Codanna Codebase Intelligence

Codanna indexes your codebase and provides semantic search, call graphs, and dependency analysis via MCP tools. Use codanna before grep/find - it understands code structure, not just text patterns.

When to Use

• Finding code: "Where do we handle authentication?" → semantic_search_docs
• Understanding dependencies: "What calls this function?" → find_callers
• Impact analysis: "What breaks if I change this?" → analyze_impact
• Exploring symbols: "Show me the Parser struct" → find_symbol

Core Tools

Discovery

# Natural language search - finds code by intent, not keywords
semantic_search_docs query:"error handling patterns" limit:5

# Search symbols by name/pattern
search_symbols query:"parse" kind:"function"

# Get full details on a specific symbol
find_symbol name:"process_file"

Relationships

# Who calls this function? (upstream)
find_callers symbol:"validate_input"

# What does this function call? (downstream)
get_calls symbol:"process_request"

# Full dependency graph - what breaks if I change this?
analyze_impact symbol:"DatabaseConnection" depth:3

Documentation (RAG)

# Search indexed markdown/docs
search_documents query:"API authentication" collection:"docs"

Tool Selection Guide

Task	Tool	Example
Find code by concept	semantic_search_docs	"database migrations"
Find symbol by name	search_symbols	Pattern: "auth*"
Get symbol details	find_symbol	Exact: "UserService"
Trace callers	find_callers	"Who uses this?"
Trace dependencies	get_calls	"What does this call?"
Assess refactor risk	analyze_impact	"What breaks?"

Workflow Patterns

Before Refactoring

1. find_symbol - understand current implementation
2. find_callers - identify all usage sites
3. analyze_impact - assess blast radius
4. Then proceed with changes

Understanding Unfamiliar Code

1. semantic_search_docs - "how does X work"
2. find_symbol - get entry point details
3. get_calls - trace execution flow

Finding Where to Add Code

1. semantic_search_docs - "similar patterns"
2. find_callers - how existing code integrates
3. Follow established patterns

Why Codanna Over Grep

Grep/Find	Codanna
Text matching	Semantic understanding
String "parse" matches comments	find_symbol finds the actual function
Manual call tracing	find_callers shows full graph
Guessing impact	analyze_impact shows dependencies

Tips

• Start broad with semantic_search_docs, then drill down with find_symbol
• Use analyze_impact before any refactor touching shared code
• find_callers with depth > 1 shows transitive callers
• Results include file paths and line numbers - use for navigation