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Quickstart

Build a graph of your repository, then ask about its callers and dependencies from your terminal or coding assistant.

1. Install Travsr​

With Node.js 18 or later and npm installed:

npm install -g @travsr.com/travsr
travsr --version

For a standalone binary or a source build, see Installation.

2. Initialize a Git repository​

cd /path/to/your-repo
travsr init

Travsr creates the structural index, registers the repository, and installs Git hooks for commits, merges, and checkouts. In an interactive terminal, it also starts the daemon. The daemon watches saved files and performs semantic analysis in the background.

Indexing time depends on your repository and analyzers. Check progress:

travsr status

If the daemon is not running, start it from the repository:

travsr daemon start

For a script that needs semantic indexing to finish before continuing, use travsr init --semantic. Noninteractive initialization does not automatically start the daemon.

3. Connect your coding tools​

Initialization detects installed coding tools and writes project MCP settings where supported. Follow the printed instructions for clients that require manual configuration. Restart or reload your client after changing its MCP configuration.

To run detection again:

travsr connect

Agent guidance files are optional. To create them as well:

travsr connect --rules

Claude Desktop and other desktop MCP clients​

For a client launched outside your repository, use global mode so Travsr can find your registered repositories without relying on the client's working directory:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "travsr": {
      "command": "travsr",
      "args": ["mcp", "--stdio", "--global"]
    }
  }
}

Merge this entry into your client's MCP configuration, keeping any existing servers. The client must be able to find the installed travsr executable; use its absolute path if the client does not inherit your shell's PATH.

Global mode exposes registered repositories through one server. Ask the agent to call repos_list, then include the returned repository name in the repo argument of its queries.

4. Ask about your code​

From a terminal inside the repository, replace the sample symbol with one from your own code:

travsr ask "what calls PaymentService.charge?"

Or ask your connected coding assistant:

List the repositories registered with Travsr. In my repository, find the callers of PaymentService.charge and show their source locations.

Other useful questions:

  • Which files depend on this module? Use get_dependencies to inspect direct imports and get_blast_radius for transitive impact.
  • How is one symbol connected to another? Use get_execution_path with source and sink symbols.
  • Where is rate limiting implemented? Use get_context with a token budget and include_snippets: true.

Results reflect the relationships recorded by the available analyzers. Check indexing progress and language support before treating an empty result as evidence that no relationship exists.

Optional next steps​

  • More language analysis: run travsr lang detect, then travsr lang install <lang> for an additional analyzer. TypeScript/JavaScript, Rust, and Python have built-in semantic analysis. See language requirements.
  • Local semantic search: run travsr embed init to configure optional embeddings for broader natural-language discovery. Structural queries work without embeddings.
  • VS Code: inspect callers, check blast radius, and explore or copy context into chat. See extension features.
  • Reference: browse CLI commands and MCP tools.