Visual Tree Explorer (VTE)

An MCP server for efficient codebase exploration. Provides file tree visualization, symbol extraction, and dependency analysis in a single tool call.

Why VTE?

Traditional codebase exploration requires multiple tool calls:

find . -name "*.ts"           # Find files
grep -r "function" src/       # Search content
cat src/index.ts              # Read file
# ... repeat for each file

VTE consolidates this into one call that returns a complete picture:

• File tree with sizes and line counts
• Code previews (configurable lines)
• AST-parsed symbols (functions, classes, interfaces)
• Import/export relationships
• Dependency graph with circular dependency detection

This reduces context usage and provides richer information than sequential grep/cat commands.

How It Works

1. Tree Traversal: Recursively walks the directory with configurable depth and skip patterns
2. Symbol Extraction: Uses TypeScript compiler API for accurate AST parsing (not regex)
3. Dependency Analysis: Builds import/export graph, detects circular dependencies, calculates module cohesion
4. Formatted Output: Returns structured ASCII tree or JSON

Symbol Extraction

VTE uses the TypeScript compiler API to parse code, providing:

• 100% accurate symbol detection (vs ~70% with regex)
• Proper handling of complex syntax (destructuring, re-exports)
• Export detection with ✓ exported markers
• Only top-level symbols (no noise from local variables)

Dependency Graph

When enabled, analyzes the entire codebase to provide:

• Import/export relationships per file
• Circular dependency detection with full paths
• Module clusters by directory
• Most-connected file identification

Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description | |-----------|------|---------|-------------| | path | string | required | Directory to explore | | depth | number | 2 | Traversal depth (max: 10) | | preview_lines | number | 5 | Lines to preview per file (max: 50) | | show_symbols | boolean | true | Extract code symbols via AST | | symbols_only_exported | boolean | false | Only show exported symbols | | max_symbols | number | 20 | Max symbols per file (max: 50) | | show_imports | boolean | false | Show import statements | | show_dependency_graph | boolean | false | Full dependency analysis | | show_git_status | boolean | false | Git status indicators | | show_performance | boolean | false | Timing/memory metrics | | search | string | - | Search filter (see below) | | filter | string | - | Glob pattern for files | | max_files | number | 100 | Max files per directory (max: 500) | | icon_theme | string | 'emoji' | Theme: emoji, minimal, nerd-fonts, ascii, corporate | | format | string | 'tree' | Output: tree or json |

Search Prefixes

• function:name - Find functions/methods
• content:text - Search file contents
• import:package - Find import statements
• regex:pattern - Regex matching

Default Skip Patterns

Automatically skips: node_modules, .git, dist, build, .next, out, coverage, .cache, *.log, .DS_Store, tmp, temp, __pycache__, .nyc_output, .turbo, .vercel, .netlify, package-lock.json, yarn.lock, pnpm-lock.yaml, *.d.ts

Example Output

└── 📁 src (13 files)
    ├── 📝 ast-symbols.ts (291 lines, 9.2KB)
    │   ├── 👁️ Preview:
    │   │   1: import { promises as fs } from 'fs';
    │   │   2: import path from 'path';
    │   ├── 🔷 Symbols:
    │   │   ├── ASTSymbol (interface)
    │   │   ├── extractASTSymbols (function) ✓ exported
    │   │   ├── shouldUseAST (function) ✓ exported
    ├── 📝 explorer.ts (704 lines, 20.0KB)
    │   ├── 👁️ Preview:
    │   │   1: import { promises as fs, Stats } from 'fs';
    │   │   2: import path from 'path';
    │   ├── 🔷 Symbols:
    │   │   ├── validatePath (function)
    │   │   ├── exploreTree (function) ✓ exported
    │   │   ├── traverseDirectory (function)
    │   │   └── ... (19 total)
    └── 📝 types.ts (326 lines, 9.7KB)
        ├── 🔷 Symbols:
        │   ├── ExploreTreeParams (interface) ✓ exported
        │   ├── TreeNode (interface) ✓ exported
        │   ├── SymbolKind (enum) ✓ exported
        │   └── ... (20 total)

With show_dependency_graph: true:

🕸️  13 files, 24 deps

🌟 Most Connected: explorer.ts

Recent Updates (v1.1)

• MCP SDK 1.23.0 - Updated from 0.5.0
• Symbol filtering - Only top-level symbols extracted (no local variables)
• Input validation - Bounded parameters prevent excessive output
• Path security - Validates paths, prevents traversal attacks and symlink escapes
• Output limits - max_symbols, symbols_only_exported parameters for lean output

v1.1 Symbol Reduction

The symbol extraction was rewritten to only capture top-level declarations, dramatically reducing output noise:

| File | v1.0 Symbols | v1.1 Symbols | Reduction | |------|--------------|--------------|-----------| | dependency-graph.ts | 77 | 2 | 97% | | explorer.ts | 95 | 19 | 80% | | ast-symbols.ts | 36 | 3 | 92% | | dependency-formatter.ts | 48 | 10 | 79% | | formatter.ts | 48 | 9 | 81% |

Why this matters: v1.0 extracted every const, let, and variable inside functions - noise that consumed context tokens without providing architectural insight. v1.1 extracts only what matters: exported functions, classes, interfaces, and top-level declarations.

Result: ~80% smaller output with the same useful information.

Architecture

src/
├── index.ts           # MCP server entry point
├── explorer.ts        # Main orchestrator with path validation
├── ast-symbols.ts     # TypeScript compiler API symbol extraction
├── symbols.ts         # Symbol extraction dispatcher
├── dependency-graph.ts # Import/export analysis
├── formatter.ts       # ASCII tree formatting
├── types.ts           # TypeScript interfaces
└── ...

Build

npm install && npm run build