Quickstart

Install

Pick one:

npx stacklit init                                              # no install, downloads the binary on first use
npm install -g stacklit                                        # global install
go install github.com/glincker/stacklit/cmd/stacklit@latest    # from source, needs Go

Or download a binary for macOS, Linux or Windows (amd64 and arm64) from Releases.

Check the install:

stacklit --version

First run

cd your-project
stacklit init

Typical output:

[stacklit] found 342 files
[stacklit] parsed 342 files (0 errors)
[stacklit] done in 89ms -- wrote stacklit.json, DEPENDENCIES.md, stacklit.html

Opening visual map...

(File counts and timing vary. Go repos index in milliseconds; Python and TypeScript repos can take seconds, see bench/RESULTS.md.)

Commit the portable outputs. stacklit.html is gitignored and regenerates with stacklit view.

git add stacklit.json DEPENDENCIES.md
git commit -m "add stacklit codebase index"

Then tell your tools about it, either automatically with stacklit setup or by hand:

Claude Code, add to CLAUDE.md:

Read stacklit.json before exploring files. Use modules to locate code, hints for conventions.

Cursor and other MCP clients, add to the MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "stacklit": { "command": "stacklit", "args": ["serve"] }
  }
}

Copilot, add to .github/copilot-instructions.md:

Read stacklit.json first to understand codebase structure before exploring files.

Any other agent: stacklit.json is plain JSON. Point the agent at it.

What you get

Generated from docs/USAGE.md in the repository, the single source of truth.