Cartograph

Cartograph is the Claude Code plugin that turns "I have a codebase" into "I have a living architecture diagram." No manual diagramming — Claude scans your code, detects your architecture, and pushes a structured graph to your board.

ContextDx maps your codebase into a living architecture diagram and runs targeted analysis on it — all from Claude Code.

Prerequisites

• Claude Code installed and running
• A ContextDx workspace with at least one board
• Your Binding Token and API Secret from the portal

Cartograph reads its credentials from .contextdx/config.json at the root of your repo:

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{
  "bindingToken": "YWJjMTIz...",
  "apiSecret": "ck_cp_live_xxx",
  "branch": "main",
  "boardSlug": "my-project-overview"
}

Setup (one-time)

1. Install Cartograph

Add the marketplace once, then install the plugin:

/plugin marketplace add contextdx/cartograph-plugin
/plugin install cdx-code@cdx-plugins

Restart Claude Code after installing so the commands load. To scope the install, add --scope user (default), --scope project, or --scope local to the install command.

2. Connect to your board

/configure

/configure validates your config, tests the connection, and auto-discovers your Root Board. It reads credentials from .contextdx/config.json rather than asking you to paste secrets inline — see Prerequisites for the file shape.

Map your architecture

/analyze

Claude scans your project — detects services, APIs, databases, queues — and maps how they connect. The result is a structured graph of your architecture (L0 overview, 10–30 nodes).

To zoom into a specific node:

/analyze --drill my-project-overview/api-gateway

This creates a layer board (L1/L2) for that node with finer-grained components. The argument is <parent-board-slug>/<node-slug>.

To analyze all layers progressively (L0 → L1 → L2):

/analyze --all

Each layer is presented for review before proceeding to the next.

To force a full re-analysis from scratch:

/analyze --clean

Push to the portal

/sync

Your architecture appears as a visual diagram on your board in the portal. Nodes show components with their types and descriptions. Edges show how they relate — imports, API calls, data access, event flows.

If you have multiple boards, sync a specific one:

/sync --board my-project-overview

Or sync all boards at once:

/sync --all

Sync guardrails

Before any board reaches the portal, /sync runs a structural check on the analyzer's output. If a board has more than 8 nodes but no domain_group containers, the sync is rejected with a clear error — flat boards at that size are almost always a sign that the analyzer skipped the grouping step, and they render as an unreadable wall of nodes.

The fix is to re-run /analyze; the agent's protocol includes a "domain grouping" step that should populate domain_group containers automatically.

Opting out

If your project is genuinely small enough that a flat board is the right call, you can disable the check in .contextdx/config.json:

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{
  "bindingToken": "...",
  "apiSecret": "...",
  "boardSlug": "...",
  "branch": "main",
  "validation": {
    "skipBoardStructureCheck": true
  }
}

Run targeted analysis

/insights

Insight skills are defined by your workspace admin on the portal — security checks, quality reviews, dependency audits, and more. The server defines what each skill looks for; Claude Code does the reasoning. It reads the board and your source files locally, authors the findings, and pushes them back.

Each finding is tied to a specific component on your diagram. Affected areas are highlighted so your team sees impact at a glance.

Pass a natural-language prompt and Claude matches it to the right skills:

/insights find auth and data-access risks

To see what's available, pick from a list, run a specific skill, or run them all:

/insights --list          # list available skills
/insights --select        # choose skills and focus interactively
/insights security-analysis  # run a specific skill by slug
/insights --all           # run every skill

Keep it current

After code changes, just re-run:

/analyze
/sync

Analysis is incremental — it detects the git diff since last run and only re-analyzes changed files. This applies to all modes: /analyze, /analyze --drill, and /analyze --all each update only what changed in existing boards.

Use /analyze --clean if the incremental result looks stale.

Check where things stand

/status

Shows configuration, board manifest, analysis summary per board, sync status, and changed files since last analysis.

All commands

Troubleshooting

What's Next