callers
Find direct call sites of a function using a persistent call-graph, avoiding grep false positives. Supports decorator/annotation edges and diff scoping.
Instructions
Direct callers of a function via the persistent call-graph FST (~4ms when indexed; falls back to live-scan). Prefer over grep for who calls Foo? — grep on the function name hits doc comments and string literals; the call-graph edges are resolved at parse time. Phase 14.2 + 14.2.2 + 14.2.1: Python/Java function/method decorators, Kotlin annotations / C# method+constructor attributes, and TypeScript method decorators / Rust outer attributes on fns/methods emit forward edges, so callers GetMapping lists every Spring handler, callers get lists every FastAPI route, callers HttpGet every ASP.NET action, callers JvmStatic every Kotlin function annotated @JvmStatic, callers Get every Nest.js @Get(...), callers test every Rust #[tokio::test] (the rightmost identifier of the decorator/attribute path becomes the callee; arguments are ignored — #[serde(rename = "x")] → serde, not rename). Rust #[derive(...)] is filtered (compile-time codegen, not call edges). Note the rightmost-identifier convention means callers get mixes decorator handlers with any regular .get() call — narrow with include/exclude if needed. Pair with paths for multi-hop chains. Supports diff scoping: since / since_branched / changed_only (mutually exclusive) to restrict callers to recently-touched code.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| name | No | DEPRECATED — use `symbol`. Pre-v1.7 alias, still accepted; emits a deprecated_args notice in _meta. | |
| limit | No | Max results | |
| since | No | Restrict results to files changed between `<rev>..HEAD` (accepts anything `git diff` understands: `main`, `HEAD~3`, `origin/main`, SHA). Mutually exclusive with `since_branched` and `changed_only`. | |
| symbol | Yes | Exact function name — canonical key (v1.7+). | |
| exclude | No | Blacklist results by path glob; wins over include (repeatable) | |
| include | No | Whitelist results by path glob, gitignore syntax (repeatable) | |
| workspace | No | Multi-repo: fan out across every repo declared in the nearest `.vex-workspace.toml` (set `project_root` at or above it — the manifest is found by walking up). Results become an object `{workspace, repos:[...]}` grouped by repo, NOT the flat per-tool array — branch on shape. `why` is ignored in workspace mode (single-repo only). | |
| auto_update | No | Auto-update the index if stale, or bootstrap it if missing, before running — enables the call-graph fast path (default: true) | |
| async_update | No | With auto_update, refresh a stale index in the background instead of waiting for it: results come from the index already on disk and _meta.vex.dev/stale says so (default: false) | |
| changed_only | No | Restrict results to working-tree changes (staged + unstaged + untracked). Mutually exclusive with `since` and `since_branched`. | |
| project_root | No | Absolute path to the project root (defaults to the MCP working directory) | |
| exclude_tests | No | Drop test files from the results (tests/ dirs, *_test.*, test_*.py, *.spec.ts, __tests__/, tests.rs, ...; same set as tests_for). Composes with include/exclude. Path-based only: Rust unit tests inside a `#[cfg(test)] mod tests` block of a non-test file are not excluded. | |
| no_stale_check | No | Skip the staleness check that runs before each call; assumes the index is fresh. Redundant when `auto_update` is true. | |
| since_branched | No | Restrict results to files changed since this branch diverged from `origin/main` (or `main`/`master`). Mutually exclusive with `since` and `changed_only`. |