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Code Engineering
Symbol References (usages)
Find every USAGE of a symbol via word-boundary matching, skipping the definition line.
symbol_referencesOverview
The 'find usages' verb.
How it works
READ_ONLY. Default 200 hits, 2 MB per-file cap. Scans common source extensions by default; pass lang=java (etc.) to scope to one language. Skips build/VCS + venv/.venv/vendor.
Example
When a user asks:
Find every place we call ChatClient — outside the definition.
the agent calls the tool:
symbol_references(symbol="ChatClient", lang="java")and gets back: 12 references across 7 files (excludes definition at .../client/ChatClient.java:8)
What it's good for
Real scenarios where agents put this tool to work.
Pre-refactor blast-radius check
Rename planning: combine include_definitions=true with file_edit to apply consistently
Source
Implementation lives at swarmai-tools/src/main/java/ai/intelliswarm/swarmai/tool/code/search/SymbolReferencesTool.java in the swarm-ai repository.