Code Buster Symbol
Code Buster

The AI Improver for code

Overview · Installation · Documentation · Contributing

Find what your AI agent missed

Code Buster is a deterministic, offline repository-analysis CLI. It examines individual files and relationships across a repository, then reports potential issues for you or your AI agent to evaluate and fix.

It does not upload source code, call an AI provider, or make semantic changes on its own. The executable is cb; optional repository configuration lives in code-buster.toml.

  • 18 recognized source languages
  • 450+ registered rules
  • 7 report formats
  • 0 required cloud services

Quickstart

Install the native Apple Silicon macOS build with Homebrew:

brew install tool-bunker/tap/code-buster
cb version

Install a native Apple Silicon macOS or x86-64 Linux build with the verified installer:

curl -fsSL https://toolbunker.dev/codebuster/install | sh

On x86-64 Windows PowerShell:

irm https://toolbunker.dev/codebuster/install.ps1 | iex

When Dart 3.11 or newer is already installed:

dart pub global activate code_buster
cb version

Then run Code Buster from a repository root:

cb summary

Configuration is optional. Start with coverage in the summary, then use focused commands such as review, duplication, graph, dead, hotspots, or inspect for the question you need to answer.

Analysis caches live in the operating system's user-cache directory, not in the analyzed repository. Use --no-cache for one-off runs or --cache-dir PATH when a CI job or local workflow needs an explicit cache location. Focused commands and --only RULE execute only the required analysis families. Finding-family caches are reused independently, and --verbose JSON manifests include pipeline and rule-family durations for performance diagnosis.

See the installation guide and quickstart for every supported path.

What Code Buster finds

Code Buster combines file-level rules with repository-wide analysis. It reports:

  • dependency cycles and architecture-policy violations;
  • duplicated blocks, near-duplicate functions, and repeated patterns;
  • unreachable production files and declarations;
  • complexity growth, hotspots, and maintainability risks;
  • correctness, reliability, security, accessibility, performance, and style findings;
  • repository structure, source classification, framework, and design-system drift.

Findings can include a stable rule ID, severity, confidence, location, rationale, remediation guidance, related files, and fingerprint. A finding is evidence for review, not proof that the code is wrong.

Use it with an AI coding agent

Code Buster can give an agent focused repository evidence without placing the whole codebase in the model's context:

cb review --format json

Pass relevant findings to the agent, ask it to evaluate each one against the intended behavior, review the proposed change, then run the project's own tests and exercise the changed path. Code Buster finds issues; the developer or agent decides what matters and makes the fix.

Language and framework support

Code Buster recognizes C and C++, Objective-C, C#, Dart, Rust, Mojo, Odin, Nim, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, HTML, CSS, Java, Wren, SQL, and Lua/Luau. Analysis depth and real-world validation vary by language. Flutter, React, Svelte, PixiJS, and FastAPI are detected as framework profiles rather than separate source languages.

See the current language support matrix.

Reports and integrations

Available formats are text, JSON, NDJSON, Markdown, SARIF 2.1.0, Mermaid, and JUnit XML. The repository also includes starting integrations for GitHub Actions, Gradle, Maven, VS Code, and Code Climate conversion.

See the command reference, report reference, and integration guide.

Current status

Code Buster 0.8.0 is pre-1.0 and under active development. It substantially reduces full-analysis time on large mixed-language and Python repositories while expanding Rust safety analysis. Use it for local repository exploration, focused AI context, and reviewing changes before handoff. Do not yet rely on it as a blocking production quality gate; evaluate CI and report integrations with explicit policy and preserved coverage.

Development and contributing

Build the canonical Dart implementation from source:

dart pub get
dart compile exe bin/cb.dart -o build/cb
./build/cb version

Open pull requests against develop. The main branch is reserved for reviewed release changes and coordinated hotfixes. Read CONTRIBUTING.md for the complete contribution and verification contract.

Libraries

code_buster
Stable extension API for the Code Buster analysis engine.