Debugging with GitNexus

When to Use

• "Why is this function failing?"
• "Trace where this error comes from"
• "Who calls this method?"
• "This endpoint returns 500"
• Investigating bugs, errors, or unexpected behavior

Bind the repository first

A root cause traced in the wrong repository is a wrong root cause.

Bind once using a confirmed registry name/path or configured MCP default. Call list_repos {} if the target is not yet known; reuse that binding across calls. With one indexed repository, use the examples below as written. With more than one, pass repo on every call: an omitted repo normally errors, but under an MCP policy with a configured default it resolves to that default silently. If you cannot tell which repository is meant, stop and ask. This matters most for cypher, whose statement carries no in-band hint of which database it ran against.

list_repos is paginated, so page with offset: pagination.nextOffset until hasMore is false before concluding a repository is absent.

A stale index describes the code from before your bug, so refresh before trusting a trace, and state the repository and index freshness with the diagnosis.

Workflow

0. Bind the repo once (list_repos only if not already known)
1. If the suspect is unknown, query for the error/symptom with small result limits
2. context({name: "<suspect>"})                    → See callers/callees/processes
3. Read a process resource only if its trace resolves an open question
4. cypher({statement: "MATCH path..."})                 → Custom traces if needed

If "Index is stale" → run node .gitnexus/run.cjs analyze in terminal. Hot-tool staleness names which index answered (branch/lastCommit) and how fresh it is (status). Re-analyze only for behind or diverged, current is identity, unknown is unmeasurable.

Checklist