Project Context Bootstrapping

Tools that compile structured codebase knowledge before a Claude Code session starts, so the AI understands routes, schema, dependencies, and high-impact files from the first message, without spending tokens on file exploration.

Context: Claude Code explores a codebase by calling Glob, Grep, and Read. On large projects, this costs thousands of tokens before any real work begins. The tools below pre-compile that exploration into a single structured artifact (or a set of targeted wiki articles) that Claude reads once at session start. Think of it as "loading the project into RAM before the session opens."

codesight

A zero-dependency CLI that analyzes a codebase via AST and generates structured context maps for Claude Code and other AI tools. Saves 7-12x tokens on base scan compared to manual file exploration; up to 83-131x with targeted wiki queries (self-reported on 3 production projects).

Attribute	Details
Source	GitHub: Houseofmvps/codesight
Install	npx codesight (zero dependencies, zero config)
Language	TypeScript, borrows the TS compiler from your project when present
License	MIT
Status	Early-stage (released April 2026, ~386 stars at time of writing, 1,253 as of 2026-07-27), APIs may evolve

Core commands:

# Scan current project — generates .codesight/ folder
npx codesight

# Generate wiki knowledge base (.codesight/wiki/) — targeted articles per topic
npx codesight --wiki

# Generate CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules, codex.md, AGENTS.md from project scan
npx codesight --init

# Show blast radius for a file (all files transitively affected by changing it)
npx codesight --blast src/lib/db.ts

# Start as MCP server (11 tools) — Claude calls it on demand
npx codesight --mcp

# Generate optimized config file for a specific AI tool
npx codesight --profile claude-code

# Watch mode — rescans on file changes
npx codesight --watch

# Open interactive HTML report in browser
npx codesight --open

What gets generated:

File	Content
.codesight/CODESIGHT.md	Combined context map: one file with full project understanding
.codesight/routes.md	Every API route with method, path, params, and what it touches (auth, db, cache, payments)
.codesight/schema.md	Every database model with fields, types, primary keys, foreign keys, relations
.codesight/graph.md	Import graph: which files import what, which files break the most things if changed
.codesight/middleware.md	Auth, rate limiting, CORS, validation, logging, error handlers
.codesight/config.md	Every env var (required vs default), config files, key dependencies
.codesight/wiki/	Persistent knowledge base: one article per topic (auth.md, database.md, payments.md, etc.)

Detection coverage:

• Routes: 25+ frameworks auto-detected (Express, Hono, Fastify, NestJS, tRPC, FastAPI, and more)
• Schema: 10 ORMs (Drizzle, Prisma, TypeORM, Mongoose, SQLAlchemy, ActiveRecord, Ecto, Eloquent, Entity Framework, Sequelize)
• Components: React, Vue, Svelte, Flutter, SwiftUI
• Languages: TypeScript (full AST), JavaScript, Python, Go, Ruby, Elixir, Java, Kotlin, Rust, PHP, Dart, Swift, C# (regex fallback for non-TS)

MCP integration: once configured, Claude calls it directly without running npx:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "codesight": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["codesight", "--mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Available MCP tools: codesight_scan, codesight_get_wiki_index, codesight_get_wiki_article, codesight_get_routes, codesight_get_schema, codesight_get_blast_radius, codesight_get_hot_files, codesight_get_env, codesight_get_summary, codesight_lint_wiki, codesight_refresh.

How the wiki reduces token usage:

Question	Without wiki	With wiki
"How does auth work?"	~12K tokens (8+ file reads)	~300 tokens (auth.md)
"What models exist?"	~5K tokens (full CODESIGHT.md)	~400 tokens (database.md)
New session start	~5K tokens (full reload)	~200 tokens (index.md)

At what scale to switch from CODESIGHT.md to wiki: on small to medium projects (under ~1,500 files), loading CODESIGHT.md at session start via CLAUDE.md is practical. On large projects (a 1,700-file Next.js + tRPC monorepo generates a 35K-token CODESIGHT.md), loading the full file becomes counterproductive. Use --wiki + MCP server instead: Claude pulls one targeted article (~200-400 tokens) per question rather than loading the entire map upfront.

Limitations and caveats:

• Benchmarks are self-reported on 3 production projects, with no independent verification at time of writing
• AST precision applies to TypeScript only; other languages use regex-based fallback
• --init generates a CLAUDE.md automatically; it can overwrite an existing one. Back up your CLAUDE.md before running this on a project with an established config
• Early-stage tool (April 2026): API surface may change across releases
• MongoDB projects correctly report 0 schema models (no SQL ORM declarations)
• Cloudflare Workers using raw HTTP handlers (no recognized framework) report 0 routes: the worker runtime falls outside the 25+ supported framework list
• Next.js App Router projects report 0 routes: file-based routing has no explicit route declarations for static analysis to parse; routes are inferred from file paths, not code patterns
• Rust projects produce near-empty output: no AST support, regex fallback captures only top-level module imports (src/main.rs → mod X); routes, structs, and business logic are invisible. Not useful on Rust codebases

CI integration (keeps context fresh on every push):

name: codesight
on: [push]
jobs:
  scan:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 20
      - run: npm install -g codesight && codesight
      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: codesight
          path: .codesight/

Cross-ref: For CLAUDE.md manual authorship and path-scoping, see ultimate-guide.md Section 3. For context window management strategies, see context-engineering-tools.md. For MCP server configuration, see mcp-servers-ecosystem.md.