NOTE
Native agent tools (regex search, path matching, file reading) handle targeted lookups well. aptu-coder handles the mechanical, non-AI work: mapping directory structure, extracting symbols, and tracing call graphs. Offloading this to a dedicated tool reduces token usage and speeds up coding with better accuracy.
Benchmarks
Auth migration task on Claude Code against Django (Python) source tree. Full methodology.
| Mode | Sonnet 4.6 | Haiku 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| MCP | 112k tokens, $0.39 | 406k tokens, $0.42 |
| Native | 276k tokens, $0.95 | 473k tokens, $0.53 |
| Savings | 59% fewer tokens, 59% cheaper | 14% fewer tokens, 21% cheaper |
AeroDyn integration audit task on Claude Code against OpenFAST (Fortran) source tree. Full methodology.
| Mode | Sonnet 4.6 | Haiku 4.5 |
|---|---|---|
| MCP | 472k tokens, $1.65 | 687k tokens, $0.72 |
| Native | 877k tokens, $2.85 | 2162k tokens, $2.21 |
| Savings | 46% fewer tokens, 42% cheaper | 68% fewer tokens, 68% cheaper |
Overview
aptu-coder is a Model Context Protocol server that gives AI agents precise structural context about a codebase: directory trees, symbol definitions, and call graphs, without reading raw files. It supports 18 languages (see Supported Languages) and integrates with any MCP-compatible orchestrator.
Supported Languages
All languages are enabled by default. Disable individual languages at compile time via Cargo feature flags.
| Language | Extensions | Feature flag |
|---|---|---|
| Astro | .astro | always-on (regex via TypeScript frontmatter extractor) |
| C/C++ | .c, .cc, .cpp, .cxx, .h, .hpp, .hxx | lang-cpp |
| C# | .cs | lang-csharp |
| CSS | .css | lang-css (tree-sitter; regex fallback when disabled) |
| Fortran | .f, .f77, .f90, .f95, .f03, .f08, .for, .ftn | lang-fortran |
| Go | .go | lang-go |
| HTML | .html, .htm | lang-html (stub; no extraction) |
| Java | .java | lang-java |
| JavaScript | .js, .mjs, .cjs | lang-javascript |
| JSON | .json | always-on (regex; first-level key extraction) |
| Kotlin | .kt, .kts | lang-kotlin |
| Markdown | .md, .mdx | lang-markdown |
| Python | .py | lang-python |
| Rust | .rs | lang-rust |
| TOML | .toml | always-on (regex; section header extraction) |
| TSX | .tsx | lang-tsx |
| TypeScript | .ts | lang-typescript |
| YAML | .yaml, .yml | lang-yaml (tree-sitter; regex fallback when disabled) |
Installation
Homebrew (macOS and Linux)
brew install clouatre-labs/tap/aptu-coder
Update: brew upgrade aptu-coder
cargo-binstall (no Rust required)
cargo binstall aptu-coder
cargo install (requires Rust toolchain)
cargo install aptu-coder
Quick Start
Build from source
cargo build --release
The binary is at target/release/aptu-coder.
Configure MCP Client
Two transports are available. Streamable HTTP is recommended when using orchestrators that spawn delegates (e.g. goose coder): a single server process is shared across the orchestrator and all agents, eliminating extension-drift that occurs when each stdio subprocess gets its own isolated instance.
Streamable HTTP (recommended for multi-agent setups)
With Homebrew, one command starts the server on login and keeps it running:
brew services start aptu-coder
The Homebrew formula starts the server on port 49200 by default. Then add the extension once to ~/.config/goose/config.yaml:
extensions:
aptu-coder:
type: streamable_http
uri: http://127.0.0.1:49200/mcp
name: aptu-coder
timeout: 300
Or for Claude Code:
claude mcp add --transport http aptu-coder http://127.0.0.1:49200/mcp
To use a different port, set APTU_CODER_PORT before restarting:
APTU_CODER_PORT=4000 brew services restart aptu-coder
To start directly without brew services:
aptu-coder --port 49200
# or equivalently
APTU_CODER_PORT=49200 aptu-coder
stdio (single-client use)
Suitable when only one process needs the server. The client owns the process lifecycle and spawns it automatically:
claude mcp add --transport stdio aptu-coder -- aptu-coder
Or add manually to .mcp.json at your project root (shared with your team via version control):
{
"mcpServers": {
"aptu-coder": {
"command": "aptu-coder",
"args": []
}
}
}
Tools
All optional parameters may be omitted. Shared optional parameters for analyze_directory, analyze_file, and analyze_symbol:
| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
summary | boolean | auto | Compact output; auto-triggers above 50K chars |
cursor | string | -- | Pagination cursor from a previous response's next_cursor |
page_size | integer | 100 | Items per page |
| Tool | Purpose | Languages |
|---|---|---|
analyze_directory | Directory tree with LOC, function, and class counts; respects .gitignore | all |
analyze_file | Functions, classes, and imports with signatures and line ranges; returns graceful fallback (line count, file head, no AST) for unsupported extensions | all |
analyze_module | Lightweight function and import index (~75% smaller than analyze_file); returns graceful fallback (empty index with note) for unsupported extensions | all |
analyze_symbol | Call graph for a named symbol across a directory; callers, callees, call depth | all |
edit_overwrite | Create or overwrite a file; creates parent directories | any file |
edit_replace | Replace a unique exact text block; errors if zero or multiple matches; empty new_text deletes the block; CRLF normalized before matching | all |
exec_command | Run a shell command; returns stdout, stderr, exit code; output capped and filtered; optional timeout_secs (kill on expiry) and drain_timeout_secs (post-exit drain window); heredoc rejected before spawn (file-write pattern, stdin-consuming flag, stdin parameter conflict, or missing closing delimiter) | any |
Tool parameters, constraints, and examples are available via your MCP client's tool inspector or tools/list response.
Output Management
For large codebases, several mechanisms prevent context overflow.
Pagination
analyze_file and analyze_symbol append a NEXT_CURSOR: line when output is truncated. Pass the token back as cursor to fetch the next page. summary=true and cursor are mutually exclusive; passing both returns an error.
# Response ends with:
NEXT_CURSOR: eyJvZmZzZXQiOjUwfQ==
# Fetch next page:
analyze_symbol path: /my/project symbol: my_function cursor: eyJvZmZzZXQiOjUwfQ==
exec_command output caps
exec_command applies three independent byte-level caps to prevent large command outputs from flooding the context:
| Stream | Cap | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| stdout | 30,000 chars | Tail-preserving; keeps the last 30k chars |
| stderr | 10,000 chars | Tail-preserving; errors appear at the end |
combined output_text | 50,000 chars | Safety net after interleaving |
The 30k stdout cap is data-driven: analysis of 27,981 observed exec_command calls shows only 0.33% exceed this limit. When any cap fires, output_truncated: true is set in the response and recorded in the JSONL metrics.
drain_timeout_secs controls how long the server waits after the child exits for any background subprocess still holding the pipe open. Default is 500 ms (0 or omitted). Negative values return INVALID_PARAMS. When the drain window expires before the pipe closes, output_truncated: true is set.
exec_command output filters
A built-in filter table suppresses per-file noise from chatty CLI tools before output reaches the model. Filters apply to stdout, stderr, and interleaved output on success only; raw output is always preserved on failure.
| Command | Behavior |
|---|---|
git pull | Strips diff-stat noise (pipe bars, create mode, delete mode, rename, mode change lines); empty output replaced with ok (up-to-date) |
git fetch | Strips From and ref-range lines; caps at 10 lines; empty output replaced with ok fetched |
git push | Strips remote: progress lines and To destination lines; caps at 10 lines; empty output replaced with ok pushed |
git log | Caps at 20 lines |
git status | Caps at 20 lines |
git show | Strips patch hunks (@@ headers and +/- diff lines); caps at 200 lines |
git commit | Strips GPG signing and gitleaks hook output; caps at 10 lines; empty output replaced with ok committed |
git diff | Strips ANSI escape sequences; caps at 100 lines; empty output replaced with ok (working tree clean) |
git add | Strips gitleaks hook output; caps at 5 lines; empty output replaced with ok staged |
cargo build | Strips Compiling / Checking / Downloading / Fresh lines; empty output replaced with ok (build clean) |
cargo test | Strips Compiling / Checking / Fresh lines |
Project-local rules can be added in .aptu/filters.toml. Parse errors and unrecognized schema_version values (version != 1) fall back to the built-in table with a logged warning; no crash occurs. When a filter fires, filter_applied in structuredContent identifies which rule matched.
Non-Interactive Pipelines
In single-pass subagent sessions, prompt caches are written but never reused. Benchmarks showed MCP responses writing ~2x more to cache than native-only workflows, adding cost with no quality gain. Set DISABLE_PROMPT_CACHING=1 (or DISABLE_PROMPT_CACHING_HAIKU=1 for Haiku-specific pipelines) to avoid this overhead.
The server's own instructions expose a 4-step recommended workflow for unknown repositories: survey the repo root with analyze_directory at max_depth=2, drill into the source package, run analyze_module on key files for a function/import index (or analyze_file when signatures and types are needed), then use analyze_symbol to trace call graphs. MCP clients that surface server instructions will present this workflow automatically to the agent.
Environment Variables
Cache and runtime
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
APTU_CODER_DIR_CACHE_CAPACITY | 20 | LRU cache size for directory-analysis results. |
APTU_CODER_DISK_CACHE_DIR | $XDG_DATA_HOME/aptu-coder/analysis-cache | Directory for the L2 on-disk call-graph cache used by analyze_symbol. Created automatically if it does not exist. |
APTU_CODER_DISK_CACHE_DISABLED | unset | Set to 1 to disable the L2 disk cache entirely. |
APTU_CODER_EXEC_CACHE_CAPACITY | 64 | LRU cache size for exec_command results. |
APTU_CODER_EXEC_CACHE_TTL_SECS | 10 | TTL in seconds for exec_command result cache. |
APTU_CODER_FILE_CACHE_CAPACITY | 100 | LRU cache size for file-analysis results. |
APTU_CODER_METRICS_EXPORT_FILE | unset | Absolute path for a one-shot JSONL metrics export on shutdown. |
APTU_CODER_PORT | unset | Port for streamable HTTP mode. Equivalent to --port N; --port takes precedence. When unset and --port is not passed, stdio mode is used. |
APTU_CODER_PROFILE | unset | Tool subset: edit (edit tools + exec_command only), analyze (analyze tools + exec_command only). Also settable per-session via io.clouatre-labs/profile in MCP _meta. |
APTU_SHELL | unset | Shell for exec_command. Defaults to bash then /bin/sh. |
Observability
For the JSONL schema, OTel configuration, and span attribute policy, see:
- OBSERVABILITY.md (repository root)
- docs/METRICS.md
Documentation
- AGENTS.md - Contributor reference: project structure, commands, rmcp footguns, tool parameter constraints
- ARCHITECTURE.md - Design goals, module map, data flow, language handler system, caching strategy
- CONTRIBUTING.md - Development workflow, commit conventions, PR checklist
- DESIGN-GUIDE.md - Design decisions, rationale, and replication guide for building high-performance MCP servers
- MCP Best Practices - Best practices for agentic loops, orchestration patterns, MCP tool design, memory management, and safety controls
- METRICS.md - Metrics schema, JSONL format, and retention policy
- ROADMAP.md - Development history and future direction
- SECURITY.md - Security policy and vulnerability reporting
License
Apache-2.0. See LICENSE for details.