Ckb

CKB — Code Knowledge Backend

Know your code. Change it safely. Ship with confidence.

CKB transforms your codebase into a queryable knowledge base. Ask questions, understand impact, find owners, detect dead code—all through CLI, API, or AI assistants.

Think of it as a senior engineer who knows every line of code, every decision, and every owner—available 24/7 to answer your questions.

---

Instant Answers to Hard Questions

---

What You Can Do

🔍 Understand — Semantic search, call graphs, usage tracing, architecture maps

⚡ Analyze — Impact analysis, risk scoring, hotspot detection, coupling analysis

🛡️ Protect — Affected test detection, breaking change warnings, PR risk assessment

🔐 Secure — Secret detection, credential scanning, security-sensitive code identification

👥 Collaborate — Ownership lookup, reviewer suggestions, architectural decisions (ADRs)

📊 Improve — Dead code detection, tech debt tracking, documentation coverage

🚀 Compound Operations — Single-call tools (explore, understand, prepareChange) reduce AI tool calls by 60-70%

🔗 Integrate — CLI, HTTP API, MCP for AI tools, CI/CD pipelines, custom scripts

---

Try It Now

# See what's risky in your codebase

ckb hotspots --format=human

Check what changed and what might break

ckb diff-summary --format=human

Scan for exposed secrets

ckb audit --format=human

Check architecture at a glance

ckb arch --format=human

Check system status

ckb status

---

Works Everywhere

83% token reduction with smart presets—load only the tools you need.

# One command to connect to Claude Code

ckb setup

Building your own tools? Use CKB as a backend via CLI, HTTP API, or MCP. See the [Integration Guide](https://github.com/SimplyLiz/CodeMCP/wiki/Integration-Guide) for examples in Node.js, Python, Go, and shell scripts.

---

Learn More

---

Quick Start

Option 1: npm (Recommended)

# Install globally

npm install -g @tastehub/ckb

Or run directly with npx (no install needed)

npx @tastehub/ckb init

Option 2: Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew install simplyliz/ckb/ckb

Use the fully-qualified name. Homebrew 6.0 requires third-party taps to be trusted before it loads them; installing this way grants that trust for this one formula. Tapping first and installing by short name fails with Refusing to load formula ... from untrusted tap.

Option 3: Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/SimplyLiz/CodeMCP.git

cd CodeMCP go build -o ckb ./cmd/ckb

Setup

# 1. Initialize in your project

cd /path/to/your/project ckb init # or: npx @tastehub/ckb init

2. Generate SCIP index (optional but recommended)

ckb index # auto-detects language and runs appropriate indexer

3. Connect to Claude Code

ckb setup # creates .mcp.json automatically

Or manually:

claude mcp add --transport stdio ckb -- npx @tastehub/ckb mcp

Token efficiency shown at startup:

CKB MCP Server v9.3.1

Active tools: 25 / 110 (22%) Estimated context: ~4k tokens Preset: core

Now Claude can answer questions like:

• *"What calls the HandleRequest function?"*
• *"How is ProcessPayment reached from the API?"*
• *"What's the blast radius if I change UserService?"*
• *"Who owns the internal/api module?"*
• *"Is this legacy code still used?"*

Why CKB?

Three Ways to Use It

How Indexing Works

CKB uses SCIP indexes to understand your code. Think of it like a database that knows where every function is defined, who calls it, and how everything connects.

The Basics

# 1. Generate an index (auto-detects language)

ckb index

2. Check if your index is fresh

ckb status

Without an index, CKB still works using tree-sitter parsing (basic mode), but with an index you get:

• Cross-file references ("who calls this function?")
• Precise impact analysis
• Call graph navigation

Language Support

Not all languages are equal. CKB classifies languages into quality tiers based on indexer maturity:

Key limitations:

• Incremental indexing is Go-only. Other languages require full reindex.
• TypeScript monorepos may need --infer-tsconfig flag
• C/C++ requires compile_commands.json
• Python works best with activated virtual environment

Run ckb doctor --tier standard to check if your language tools are properly installed.

See [Language Support](https://github.com/SimplyLiz/CodeMCP/wiki/Language-Support) for indexer installation, known issues, and the full feature matrix.

Keeping Your Index Fresh

Your index becomes stale when you make commits. CKB offers several ways to stay current:

Quick start for AI sessions:

ckb mcp --watch  # Auto-reindexes every 30s when stale

Check staleness:

ckb status

Shows: "5 commits behind HEAD" or "Up to date"

For Go projects, CKB uses incremental indexing—only changed files are processed, making updates fast.

See the [Index Management Guide](https://github.com/SimplyLiz/CodeMCP/wiki/Index-Management) for complete documentation.

Features

📖 [Full Features Guide](https://github.com/SimplyLiz/CodeMCP/wiki/Features) — Detailed documentation with examples

📋 [Changelog](https://github.com/SimplyLiz/CodeMCP/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md) — Version history

PR Review

CKB review runs 21 quality checks in 5 seconds — secrets, breaking changes, dead code, complexity, test gaps, bug patterns, and more. Zero tokens, zero API calls.

When your AI assistant (Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf) reviews a PR, it calls CKB first and gets structured analysis in ~1k tokens. Then it only reads the files that matter — saving 50-80% of tokens on large PRs.

ckb review --base=main              # Human-readable review

ckb review --base=main --ci # CI mode (exit codes) ckb review --base=main --post=123 # Post as PR comment

Works in CI without any LLM:

- run: npx @tastehub/ckb review --base=main --ci --format=sarif > review.sarif

| Files LLM reads