get_changed_symbols

Maps a git diff to symbols. Given a ref (default HEAD~1), returns every indexed symbol living in a file that changed since that ref. The building block behind diff-aware reviews.

When to use

Feed the output into get_blast_radius or get_why_context to review a branch symbol by symbol. For a single-call PR review, use get_pr_impact instead -- it wraps this tool and adds blast radius plus co-change analysis.

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
since	string	no	Git ref / range. Default "HEAD~1". Accepts main, v1.0..HEAD, etc.
maxFiles	number (min 1)	no	Cap on number of changed files to process. Default 50

Example

Changes in the last commit:

{}

All changes since branching off main:

{ "since": "main", "maxFiles": 100 }

Response

{
  "since": "main",
  "changedFiles": 4,
  "changedSymbols": 11,
  "files": [
    {
      "file": "packages/cli/src/adapters/storage/sqlite.ts",
      "symbols": [
        {
          "symbolId": "packages/cli/src/adapters/storage/sqlite.ts::SqliteStorageAdapter::class",
          "name": "SqliteStorageAdapter",
          "kind": "class",
          "startLine": 24,
          "endLine": 312
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "_meta": { "totalItems": 11, "returnedItems": 11, "truncated": false }
}

When to use

• Pre-push sanity check -- what symbols am I actually touching?
• PR description generation -- list of changed symbols grouped by file.
• Batch blast-radius -- iterate the list and call get_blast_radius on each. Or just call get_pr_impact which does this for you.

Pitfalls

Files must be indexed

Changed files that were added in the working tree but not yet indexed (or excluded by .ctxo/config.yaml's index.ignore) return no symbols. Run ctxo index after adding new source files.

• maxFiles clips silently -- if a diff touches more files than the cap, the extras are dropped with no warning.
• Uncommitted changes -- the underlying git adapter uses git diff semantics; check your ref against git diff --name-only <since> if results look off.
• Renames -- surfaced as their new path only.