AI Developer Tools

ctx

ctx is a context-aware recommendation engine that dynamically selects the best skills, agents, and MCPs for your current coding task using a massive knowledge graph.

What is ctx?

ctx is an open-source tool that watches your development environment, walks a knowledge graph of over 100,000 nodes, and recommends a small, top-scored bundle of skills, agents, MCP servers, and harnesses for the current task. It integrates natively with Claude Code or can be used with custom models via its harness system.

ctx vs Similar AI Tools

Pricing ModelFreeFreeFreeFree
Free Credits
Key Features
  • 102,928-node LLM-wiki knowledge graph
  • 91,464 skills, 467 agents, 10,790 MCPs, 207 harnesses
  • Context budget optimization
  • Seven breakable boxes covering OWASP Agentic Top-10 vulnerabilities
  • Three guided simulations for cascading failures, human-agent trust, and rogue agents
  • Network-isolated Docker containers for safe execution
  • Code-to-runtime reasoning across cloud, Git, and Kubernetes
  • Action-gate enforces read-only policy on every API call
  • Sandboxed JavaScript execution for concurrent research
  • Append-only, SHA-256-addressed event history through Jaybase
  • AES-256-GCM encryption for stored node payloads
  • Unified RBAC for ledger, notes, snapshots, and audit reads
Pros
  • Massive curated knowledge graph of over 100K nodes
  • Context-aware recommendations tailored to current task
  • Covers full OWASP Agentic Top-10 in a realistic manner
  • Docker isolation prevents accidental damage
  • Read-only by construction prevents accidental writes
  • Evidence-backed verification cross-checks every finding
  • Opinionated and secure accounting CLI with immutable audit trail
  • Designed for AI agent integration with JSON output
Cons
  • Requires Python 3.11+
  • Windows has some limitations with tar extraction
  • Requires Docker and technical setup
  • Not for production use; only for lab environments
  • Requires an LLM API key, incurring token costs
  • Limited to read-only operations, cannot remediate
  • Pre-1.0, limited feature set
  • No native QuickBooks import (agents must normalize data)
Best For
  • Developers using Claude Code
  • AI coding tool users wanting smarter context
  • Security researchers focusing on AI agent vulnerabilities
  • Developers building MCP-based applications
  • Security engineers
  • DevOps teams
  • Small teams needing secure, auditable accounting with AI agent support
  • Developers integrating automated bookkeeping workflows

How to use ctx?

  1. 1Install with pip install claude-ctx
  2. 2Run ctx-init to set up hooks, graph, and model configuration
  3. 3Use ctx-scan-repo to scan your repository and get recommendations
  4. 4Install recommended skills with ctx-skill-add, agents with ctx-agent-add, etc.
  5. 5Optionally use ctx-monitor for a local dashboard

ctx Key Features

  • 102,928-node LLM-wiki knowledge graph
  • 91,464 skills, 467 agents, 10,790 MCPs, 207 harnesses
  • Context budget optimization
  • Skill rot detection
  • Pre-built knowledge graph for fast recommendations
  • Local dashboard with ctx-monitor
  • Support for custom models via harness setup

ctx Use Cases

  • Improving AI coding assistance efficiency
  • Reducing token waste by loading only relevant skills
  • Discovering new skills, agents, and MCPs relevant to current work
  • Keeping installed skills up-to-date and removing stale ones

ctx Pricing & Free Credits

ctx currently operates on a Free model.

This tool is completely free to use

Open Source

Free

ctx is open source under MIT license, free to use and modify.

ctx Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Massive curated knowledge graph of over 100K nodes
  • Context-aware recommendations tailored to current task
  • Integrates with Claude Code and custom models via harnesses
  • Open source with active development

Cons

  • Requires Python 3.11+
  • Windows has some limitations with tar extraction
  • May have a learning curve for initial setup

What is ctx best for?

  • Developers using Claude Code
  • AI coding tool users wanting smarter context
  • Developers optimizing LLM context usage

ctx FAQ

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