get_symbol_importance

Ranks symbols by structural centrality using PageRank over the dependency graph. High-ranked symbols are the ones many other symbols depend on -- breaking them breaks a lot.

When to use

Orientation in a new codebase, and before risky refactors to confirm you are not about to change a critical symbol. Pair with get_change_intelligence to find the "critical and volatile" shortlist.

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
limit	number (1-200)	no	Max rankings returned. Default 25
kind	"function" | "class" | "interface" | "method" | "variable" | "type"	no	Filter to a single symbol kind
filePattern	string	no	Case-insensitive substring match on file path
damping	number (0-1)	no	PageRank damping factor. Default 0.85

Example

Top 10 interfaces in the whole repo:

{ "limit": 10, "kind": "interface" }

Most important symbols under packages/cli/src/core:

{ "filePattern": "packages/cli/src/core", "limit": 20 }

Response

{
  "rankings": [
    {
      "symbolId": "packages/cli/src/ports/i-storage-port.ts::IStoragePort::interface",
      "name": "IStoragePort",
      "kind": "interface",
      "file": "packages/cli/src/ports/i-storage-port.ts",
      "score": 0.0412
    }
  ],
  "totalSymbols": 1847,
  "iterations": 42,
  "converged": true,
  "damping": 0.85,
  "_meta": { "totalItems": 25, "returnedItems": 25, "truncated": false }
}

When to use

• Onboarding -- top 25 gives you the "backbone" of the codebase in seconds.
• Refactor safety -- if a symbol is top-10 by PageRank and top-10 by get_change_intelligence, plan carefully.
• Architecture checks -- unexpected high-importance symbols in an adapters/ layer are a smell; see get_architectural_overlay.

Notes

Filtering is post-PageRank

kind and filePattern are applied after PageRank runs on the full graph, so scores remain comparable across calls. Filtering before would distort the ranking by removing inbound edges.

• converged: false means the algorithm hit its 100-iteration cap. The ranking is still usable but less stable -- consider lowering damping slightly.
• Requires ctxo index.