What it does
Sverklo is a local-first code intelligence server that builds a searchable symbol graph of a codebase and indexes relationships between functions, classes, and files. Instead of naive string matching, it answers structural queries: who calls a function, what breaks if you change a symbol, and which decisions still apply in the git history. It runs locally (downloading a small ONNX model on first install), uploads no code, and integrates with Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and other MCP-compatible editors. The public benchmark shows it reduces token usage 43× compared to grep on common code-navigation tasks.
Who it's for
AI-powered code editors and agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf) that need to understand codebase structure and call graphs before editing. Developers using MCP agents for refactoring, debugging cross-file dependencies, or navigating large repositories where string search returns too many false positives.
Common use cases
- Query symbol dependencies and callers without manually grepping the codebase
- Understand blast radius before renaming a function or deleting a module
- Retrieve git-pinned project decisions and constraints tied to recent commits
- Reduce token spend on code-navigation tasks by 43× versus naive string search
- Index relationships in multi-file refactors so the agent can apply changes consistently across callers
Setup pitfalls
sverklo initdownloads and caches a local ONNX model (under~/.sverklo) on first run — this requires internet on initial setup but runs entirely offline thereafter- Requires read and write access to the project filesystem and to
~/.sverklo/for model caching sverklo initwritesCLAUDE.mdorAGENTS.mdand MCP config — use--dry-runto preview before committing