Cross-Repo Radar

See which other repositories use the function you're editing — before you break them.

The Problem

In a multi-repo or monorepo organisation, changing a shared utility breaks downstream services — and you only find out in CI, minutes after pushing. "Find All References" only works within the current project. Cross-repo impact is invisible until it's too late.

What It Does

Cross-Repo Radar builds a local symbol index from your configured sibling repositories. When you hover over any identifier, a tooltip shows how many other repos use it and where. You can also search symbols interactively via the quick picker.

Features

• Hover tooltip — hover any identifier to see cross-repo usage count and repo names
• Symbol search — find all usages of any symbol across configured repos
• Local JSON index — built once, queried instantly; no network calls
• Configurable repos — point at any local directory containing sibling repos
• Incremental index — rebuild on demand after pulling new code
• Explorer tree view — browse the radar panel in the sidebar

Getting Started

Step 1 — Configure sibling repos

In your workspace settings (.vscode/settings.json):

{
  "crossRepoRadar.repoPaths": [
    "/Users/you/work/payments-service",
    "/Users/you/work/auth-service",
    "/Users/you/work/notification-service"
  ]
}

Step 2 — Build the index

Run: Cross-Repo Radar: Build Index

This scans all configured repos and builds the symbol index (stored at .vscode/cross-repo-index.json). Depending on repo size, this takes a few seconds.

Step 3 — Hover any symbol

Hover over any function name, class, or variable in your editor. If it's used in other repos, you'll see:

🔭 Cross-Repo Radar: `UserService`

Used in 12 locations across 3 repos:

• payments-service: 4 usages
• auth-service: 5 usages
• notification-service: 3 usages

Commands

Configuration

Example: Full monorepo setup

{
  "crossRepoRadar.repoPaths": [
    "/Users/you/work/api-gateway",
    "/Users/you/work/user-service",
    "/Users/you/work/order-service",
    "/Users/you/work/shared-lib"
  ],
  "crossRepoRadar.fileExtensions": [".ts", ".tsx", ".go", ".py"]
}

Tips

• Rebuild after pulling — run Build Index after git pull on sibling repos to keep the index fresh
• Symbol search before renaming — use Search Symbol to see the full blast radius before any rename
• Short symbols are filtered — identifiers under 4 characters are skipped to avoid noise (id, fn, etc.)
• The index file (.vscode/cross-repo-index.json) can be large for big monorepos — add it to .gitignore