Glyph

glyph is an MCP server that extracts symbol outlines from your codebase using Tree-sitter queries. It provides clean, multi-file context for AI coding agents, helping you share structured code references without overwhelming token limits. glyph can run as an MCP server or be used as a standalone CLI tool.

How to use

You run glyph as an MCP server to enable AI coding agents to access your code structure on demand. Start the server in your project, then connect your MCP client to request symbol outlines for your codebase. You can also wire glyph into editors or assistants that support MCP to automatically fetch updated outlines as you work.

How to install

Prerequisites you need before installation: a system with a Go toolchain installed. If you are on macOS, install Go via Homebrew.

# macOS prerequisites
brew install go

# Install glyph (latest version) into your Go bin directory
GOBIN=/usr/local/bin go install "github.com/benmyles/glyph@latest"

Configuration and usage notes

This server integrates with MCP-enabled clients. The intended workflow is to run glyph as a local MCP server and point your MCP client to the running process. You can also configure clients like Cursor to launch the glyph server automatically via an MCP entry.

// Example MCP server configuration for Cursor
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "glyph": {
      "command": "/usr/local/bin/glyph",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Usage details and options

Detail levels control how much symbol information glyph returns. The options include minimal, standard (default), and full. Minimal shows names and line numbers; standard includes signatures; full includes complete symbol definitions with code blocks.

To run as an MCP server directly from the project, use the following command to start listening for MCP clients (the exact invocation is shown in the usage notes):

$ glyph mcp

Integration patterns with AI coding assistants

You can connect glyph to an AI coding assistant that supports MCP. For Claude Code, add glyph as a local MCP server on your project, then verify your server configuration with the MCP management commands provided by the client. For Cursor, include an MCP server entry that launches glyph with the mcp argument.

Examples

Start glyph in MCP server mode and verify access from a client. Then request symbol outlines for a given code path to see a structured map of functions, types, and other symbols across files.

Notes on features and performance

glyph uses declarative Tree-sitter queries to extract symbols, supports glob-based file discovery, is language-agnostic with pluggable query patterns, and is designed for high performance with streaming file processing and incremental parsing.

Available tools

QueryBasedExtraction

Uses Tree-sitter declarative queries to extract symbols from code across languages.

GlobDiscovery

Recursively discovers files using glob patterns to build a multi-file symbol map.

SymbolFormatter

Formats extracted symbols into concise structures for efficient MCP transfer and token budgeting.

MCPServerBridge

Provides seamless MCP integration so AI coding agents can request and receive symbol outlines.