Elixir Support in Maguyva: Code Graphs for Phoenix and OTP Apps

Where Elixir trips up shallow AI tools

Almost everything in Elixir is a macro call. defmodule, def, use, alias, and @impl all parse as calls, and use GenServer brings in behaviour that never appears in the file. A tool that only sees call syntax cannot tell a definition from a dependency, or a GenServer callback from a helper.

Maguyva maps those macros onto relationships, so an agent can see which modules implement a behaviour and who calls a context function.

What Maguyva extracts in Elixir

Maguyva covers .ex and .exs files. Elixir’s macros map onto relationships:

• alias, import, and require record imports.
• use records an import. For OTP and framework behaviours such as GenServer, Supervisor, Agent, Task, Phoenix.Controller, Phoenix.LiveView, and Ecto.Schema, it also records that the module implements that behaviour.
• @behaviour attributes and defimpl blocks record implementation of a behaviour or protocol.
• Reserved module attributes such as @doc, @spec, @impl, and @callback are recorded as annotations on the function that follows. Value attributes such as @timeout 5_000 are not.
• %User{} struct literals count as instantiation, raise records a throw, and rescue and catch record a catch.

Language macros such as def, defp, defmodule, case, and with are filtered from calls, so the call graph shows your functions.

Example agent prompts

• “Who calls Accounts.register_user, and from which controllers?” (find_symbol, then dependency_search incoming)
• “Which modules implement GenServer?” (dependency_search)
• “Trace a checkout request from the controller to the database.” (get_task_context)

Known limits

• Named def, defmodule, alias, and import forms are call nodes in the grammar, so only the functions preset in structural_search returns results, and only for anonymous fn functions. Use find_symbol for named functions and modules.
• About 55 standard-library calls, such as IO.puts, String.*, Enum.take, and Process.*, are filtered from relationships. Use text_pattern_search for them.
• Elixir has no class inheritance, so inheritance relationships are marked not applicable.

Next steps

Connect a repository with the quickstart, then check the support matrix on the compatibility page. For other functional codebases, read the Haskell guide.