Context Carving

Context Carving Configuration

Context carving controls how Synapses extracts a relevant subgraph around a target entity. It uses BFS (Breadth-First Search) with decay to build a token-budgeted context slice.

{
  "context_carve": {
    "default_depth": 2,
    "decay_factor": 0.6,
    "token_budget": 4000,
    "min_relevance": 0.05,
    "exclude_test_files": true,
    "direction_boost": 0.2
  }
}

Fields

Field	Type	Default	Description
`default_depth`	`int`	`2`	Maximum BFS hops from root entity
`decay_factor`	`float`	`0.6`	Relevance multiplier per hop. At depth 2: `weight × 0.6²`
`token_budget`	`int`	`4000`	Maximum output size in tokens (~4 chars per token)
`min_relevance`	`float`	`0.05`	Drop nodes below this relevance threshold
`exclude_test_files`	`bool`	`true`	Exclude `*_test.go` and similar test files
`direction_boost`	`float`	`0.2`	Bonus for outgoing CALLS edges (callees)

How It Works

Start at the target entity (root node)
BFS outward along graph edges
Each hop multiplies relevance by decay_factor
Edge weight modulates relevance: relevance = edge_weight × decay^depth
Nodes below min_relevance are dropped
Results are token-budgeted — highest relevance nodes included first
Output formatted as compact context with signatures, relationships, and metadata

Advanced: Personalized PageRank

For large codebases, Synapses can use PPR (Personalized PageRank) instead of BFS for more accurate relevance scoring:

Alpha (teleport probability): 0.15 default — higher = more focused on root
HybridLambda: Blend between structural and semantic similarity (0.0-1.0)
CrossDomainDecay: Penalty when crossing domain boundaries (default 0.5)

PPR is enabled automatically for large projects or when use_flat_graph is true.

Tuning Tips

Small projects: Default depth 2 is fine. You might increase token_budget to 8000.
Large monorepos: Consider lower decay_factor (0.4) to stay focused, or lower default_depth to 1.
Debugging: Use intent "debug" which auto-adjusts weights to trace data flow upstream.
Code review: Use intent "review" which emphasizes interface contracts.