Features

Powerful features for modern development

Every feature is designed to help you understand, navigate, and maintain your codebase at scale.

Intelligent File Watching

Cortex uses Chokidar to monitor your project files in real-time. When files change, they are automatically re-ingested and the knowledge graph is updated.

  • Supports .md, .ts, .tsx, .js, .jsx, .json, .yaml files
  • Debounced processing to handle rapid changes
  • Configurable watch patterns and ignore rules
  • Low overhead — uses OS-level file system events
$ cortex watch --debounce 500

LLM-Powered Entity Extraction

Automatically identifies and categorizes meaningful entities from your source code using large language models.

  • Extracts decisions, patterns, components, and dependencies
  • Language-aware parsing via Tree-sitter
  • Structured entity output with metadata and confidence scores
  • Handles code, comments, and documentation together
$ cortex ingest --project myapp

Relationship Inference

Goes beyond simple keyword matching to understand how entities relate across your entire portfolio of projects.

  • Cross-project relationship discovery
  • Dependency chain tracking
  • Pattern usage mapping
  • Architecture layer connections
$ cortex graph --show-relationships

Contradiction Detection

Identifies conflicts between architectural decisions across different projects, helping you maintain consistency.

  • Detects conflicting technology choices
  • Flags inconsistent API patterns
  • Surfaces divergent security practices
  • Reports dependency version conflicts
$ cortex contradictions --severity high

Natural Language Queries

Ask questions about your codebase in plain English and receive structured answers with source citations.

  • Streaming responses for large result sets
  • Source citations with file paths and line numbers
  • Context-aware follow-up questions
  • Vector similarity search via LanceDB
$ cortex query "How is auth handled in the API?"

MCP Server Integration

Expose your knowledge graph to Claude Code and other MCP-compatible tools via the Model Context Protocol.

  • Direct integration with Claude Code
  • Query knowledge graph from your AI assistant
  • Context-enriched code generation
  • Real-time graph updates while coding
$ cortex mcp start

Web Dashboard

Interactive web interface with real-time knowledge graph visualization, activity feed, and query explorer.

  • D3-powered knowledge graph visualization
  • Real-time activity feed via WebSocket
  • Query explorer with streaming responses
  • Project management interface
$ cortex serve --port 3710

Privacy & Security

Keep sensitive data local with configurable privacy controls. Restricted projects never send data to cloud LLMs.

  • Per-project privacy settings
  • Auto-detection of sensitive files (.env, .key, .pem)
  • API secret redaction before cloud transmission
  • All data stored locally in ~/.cortex/
$ cortex projects add secret-app ./src --restricted