anchor system (Shadow Git) to track changes locally without polluting your main version control history. It also features Semantic Analysis to detect structural changes in your code.

Note: You can use the short alias cdg instead of codigest for faster typing.

Quickstart

uvx codigest scan          # try it without installing
uv tool install codigest  # or install the `cdg` command

cdg scan                  # whole project as LLM-ready XML (copied to clipboard)
cdg init && cdg diff      # set an anchor, later get only what changed
cdg cap -- pytest -q      # run a command and keep its output
cdg term -f               # hand the last failed command + output to your LLM
claude mcp add codigest -- cdg mcp   # let AI agents call all of the above

Core Philosophy

• Read-Only & Safe: Codigest never modifies your source code. It only reads, analyzes, and formats context.
• Context-Aware: Instead of dumping raw text, it structures code into XML snapshots designed for LLM comprehension.
• Session-Based Tracking: It maintains an internal anchor to track "work-in-progress" changes independently of your Git commits.
• Environment Isolated: Runs in its own isolated Python 3.15 environment via uv, ensuring it never conflicts with your project's dependencies.

Installation

Codigest runs as a global tool. You don't need to add it to your project's requirements.txt. We strongly recommend using uv for the best experience.

Step 1: Install uv

If you don't have uv installed, use Winget (Windows) or curl (macOS/Linux).

# Windows (via Winget)
winget install --id astral-sh.uv

# macOS/Linux
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Step 2: Install codigest

Install Codigest globally. uv will automatically manage the required Python 3.15 environment for you.

uv tool install codigest

Codigest needs Python 3.15. If uv reports a syntax error on lazy import, it picked an early 3.15 alpha: run uv self update (or upgrade uv) and install again.

Step 3: Update Path (Important!)

To run codigest (or cdg) from any terminal, ensure your tools directory is in your PATH.

uv tool update-shell

> Note: Restart your terminal (or VS Code) after this step to apply changes.

Workflow & Commands

Once installed, use the cdg command anywhere.

1. Initialization

Sets up the .codigest directory and captures the initial baseline anchor.

cdg init

2. Full Context Snapshot (scan)

Scans the codebase and generates a structured XML snapshot. Includes a Pre-flight Check to prevent accidental token overflow.

• Output: .codigest/snapshot.txt (or stdout with -s)
• Features:
• Smart Confirmation: Automatically skips confirmation for small contexts, but warns you for large ones (>30k tokens).
• Dependency Resolution (-r): Automatically finds and includes local files imported by your target files.
• Scope Control: You can specify folders or files to scan.
• Terminal Output (-s / --stdout): Output directly to stdout instead of saving to file.

# Basic scan (Interactive confirmation if large)
cdg scan

# Scan specific folder with dependency resolution (Smart Context)
cdg scan src/main.py -r

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.