CLI quickstart: build and query a graph from the terminal

The graphify command does everything the agent skill does, from a terminal. Code extraction is deterministic and runs without an API key, so this is also the path for scripts and CI.

Use the CLI when you want to build graphs in a script or pipeline, inspect a codebase yourself, or check what your agent will see. To let an agent drive, use the skill quickstart.

Install

uv tool install graphifyy    # or: pipx install graphifyy / pip install graphifyy
graphify --help

Build the graph

Extract the code

cd your-repo
graphify extract . --code-only

--code-only skips documents and media, so no model is called. On a copy of the Graphify package (98 code files) this took about 6 seconds.

[graphify extract] next: run `graphify cluster-only .` to generate GRAPH_REPORT.md and name communities

Write the report and HTML view

graphify cluster-only . --no-label

This writes graphify-out/GRAPH_REPORT.md and graphify-out/graph.html. Drop --no-label to name communities with an LLM backend.

Query the graph

query
path
explain
god-nodes

Traverse from the nodes that match your words and return a token-budgeted subgraph.

graphify query "cluster leiden" --budget 300

Graph: graphify-out/graph.json (4856 nodes) | Traversal: BFS depth=2 | Start: ['cluster()', '_native_leiden()'] | 34 nodes found

[!] TRUNCATED: showing 12 of 34 nodes (~300-token budget). ...

NODE cluster() [src=corpus/cluster.py loc=L233 community=cluster.py]
NODE _native_leiden() [src=corpus/cluster.py loc=L23 community=cluster.py]
NODE dispatch_command() [src=corpus/cli.py loc=L1447 community=dispatch_command]

Add --dfs to follow one chain deeply instead of exploring broadly.

Find the shortest path between two symbols.

graphify path "cluster()" "build()" --undirected

Shortest path (3 hops):
  cluster() <--calls [INFERRED]-- dispatch_command() --calls [INFERRED]--> build_from_json() <--calls [EXTRACTED]-- build()

Show one node, where it lives, and everything connected to it.

graphify explain "reflect()"

Node: reflect()
  ID:        corpus_reflect_reflect
  Source:    corpus/reflect.py L564
  Type:      code
  Community: reflect
  Degree:    25

List the most connected symbols, the ones most changes touch.

graphify god-nodes --top 5

Each edge shows its confidence: EXTRACTED was read from the source, INFERRED was derived by a resolver, and AMBIGUOUS had several possible targets.

Keep it current

graphify update .          # re-extract changed code files only
graphify hook install      # rebuild automatically after commit, checkout, merge, and rebase

graphify update re-parses only files whose hashes changed. graphify hook install adds post-commit, post-checkout, post-merge, and post-rewrite hooks and registers a git merge driver for graph.json.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
`No matching nodes found.` (exit code 4)	`query` matches words in node labels. Use symbol or file names, such as `"cluster leiden"`, rather than a full sentence.
Exit code 3 from `query`	Several nodes matched equally. Use a more specific term.
`No directed path` from `path`	Add `--undirected` to ignore edge direction.
`No unique node match` from `explain` or `affected`	Include the parentheses for functions, for example `"reflect()"`.

What’s next

MCP server quickstart

Give any MCP client the same queries as tools.

Self-host with Docker

Share one graph with your team over HTTP.

Try it in Graphify

We build and host the graph for you. Start with a 14-day Pro trial, then keep up to 3 repositories on Free. No card required.

Get started

Features

Configuration

Support

CLI quickstart: build and query a graph from the terminal

Install

Build the graph

Query the graph

Keep it current

Troubleshooting

What’s next

MCP server quickstart

Self-host with Docker

Try it in Graphify

​Install

​Build the graph

​Query the graph

​Keep it current

​Troubleshooting

​What’s next

MCP server quickstart

Self-host with Docker

Try it in Graphify

Install

Build the graph

Query the graph

Keep it current

Troubleshooting

What’s next