Codebase Summarizer

This tutorial shows how to use kit to generate a structured Markdown summary of your codebase, including the file tree and all extracted symbols (functions, classes, etc.). Such a summary can be invaluable for quickly understanding a new project, tracking architectural changes, or for documentation purposes.

Step 1: Summarize the Codebase Structure

The core of this task lies in using kit’s Repository object to analyze the codebase and extract its structural information. This process involves two main kit operations:

1. Initializing the Repository: repo = Repository(repo_path) creates an instance that points kit to the target codebase. kit then becomes aware of the repository’s location and is ready to perform various analyses.
2. Indexing the Repository: index = repo.index() is a key kit command. When called, kit (typically using its internal RepoMapper component) traverses the repository, parses supported source files, identifies structural elements like files, directories, classes, functions, and other symbols. It then compiles this information into a structured index.

Use kit’s Repo object to index the codebase and gather all relevant information.

from kit import Repository

def summarize_codebase(repo_path: str) -> str:
    repo = Repository(repo_path)
    index = repo.index()
    lines = [f"# Codebase Summary for {repo_path}\n"]
    lines.append("## File Tree\n")
    # The index['file_tree'] contains a list of file and directory paths
    for file_info in index["file_tree"]:
        # Assuming file_info is a dictionary or string representing the path
        # Adjust formatting based on the actual structure of file_info objects from repo.index()
        if isinstance(file_info, dict):
            lines.append(f"- {file_info.get('path', file_info.get('name', 'Unknown file/dir'))}")
        else:
            lines.append(f"- {file_info}") # Fallback if it's just a string path

    lines.append("\n## Symbols\n")
    # The index['symbols'] is typically a dictionary where keys are file paths
    # and values are lists of symbol information dictionaries for that file.
    for file_path, symbols_in_file in index["symbols"].items():
        lines.append(f"### {file_path}")
        for symbol in symbols_in_file:
            # Each symbol dict contains details like 'type' (e.g., 'function', 'class') and 'name'.
            lines.append(f"- **{symbol['type']}** `{symbol['name']}`")
        lines.append("")
    return "\n".join(lines)

This function, summarize_codebase, first initializes kit for the given repo_path. Then, repo.index() does the heavy lifting of analyzing the code. The resulting index object is a dictionary, typically containing at least two keys:

• 'file_tree': A list representing the directory structure and files within the repository.
• 'symbols': A dictionary where keys are file paths, and each value is a list of symbols found in that file. Each symbol is itself a dictionary containing details like its name and type (e.g., function, class).

The rest of the function iterates through this structured data to format it into a human-readable Markdown string.

---

Step 2: Command-Line Interface

To make the summarizer easy to use from the terminal, we’ll add a simple command-line interface using Python’s argparse module. This allows the user to specify the repository path and an optional output file for the summary.

Provide CLI arguments for repo path and output file:

import argparse

def main() -> None:
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Codebase summarizer using kit.")
    parser.add_argument("--repo", required=True, help="Path to the code repository")
    parser.add_argument("--output", help="Output Markdown file (default: stdout)")
    args = parser.parse_args()
    summary = summarize_codebase(args.repo)
    if args.output:
        with open(args.output, "w") as f:
            f.write(summary)
        print(f"Summary written to {args.output}")
    else:
        print(summary)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

---

Step 3: Running the Script

With the script in place, you can execute it from your terminal. You’ll need to provide the path to the repository you want to summarize and, optionally, a path where the Markdown output file should be saved. If no output file is specified, the summary will be printed to the console.

Run the summarizer like this:

python codebase_summarizer.py --repo /path/to/repo --output summary.md

---

Example Output

The generated Markdown file (or console output) will provide a clear, structured overview of your project, derived directly from kit’s analysis. It will list the files and then, for each file, the symbols defined within it.

# Codebase Summary for /path/to/repo

## File Tree
- main.py
- utils.py
- models/
- models/model.py

## Symbols
### main.py
- **function** `main`
- **class** `App`

### utils.py
- **function** `helper`