Index Updater - Incremental Index Maintenance

Keeps

.claude/crew-index.json

and

.claude/crew-symbols.json

up-to-date after code changes without rebuilding the entire index.

When to Activate

• After any agent makes file edits (triggered by afterFileEdit hook or agent self-reporting)
• When an agent notices the index is stale (hash mismatch)
• Manually via

  /crew reindex

  for full rebuild

Incremental Update Process

Step 1: Identify changed files

The agent that made changes should report which files were modified. Alternatively, check file hashes:

For each file in crew-index.json:
  1. Compute current hash: shasum -a 256 <filepath>
  2. Compare with stored hash
  3. If different → mark for update
  4. If file deleted → mark for removal

Step 2: Update Layer 1 (crew-index.json)

For each changed file:

1. Read the file
2. Recompute: hash, size, lines, exports, imports, functions, classes
3. Regenerate summary
4. Replace the file's entry in crew-index.json

For deleted files:

1. Remove the file's entry from crew-index.json

For new files (detected via Glob that aren't in index):

1. Read and extract full metadata
2. Add new entry to crew-index.json

Step 3: Update Layer 2 (crew-symbols.json)

For each changed file:

1. Re-extract all symbols (functions, classes, methods) with signatures and line ranges
2. Re-scan for calls to known symbols
3. Update calledBy relationships for affected symbols in other files
4. Replace all symbols for this file in crew-symbols.json
5. Rebuild affected callGraph entries

Step 4: Update global metadata

1. Recompute contentHash from all file hashes
2. Update stats (totalFiles, totalLines)
3. Update lastIndexed timestamp

Performance Rules

• Never rebuild entire index for a single file change
• Batch updates: If 3+ files changed in one edit cycle, update all at once
• Skip non-source files: Don't index changes to .json, .md, .yml unless they're in the monitored set
• Lazy callGraph: Only rebuild callGraph edges that involve the changed file

Agent Self-Reporting Protocol

Every agent prompt includes this instruction:

After making any file changes, report them for index update:
"FILES_MODIFIED: src/parser.js, src/scraper.js"
The orchestrator will trigger incremental index update for these files.

This is more efficient than hash-checking every file after every edit.

Staleness Detection

If an agent reads the index and finds information that doesn't match reality:

1. The symbol doesn't exist at the listed line range
2. A file listed in the index doesn't exist
3. A function's signature has changed

Then: trigger incremental update for that specific file before proceeding.

Batch Update from Orchestrator

When called by the execution-orchestrator with a list of modified files after task completion:

Input: Deduplicated list of file paths reported by agents via

FILES_MODIFIED

Process:

1. For each file in the list:
   • If file exists: Re-read the file, recompute SHA-256 hash, re-extract metadata (exports, imports, functions, classes, lines, summary). Replace the file's entry in

     crew-index.json

     (Layer 1) and re-extract all symbols with signatures and line ranges for

     crew-symbols.json

     (Layer 2).
   • If file was deleted: Remove the file's entry from both

     crew-index.json

     and

     crew-symbols.json

     .
   • If file is new (not in index): Read and extract full metadata, add new entry to both Layer 1 and Layer 2.
2. Rebuild affected

   callGraph

   edges — only edges involving the changed files, not the entire graph
3. Update

   calledBy

   relationships for symbols in other files that reference changed symbols
4. Update global metadata: recompute

   contentHash

   from all file hashes, update

   stats.totalFiles

   ,

   stats.totalLines

   , set

   lastIndexed

   to current timestamp

Output: Report

"{N} files updated, {M} new, {K} removed"

back to the orchestrator

Performance: This should complete quickly for typical task outputs (1-10 files). For 10+ files, consider batching the Layer 2 symbol re-extraction.