glyph

What is glyph?

glyph is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that extracts symbol outlines from your codebase using Tree-sitter's declarative query language. It provides LLM coding agents with clean, efficient symbol extraction and can also be used as a standalone CLI tool.

How to use glyph?

Install glyph via Go, then run it as an MCP server with glyph mcp or as a CLI tool with glyph cli followed by an absolute glob pattern. Control the detail level using the -detail flag (minimal, standard, or full). Integration with Claude Code and Cursor is supported by adding glyph as an MCP server.

Key features of glyph

• Declarative query-based symbol extraction using Tree-sitter
• Glob-based file discovery with familiar patterns
• Language-agnostic architecture, easy to extend
• Configurable detail levels (minimal, standard, full)
• Multi-file support for unified project views
• MCP-native for seamless AI workflow integration
• High performance with optimized Tree-sitter queries

Use cases of glyph

• Provide LLM coding agents with accurate code structure context
• Understand multi-file project outlines without overwhelming token limits
• Extract concise symbol maps for code review or documentation
• Generate high-level or detailed symbol summaries for any supported language

FAQ from glyph

What languages does glyph support?

Glyph supports Go, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, and Python. Adding new languages requires only about 20 lines of query patterns.

How do I control the level of detail in the output?

Use the -detail option in CLI mode with values minimal (names and line numbers), standard (signatures and declarations), or full (complete symbol definitions with code blocks).

How can I integrate glyph with Claude Code or Cursor?

Add glyph as an MCP server: for Claude Code use claude mcp add glyph /usr/local/bin/glyph mcp; for Cursor add it to MCP configuration with command /usr/local/bin/glyph and args ["mcp"].

What runtime dependencies does glyph require?

Glyph is a Go binary; it requires Go to be installed to build from source. The installed binary runs standalone on any system with its binary.

How can I add support for a new language?

Modify file_utils.go for language detection (approx. 2 lines), add Tree-sitter query patterns in queries.go (approx. 10-20 lines), and update the query dispatcher (approx. 5 lines). An example for Rust is provided in the README.