# CodeContext

> CLI tool & MCP server that turns a codebase into text for an LLM to see its context — feed code to ChatGPT, Claude, or any AI coding assistant

- **Type:** MCP server
- **Install:** `agentstack add mcp-davidveksler-codecontext`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [DavidVeksler](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/davidveksler)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [AI & ML](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/ai-and-ml)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** MIT
- **Upstream author:** [DavidVeksler](https://github.com/DavidVeksler)
- **Source:** https://github.com/DavidVeksler/CodeContext

## Install

```sh
agentstack add mcp-davidveksler-codecontext
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# CodeContext

[](LICENSE.txt)
[](https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/9.0)
[](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/)

CodeContext is a cross-platform C# CLI tool and MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for Mac, Windows, and Linux that turns a codebase into text for an LLM to see its context. It's a code context tool built for prompt engineering: feed a project straight into ChatGPT, Claude, or any other LLM-based coding assistant without manually copy-pasting files.

It scans project directories, generates a structured representation of the project, and extracts relevant file contents while intelligently filtering out unnecessary files and directories. Now with **token budget optimization** and **relevance-based file selection** for agentic coding workflows!

Update: A more comprehensive tool is [code2prompt](https://github.com/mufeedvh/code2prompt).
I found that CodeContext is more user-friendly, faster, and automatically includes only user code (based on both extension and file contents), but you may have better luck with alternatives.

## Features

### Core Features
- **Hierarchical Project Structure**: Generates a clear tree view of your project
- **Smart Content Extraction**: Extracts contents of relevant source files
- **Intelligent Filtering**: Automatically filters out binaries, dependencies, build outputs, and more
- **Git-Aware**: Respects .gitignore rules
- **Binary File Detection**: Automatically detects and skips binary files
- **Generated Code Detection**: Excludes auto-generated code
- **Highly Customizable**: Configure ignored extensions, directories, and file size limits
- **Multiple Output Formats**: Supports plain text and JSON output
- **Well-Architected**: Clean separation of concerns with interfaces for testability

### 🆕 Agentic Coding Features
- **MCP Server Mode**: Native integration with Claude Code, Cline, and other MCP-compatible agents
- **Token Budget Optimization**: Intelligently selects most relevant files within token constraints
- **Relevance Scoring**: Automatically ranks files based on task description
- **Multiple Selection Strategies**: GreedyByScore, ValueOptimized, and Balanced algorithms
- **Dynamic Context Generation**: Task-specific context rather than dumping entire codebase

## Architecture

The project follows SOLID principles with a modular architecture:

- **`Configuration/`**: Filter configuration settings and app configuration
- **`Interfaces/`**: Abstraction interfaces (IFileChecker, IConsoleWriter)
- **`Services/`**: Core business logic
  - File filtering and scanning (FileFilterService, ProjectScanner)
  - Token counting and budget optimization (TokenCounter, TokenBudgetOptimizer)
  - Relevance scoring (FileRelevanceScorer)
  - Git integration (GitIgnoreParser, GitHelper)
  - Output formatting and content building
- **`Mcp/`**: Model Context Protocol server tools
  - MCP tool implementations for agentic coding integration
- **`Utils/`**: Utility functions (FileUtilities, Guard)

This design makes the codebase maintainable, testable, and extensible while supporting both CLI and MCP server modes.

## Getting Started

### Prerequisites

- .NET 9.0 or later

#### macOS

Install .NET SDK if you haven't already:
```bash
brew install --cask dotnet-sdk
```

#### Windows

Download and install the [.NET 9 SDK](https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/9.0)

#### Linux

Follow the [official .NET installation guide](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/install/linux) for your distribution.

### Installation

1. Clone the repository:
```bash
git clone https://github.com/DavidVeksler/CodeContext.git
cd CodeContext
```

2. Build the project:
```bash
dotnet build
```

3. (Optional) Publish for your platform:
```bash
# Self-contained executable
dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained  # Windows
dotnet publish -c Release -r osx-x64 --self-contained  # macOS
dotnet publish -c Release -r linux-x64 --self-contained  # Linux
```

### Usage

Run the application with:
```bash
dotnet run [path_to_index] [output_file]
```

Arguments:
- `path_to_index`: The directory to analyze (optional, will prompt if not provided)
- `output_file`: The file to write the output (optional, defaults to `{foldername}_context.txt` in the indexed directory)

If no arguments are provided, the application will prompt for input interactively.

### Example

```bash
# Interactive mode
dotnet run

# With arguments
dotnet run ./MyProject ./output/context.txt

# Using published executable
./CodeContext ./MyProject ./output/context.txt
```

## 🚀 MCP Server Mode (New!)

CodeContext now supports **Model Context Protocol (MCP)**, enabling native integration with agentic coding tools like Claude Code, Cline, and other MCP-compatible clients.

### What is MCP Server Mode?

MCP server mode provides:
- **Intelligent context generation** based on task descriptions
- **Token budget optimization** - automatically selects most relevant files within token limits
- **Dynamic queries** - agents can request exactly the context they need
- **Multiple strategies** - optimize for relevance, value, or balanced coverage

### Setup with Claude Code

1. Build CodeContext:
```bash
dotnet build
```

2. Add to your Claude Code MCP configuration (`~/.config/claude/mcp.json` or project `.claude/mcp.json`):
```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "codecontext": {
      "command": "dotnet",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--project",
        "/absolute/path/to/CodeContext/CodeContext.csproj",
        "--",
        "--mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}
```

3. Restart Claude Code - CodeContext will now be available as an MCP tool!

### Available MCP Tools

#### 1. GetCodeContext
Get optimized code context for a specific task within a token budget.

**Parameters:**
- `projectPath` (required): Path to project directory
- `taskDescription` (required): Description of task (e.g., "fix authentication bug", "add payment feature")
- `tokenBudget` (optional, default: 50000): Maximum tokens to use
- `includeStructure` (optional, default: true): Include project structure
- `strategy` (optional, default: "ValueOptimized"): Selection strategy
  - `GreedyByScore`: Pick highest-scoring files first
  - `ValueOptimized`: Maximize relevance per token (best bang for buck)
  - `Balanced`: Mix of high-value and comprehensive coverage

**Example:**
```
Agent: Use GetCodeContext with projectPath="/path/to/project",
       taskDescription="implement user authentication",
       tokenBudget=30000,
       strategy="ValueOptimized"
```

#### 2. GetProjectStructure
Get hierarchical directory tree of the project.

**Parameters:**
- `projectPath` (required): Path to project directory

#### 3. ListProjectFiles
List all files with token counts and optional relevance filtering.

**Parameters:**
- `projectPath` (required): Path to project directory
- `query` (optional): Query to filter/rank files by relevance

#### 4. GetFileContent
Get content of specific files.

**Parameters:**
- `projectPath` (required): Path to project directory
- `filePaths` (required): Comma-separated list of relative file paths

### How Token Budget Optimization Works

1. **Relevance Scoring**: Files are scored based on:
   - File name matching task keywords (30% weight)
   - File path matching keywords (20% weight)
   - Content matching keywords (40% weight)
   - File importance indicators (10% weight)

2. **Selection Strategies**:
   - **ValueOptimized** (recommended): Maximizes relevance/token ratio - gives you the best context per token
   - **GreedyByScore**: Picks highest-scoring files until budget is exhausted
   - **Balanced**: Combines both approaches for comprehensive yet efficient coverage

3. **Result**: You get the most relevant files for your task within your token budget!

### Example Workflow

```bash
# Agent asks: "Help me fix the login authentication bug"

# CodeContext MCP server:
# 1. Scans project files
# 2. Scores files for relevance to "login authentication bug"
# 3. Selects optimal files within token budget (e.g., 50K tokens)
# 4. Returns context with:
#    - auth/login.ts (score: 0.95, 2K tokens)
#    - auth/session.ts (score: 0.87, 1.5K tokens)
#    - middleware/auth.ts (score: 0.79, 1K tokens)
#    - tests/auth.test.ts (score: 0.72, 3K tokens)
#    - ... (up to budget)
```

### Benefits for Agentic Coding

- **Token Efficiency**: Don't waste tokens on irrelevant files
- **Task-Specific Context**: Get exactly what you need for each task
- **Automatic Relevance Ranking**: No manual file selection needed
- **Scalable**: Works with large codebases by intelligently sampling
- **Multiple Strategies**: Choose optimization approach per task

## Configuration

Create a `config.json` file in the application directory to customize settings:

```json
{
  "DefaultInputPath": ".",
  "DefaultOutputFileName": "context.txt",
  "OutputFormat": "text",
  "IncludeStructure": true,
  "IncludeContents": true
}
```

### Advanced Configuration

Customize filtering behavior by modifying the `FilterConfiguration` class:

- **`IgnoredExtensions`**: File extensions to ignore (e.g., `.exe`, `.dll`, `.png`)
- **`IgnoredDirectories`**: Directories to ignore (e.g., `node_modules`, `bin`, `obj`)
- **`IgnoredFiles`**: Specific files to ignore (e.g., `.gitignore`, `package-lock.json`)
- **`MaxFileSizeBytes`**: Maximum file size to process (default: 100KB)
- **`BinaryThreshold`**: Threshold for binary file detection (default: 0.3)

## Output Formats

### Text Format (default)
Plain text output with file paths, separators, and content.

### JSON Format
Structured JSON with content and timestamp:
```json
{
  "content": "...",
  "timestamp": "2025-11-21T10:30:00"
}
```

## Error Handling

The application provides clear error messages with appropriate exit codes:
- `1`: Directory not found
- `2`: I/O error
- `3`: Access denied
- `4`: Unexpected error

## Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

### Development

The codebase uses:
- **C# 12** with modern language features
- **Nullable reference types** for better null safety
- **XML documentation comments** on all public APIs
- **Dependency injection** patterns for testability

## License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the [LICENSE.txt](LICENSE.txt) file for details.

## Acknowledgments

Built with ❤️ for the developer community to make working with LLMs more efficient.

## Source & license

This open-source MCP server is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

- **Author:** [DavidVeksler](https://github.com/DavidVeksler)
- **Source:** [DavidVeksler/CodeContext](https://github.com/DavidVeksler/CodeContext)
- **License:** MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/mcp-davidveksler-codecontext
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/davidveksler
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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