ripwire
The ripgrep of AI context: a zero-dependency C++23 CLI + MCP server for coding agents. Find what you want without reading the repo, then check you built what you meant, blast radius, tests-to-run, quality deltas. Signatures at 74.7% fewer bytes than bodies; every guess labelled, every loss published. Paddle out with a map.
Runssource: GitHubC++Apache-2.0commit 4c10be9d70f7
C++, Apache-2.0 licensed. The project labels itself: ai agents, call graph, claude, claude code, cli, code navigation, codex and coding agents.
ripwire runs. An Argusic agent installed it in 16 minutes and hit 3 errors and fixed every one without help on a clean machine with no GPU, and the whole session was recorded.
Build succeeds (plain dev build/ and Release build-install/), binary parses the repo source tree and emits deterministic minified XML with ranked symbols via Personalized PageRank, installed to /home/runner/.local/bin/ripwire with skills and hooks, --version/--help work, Python indexing confirms correct function extraction and ranking
What the agent ended up with on a clean machine, in its own words. How this is measured
Measured by Argusic on a fresh machine every time. Every number links to its evidence. Argusic Score 90 of 100 (the mean of this project's run scores).
At a glance
Subject data from GitHub, linked at the top of this page, refreshed . Test data by Argusic (CC BY 4.0); every number links to a run page with the full log, the recording, and their sha256 hashes.
What was measured
From the run that decided this verdict. Every line is a recorded value, not an estimate.
What went wrong, in the agent's own words
The agent's own words, worst first, never rewritten into advice.
- install build OOM-killed at -j4 under LTO - memory-limited container; retried with -j2 and succeeded1 minute
- xmllint (libxml2-utils) not available - cannot install without root; ~40 test gates report XML well-formedness failures as a result
- a9disclosurecheck.sh section A9.6 window= attribute label mismatch (2 failures) - pre-existing test expectation drift against shallow checkout, not a binary defect
- Install time
- 16 minutes
- Cold machine to finish
- 21 minutes
- Errors hit and fixed
- 3 hit, 3 fixed with no human help
- How the result was proved
- python3 custom_verify_script.py confirmed: (1) valid XML via ElementTree.parse, (2) determinism via diff -q, (3) empty-dir produces well-formed output, (4) def foo() in Python indexed with k=1.0, (5) --version prints ripwire 0.5.0, (6) installed Release binary prints ripwire 0.5.0 (Release)
- Model tokens used
- 129,464
- Exact commit tested
- 4c10be9d70f7
- Container image
- sha256:cdd920bce783
What was not measured
The other half, so you can see exactly how far this evidence goes. A gap is printed as a gap and never filled in.
- Peak GPU memory
- this ran on a CPU machine, so there was no GPU to sample
- Behaviour over a long run
- each attempt uses the smallest documented settings and a fixed time budget, so this measures whether it runs, not how it holds up under load
Watch the session
The whole run, from a clean machine, at the speed it actually happened. Nothing is cut and nothing is sped up.
A recording of attempt 2, run , the attempt that decided the verdict above. The terminal recording it was made from is the evidence, stored with a sha256 fingerprint; the video is a rendering of it. Nothing loads from the video host until you press play.
The end of the recording
The last lines of the terminal session that decided this verdict, exactly as they were recorded.
}
],
'test_depth': 'tier1_real',
'notes': 'x86_64 Linux, GCC 13.3, no root. Binary verified: cmake build (plain dev + Release in…
'verified_how': 'python3 custom_verify_script.py confirmed: (1) valid XML via ElementTree.parse…
'final_state': 'Build succeeds (plain dev build/ and Release build-install/), binary parses the…
}
print('ARGUSIC_RESULT:' + json.dumps(result))
\"" in /work/repo
succeeded in 0ms:
tokens used
129,464Replay the whole session, every command from a clean machine to this point.
How it was tested
One agent, one container, no human help. It installs the project the way its own documentation says to, runs it, and fixes what breaks. Everything below is recorded as it happened: the terminal session, the log and the exact commit. The full method.
Strengths and limits
Measured facts, not opinions. How this is written.
What went well
- Reached a running state on a clean machine, with the session recorded.
- Recovered from all 3 errors without a human stepping in, which says the failures are documented well enough to solve.
- Ran without a GPU, so it does not need one to start.
- Licensed Apache-2.0, as reported by its host.
- Measured 2 times, so the result is not a one-off.
What did not, or is not known
- Took 16 minutes to install, slower than the median of the 11 comparable projects Argusic has measured.
Of the 12 ai-agents projects Argusic has installed and timed, ripwire was the 10th fastest to reach a running state, and 8 of 12 reached one at all.
What it is a reasonable choice for
- Trying it on a laptop or a small server: it reached a running state without a GPU.
Also tested, in the same area
Every one of these was installed and run by Argusic on a clean machine. Nothing appears here that was not tested.
Run history
Topics (from GitHub)
ai-agentscall-graphclaudeclaude-codeclicode-navigationcodexcoding-agentscontext-engineeringcppdeveloper-toolsllmmcpmcp-serverpythonruststatic-analysisswifttree-sittertypescript
Embed the badge
Markdown for the project README. It links back here; terms on the terms page.
[](https://argusic.com/subject/ripwire)Questions
- Does ripwire run?
- Yes. ripwire runs. Argusic installed and launched it on a clean machine in 16 minutes, hitting 3 errors on the way, and recorded the session.
- How did Argusic test ripwire?
- On a fresh, disposable machine, with every command recorded and the repository pinned at commit 4c10be9d70f7. 2 attempts are recorded, and the full method is on the methodology page.
- What did it cost to test ripwire?
- The run that produced this verdict cost $0.12: real compute and model cost, not a list price per million tokens. It is recorded on that run's page.
- How long does ripwire take to install?
- 16 minutes in the run that decided this verdict, from a clean machine to a running state. That is one measured attempt, not an average.
- Does ripwire need a GPU?
- Not to start. Argusic reached a running state on a machine with no GPU.
- What goes wrong when installing ripwire?
- 3 things broke in the recorded run, and 3 were fixed without human help. Each one, and the time it cost, is listed on this page.
- How does ripwire compare with the alternatives?
- Of the 12 ai-agents projects Argusic has installed and timed, ripwire was the 10th fastest to reach a running state, and 8 of 12 reached one at all.
- Where is the evidence for ripwire?
- All 2 recorded runs are on this page, each linking to its full log and terminal recording, stored with a sha256 fingerprint so it cannot be quietly altered.