using-serena-symbols

Using Serena Symbol Analysis

Serena provides LSP-powered code intelligence for accurate symbol extraction, relationship discovery, and cross-file analysis.

When to Use Serena vs Text Search

Use Serena	Use Grep/Text Search
Finding class/function definitions	Searching for string literals
Tracing method references	Finding patterns in comments
Understanding call hierarchies	Searching config files
Analyzing imports/dependencies	Finding TODO/FIXME markers
Cross-file architecture analysis	Simple keyword search

Key advantage: Serena understands code structure. find_symbol("UserService") finds the actual class definition, not every mention of "UserService" in comments or strings.

Core Tools

1. get_symbols_overview

Get high-level view of symbols in a file. Start here when exploring a new file.

mcp__plugin_serena_serena__get_symbols_overview(
    {
        "relative_path": "src/services/auth.py",
        "depth": 1,  # 0=top-level only, 1=include methods
    }
)

Returns: Classes, functions, variables with their kind and location.

2. find_symbol

Find symbols by name pattern. Supports flexible matching.

Name path patterns:

• UserService - Find any symbol named "UserService"
• UserService/authenticate - Find method in class
• /UserService - Exact match (absolute path)
• Service with substring_matching: true - Matches "UserService", "AuthService", etc.

mcp__plugin_serena_serena__find_symbol(
    {
        "name_path_pattern": "UserService/authenticate",
        "include_body": true,  # Get source code
        "depth": 0,  # 0=just this symbol, 1=include children
    }
)

Key parameters:

• include_body (bool): Include source code (use judiciously for context)
• depth (int): How many levels of children to retrieve
• relative_path (str): Restrict search to file/directory
• substring_matching (bool): Partial name matching