Introducing Canopy: Self-Hosted Code Intelligence for AI Coding Agents

AI coding agents have a structural problem: they are brilliant at reasoning but nearly blind to your codebase. They guess at import paths, miss dependencies, and leave stale references behind. This is not an LLM failure — it is a context failure. Canopy fixes it.

The Problem Agents Have

Ask any AI coding agent to “refactor the authentication flow” in a medium-sized codebase and watch what happens. It reads a few files it thinks are relevant, makes changes, and hands them back. What it misses: the 14 other files that import the function you just renamed. The test suite that will break. The integration in the dashboard that nobody updated the docs for.

The agent is not dumb. It just does not have a dependency graph. It does not know what depends on what. It is pattern-matching on filenames and grep results, which is better than nothing but consistently wrong in specific, painful ways:

• Broken imports — a renamed symbol updated in 3 of 5 call sites, silent at write time, loud at runtime
• Dead exports — a removed function that three other modules still import
• Stale types — TypeScript interface changed in the source, not updated in the callers
• Circular dependencies — introduced silently during a refactor, shows up as a cryptic error at build time

These are not edge cases. If you use an AI agent daily on a real codebase, you have hit all of them.

What Canopy Is

Canopy is a single Rust binary that indexes your codebase and exposes 21 MCP tools to your AI coding agent. It understands your code at the AST level: what each file exports, what each file imports, which symbols are used where, and which dependencies form cycles. It integrates with SCIP for compiler-precise cross-language analysis, ingests test coverage data, and tracks git history to surface high-churn files.

When your AI agent connects to Canopy via MCP, it gains structured access to all of that context. Instead of reading 40 files and guessing, it calls canopy_trace_dependents and gets a precise list. Instead of hoping the refactor is clean, it calls canopy_validate and gets a GO/CAUTION/STOP assessment with specifics.

Key facts about Canopy:

• Single static binary. One file. No runtime dependencies. Ships for Linux x86_64/ARM64, macOS x86_64/ARM64, and Windows x86_64.
• 21 MCP tools. Covering workflow, search, AST, dependency graph, health checks, git history, and index management.
• Runs locally. Your code never leaves your machine. The index lives in ~/.canopy/.
• License validation with weekly health check. Ed25519 cryptographic signature verification — no network call to activate. A weekly hash-only heartbeat validates your license server-side and enables revocation on refund/dispute. See our privacy policy for exactly what is transmitted (spoiler: just your license hash, client version, and platform — never code or queries).
• Pluggable. YAML plugin system for custom health checks and pattern rules.
• Community mode. Download and try Canopy’s core search on your codebase without a license. To integrate with your AI agent and unlock all 21 tools, start a 14-day free trial.

Who It Is For

Canopy is built for solo developers and small teams (3-10 people) who use AI coding agents every day and care about keeping their source code off of cloud infrastructure.

If you are running Claude Code, Cursor, Codex CLI, Windsurf, Zed, or anything that speaks MCP — Canopy plugs directly into your workflow. You install it once, index your repo once (canopy index ., typically under 60 seconds for most codebases), and from that point your agent knows what it is working with.

You are a good fit if you:

• Find yourself cleaning up after AI agents that miss call sites
• Work on a codebase large enough that agents cannot read it all at once
• Work in a regulated environment where code cannot leave your network
• Are tired of credit-based pricing models where a large context window empties your account

You are probably not the right fit yet if you need enterprise features (SSO, audit logs, SLAs) or want a bundled AI model alongside the context engine — Canopy is a context engine, not an agent.

What Canopy Does Not Do

To be direct:

Canopy does not ship an LLM. It gives your existing agent better context. Canopy does not run as a hosted service. It runs on your machine. Canopy does not collect telemetry or analyze your code. The only data that leaves your machine is a weekly license health check (hash only, never code — see privacy policy).

Pricing

All paid tiers start with a 14-day free trial — full features of your chosen tier, card required upfront, no charge until day 15. Cancel anytime via canopy.ironpinelabs.com/portal.

Annual pricing saves roughly 30% over monthly. If you plan to use Canopy for more than eight months, annual is better math.

How to Try It

1. Download the binary for your platform from canopy.ironpinelabs.com. No account required.
2. Run canopy setup to initialize ~/.canopy/config.toml.
3. Run canopy index /path/to/your/repo.
4. Add Canopy to your MCP client. For Claude Code, add it to .mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "canopy": {
      "command": "canopy",
      "args": ["serve", "--mcp"]
    }
  }
}

5. Start a session and ask your agent about a refactor. Watch it call canopy_prepare before touching anything.

To unlock MCP integration and all 21 tools, start a 14-day free trial. Community mode (no license) lets you index one repo and use core search from the CLI.

What Is Next

Canopy is at v1.2.0. The foundation is stable: the MCP tools, the indexer, the dependency graph, and the health check system are all in production shape.

Actively in development for v1.3 and beyond:

• Dashboard polish — the local web UI for the dependency graph is functional; UX is getting sharper
• CI mode expansion — GitLab and Azure Pipelines are implemented; PR comment decorations for GitHub Actions are next
• Plugin marketplace — curated YAML packs for common frameworks (Next.js, Rails, Django, Cargo workspaces)

Come Say Hi

If you are building with AI agents every day, I would like to know if Canopy makes a difference for your workflow. The best way to follow development is GitHub Discussions or email [email protected]. If you are on Hacker News, look for the Show HN post today — questions and honest criticism are both welcome.

Download Canopy at canopy.ironpinelabs.com.