index-codebase

name	index-codebase
description	Use this skill when the user asks to "index the codebase", "build the index", "rebuild the index", "reindex", "set up max-context", or when query_codebase returns an "index not ready" error. Also use when the user switches branches or pulls new code and wants fresh search results.

Index Codebase

Build or rebuild the max-context code intelligence index for the current project. This parses all source files with Tree-sitter, extracts functions, types, call edges, and imports, and stores them in a SQLite database with FTS5 full-text search.

When to Run

• First time setting up max-context in a project
• After switching branches or pulling significant changes
• When query_codebase returns "index not ready"
• When the user explicitly asks to reindex

Steps

1. Run the indexer from the project root:

max-context --index

This will:

• Scan all source files (respecting .gitignore and .contextignore)
• Parse each file with Tree-sitter to extract symbols
• Build the call graph (function → function edges)
• Create FTS5 search indexes
• Generate .max-context/architecture.md and .max-context/summary.md
• Write .max-context/status.json with health info

2. Verify the index was built:

max-context --status

3. If the MCP server is already running, you can trigger incremental reindex by writing to the queue:

touch .max-context/.reindex-queue

After Indexing

Once indexed, use the MCP tools:

• query_codebase — Search for functions, types, or concepts by keyword
• get_call_chain — Trace who calls a function and what it calls
• get_architecture — Get the project structure summary

Configuration

Create .max-context/config.json to customize:

{
  "languages": ["ts", "tsx", "js", "py", "go", "rs"],
  "include": ["src/", "lib/"],
  "exclude": ["vendor/", "generated/"],
  "maxFileSize": 1048576
}

Create .contextignore (gitignore syntax) to exclude additional paths from indexing.