find_importers

The reverse of "what does this call?" -- answers "who calls this?" Walks the dependency graph backwards, optionally transitively, and lets you filter by edge kind.

When to use

Before renaming, deleting, or changing a signature. For a full risk picture (including co-change coupling that has no static edge), escalate to get_blast_radius.

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
symbolId	string	yes	Fully-qualified symbol id
edgeKinds	("imports" | "calls" | "extends" | "implements" | "uses")[]	no	Restrict to specific edge kinds (default: all)
transitive	boolean	no	Walk the graph recursively. Default false
maxDepth	number (1-10)	no	BFS depth when transitive: true. Default 5
intent	string	no	Keyword filter on results (e.g. "test", "adapter")

Example

Direct callers only:

{ "symbolId": "packages/cli/src/ports/i-storage-port.ts::IStoragePort::interface" }

Every transitive consumer, only imports and implements edges, production code:

{
  "symbolId": "packages/cli/src/ports/i-storage-port.ts::IStoragePort::interface",
  "transitive": true,
  "maxDepth": 6,
  "edgeKinds": ["imports", "implements"],
  "intent": "src"
}

Response

{
  "symbolId": "packages/cli/src/ports/i-storage-port.ts::IStoragePort::interface",
  "importerCount": 7,
  "importers": [
    {
      "symbolId": "packages/cli/src/adapters/storage/sqlite.ts::SqliteStorageAdapter::class",
      "name": "SqliteStorageAdapter",
      "kind": "class",
      "file": "packages/cli/src/adapters/storage/sqlite.ts",
      "edgeKind": "implements",
      "edgeKinds": ["implements"],
      "depth": 1
    }
  ],
  "_meta": { "totalItems": 7, "returnedItems": 7, "truncated": false }
}

Symbol missing:

{ "found": false, "hint": "Symbol not found. Run \"ctxo index\" to build the codebase index." }

Direct vs transitive shape

In direct mode (transitive: false), duplicates are merged and the full list of edge kinds per importer is in edgeKinds. In transitive mode, each hop appears once with a single edgeKind and a depth counter.

When to use

• Rename / delete safety check -- zero importers? Safe. Many? Use get_blast_radius for the risk score.
• Interface consumer map -- edgeKinds: ["implements"] lists every concrete adapter.
• Impact narrowing -- intent: "test" to see only test callers, or intent: "adapter" for adapters.

Pitfalls

• Static edges only -- dynamic dispatch, reflection, and string-based lookups are invisible. get_blast_radius adds git co-change coupling to cover these gaps.
• maxDepth caps silently -- increase it if transitive results look oddly sparse on a hub symbol.

Related tools

• get_blast_radius -- same question, plus history-based coupling and a risk score
• get_class_hierarchy -- reverse walk restricted to inheritance edges
• search_symbols -- resolve a name to a symbolId