CodeNib

▶ Watch the 15-second replay · real CLI output · waits condensed · Pinned source, transcript and setup details.

Quickstart

Requires Python 3.10+, Git, a clean repository, and Claude Code or Codex.

python -m pip install "codenib[graph,mcp]"
codenib codegraph init /path/to/your/repo

Then ask your agent: “Use CodeNib's explore_context to find where request retry behavior is implemented. Cite the files and lines.”

This shipping path builds local search and a typed symbol graph, then connects installed agent clients. It needs no model, API key, or GPU for CodeNib; your agent uses its own model. It is separate from the grep/Jev experiment above. Language toolchain and project prerequisites vary.

Setup and troubleshooting · Source exclusions · All MCP tools · Local Wiki

Why CodeNib

• Inspect the evidence. Retrieve bounded code context with file and line references, then follow callers, callees, definitions, and references.
• Use the same tools across languages. The registry tracks 14 language entries, including 12 with graph backends. Check capability and setup differences in the language matrix.
• Compare methods on the same source. Pinned agent contracts, datasets, and scorer checks make the reproduction surface inspectable.
• Share what you found. Export a Wiki with source citations to your own GitHub Pages, or browse the public examples.

How it compares

What an agent can ask each tool, checked against upstream docs on 2026-09-28. This compares capabilities, not benchmark scores.

Tool	Ask in plain language	Callers/callees beyond one hop	Relationships resolved by	Runs
grep / read	No; literal or regex	No	Text match	Local
CodeNib CodeGraph	Yes; ranked source anchors (explore_context)	Yes; one call, depth ≤ 8 (dependency_subgraph)	SCIP/LSP indexers (compiler-resolved)	Local
Serena	No; symbol name or regex	One level per call (find_referencing_symbols)	Live language server or IDE	Local
CodeGraph (colbymchenry)	Yes; FTS5 full-text (codegraph_explore)	Yes; call paths in codegraph_explore	Tree-sitter AST extraction	Local; telemetry opt-out
DeepWiki public MCP	Yes; generated answers (ask_question)	No structured graph tools	Generated Wiki	Hosted

None of these repository tools needs its own model or API key; your agent uses its own model. Detailed comparison, sources and boundaries. CodeNib 0.2.4 also includes an optional grep → Jev route using OpenRouter for planning and reranking; selected code goes to remote models. Authorization previews remain opt-in. The historical research result above is separate from the product evaluation and the model-free CodeGraph row.

Languages

Graph backends: Python, Go, Rust, C/C++, C#, Java, Ruby, PHP, Kotlin, Scala, JavaScript, and TypeScript. Swift and Lua support chunking/retrieval. Provider prerequisites and coverage differ by language.

The generated language matrix separates chunking, graph backends, incremental-backend support, and decoder parity. The product currently reuses or rebuilds views; file-level delta repair is not enabled.

Results and reproductions

Start here	What you can inspect
Context methods and support matrix	Every retrieval pipeline, LLM workflow and agent route, sorted by the views it reads and who controls the search
Benchmarks	Localization, agent-context and resolution layers, evidence levels, and the method × benchmark matrix over CodeNib Base/Synthesis, SWE-bench Lite, Loc-Bench, SWE-Explore, Agent Retrieval Bench and ContextBench
grep → Jev result	100-issue retrieval comparison, candidate controls, model use and limitations
Agent integration matrix	Revision-pinned LocAgent, Agentless, CoSIL, OrcaLoca and RepoNavigator contracts; compatibility does not imply reproduced paper scores
SWE-Explore validation	1,020/1,020 real-output metric cells match the pinned official evaluator on a fixed 20-case run
DGX Spark deployment	Local Wiki, CodeGraph and model serving on GB10; a deployment guide, not a token-saving benchmark

Documentation and community

Documentation · Architecture · Contributing · CI and testing · Changelog · Discord

CodeNib is in beta; public interfaces may change before a stable release. Historical research artifacts retain their published dataset identifiers.

Citation

If you use CodeNib in your research, please cite our arXiv paper:

@misc{yu2026codenibmultiviewdataserving,
      title={CodeNib: A Multi-View Data System for Serving Repository Context to Coding Agents},
      author={Zhongming Yu and Hengjia Yu and Boqin Yuan and Shuting Zhao and Yizhao Chen and Aryan Dokania and Mihir Jagtap and Jiayu Chang and Yitong Ma and Yash Jayswal and Wentao Ni and Hejia Zhang and Zhaoling Chen and Gangda Deng and Jishen Zhao},
      year={2026},
      eprint={2607.25431},
      archivePrefix={arXiv},
      primaryClass={cs.SE},
      url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.25431},
}

CodeNib is licensed under Apache 2.0.