> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mibyanai.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Codebase Inspection — Inspect codebases w/ pygount: LOC, languages, ratios

> Inspect codebases w/ pygount: LOC, languages, ratios

Inspect codebases w/ pygount: LOC, languages, ratios.

## Skill metadata

| | |
| - | - |
| Source | Bundled (installed by default) |
| Path | `skills/software-development/codebase-inspection` |
| Version | `1.0.0` |
| Author | Mibyan |
| License | MIT |
| Platforms | linux, macos, windows |
| Tags | `LOC`, `Code Analysis`, `pygount`, `Codebase`, `Metrics`, `Repository` |
| Related skills | [`github`](/desktop/user-guide/skills/bundled/software-development/software-development-github) |

## Reference: full SKILL.md

<Info>
  The following is the complete skill definition that Mibyan loads when this skill is triggered. This is what the agent sees as instructions when the skill is active.
</Info>

# Codebase Inspection with pygount

Analyze repositories for lines of code, language breakdown, file counts, and code-vs-comment ratios using `pygount`.

## When to Use

* User asks for LOC (lines of code) count
* User wants a language breakdown of a repo
* User asks about codebase size or composition
* User wants code-vs-comment ratios
* General "how big is this repo" questions

## Prerequisites

```bash theme={null}
pip install --break-system-packages pygount 2>/dev/null || pip install pygount
```

## 1. Basic Summary (Most Common)

Get a full language breakdown with file counts, code lines, and comment lines:

```bash theme={null}
cd /path/to/repo
pygount --format=summary \
  --folders-to-skip=".git,node_modules,venv,.venv,__pycache__,.cache,dist,build,.next,.tox,.eggs,*.egg-info" \
  .
```

**IMPORTANT:** Always use `--folders-to-skip` to exclude dependency/build directories, otherwise pygount will crawl them and take a very long time or hang.

## 2. Common Folder Exclusions

Adjust based on the project type:

```bash theme={null}
# Python projects
--folders-to-skip=".git,venv,.venv,__pycache__,.cache,dist,build,.tox,.eggs,.mypy_cache"

# JavaScript/TypeScript projects
--folders-to-skip=".git,node_modules,dist,build,.next,.cache,.turbo,coverage"

# General catch-all
--folders-to-skip=".git,node_modules,venv,.venv,__pycache__,.cache,dist,build,.next,.tox,vendor,third_party"
```

## 3. Filter by Specific Language

```bash theme={null}
# Only count Python files
pygount --suffix=py --format=summary .

# Only count Python and YAML
pygount --suffix=py,yaml,yml --format=summary .
```

## 4. Detailed File-by-File Output

```bash theme={null}
# Default format shows per-file breakdown
pygount --folders-to-skip=".git,node_modules,venv" .

# Sort by code lines (pipe through sort)
pygount --folders-to-skip=".git,node_modules,venv" . | sort -t$'\t' -k1 -nr | head -20
```

## 5. Output Formats

```bash theme={null}
# Summary table (default recommendation)
pygount --format=summary .

# JSON output for programmatic use
pygount --format=json .

# Pipe-friendly: Language, file count, code, docs, empty, string
pygount --format=summary . 2>/dev/null
```

## 6. Interpreting Results

The summary table columns:

* **Language** — detected programming language
* **Files** — number of files of that language
* **Code** — lines of actual code (executable/declarative)
* **Comment** — lines that are comments or documentation
* **%** — percentage of total

Special pseudo-languages:

* `__empty__` — empty files
* `__binary__` — binary files (images, compiled, etc.)
* `__generated__` — auto-generated files (detected heuristically)
* `__duplicate__` — files with identical content
* `__unknown__` — unrecognized file types

## Pitfalls

1. **Always exclude .git, node\_modules, venv** — without `--folders-to-skip`, pygount will crawl everything and may take minutes or hang on large dependency trees.
2. **Markdown shows 0 code lines** — pygount classifies all Markdown content as comments, not code. This is expected behavior.
3. **JSON files show low code counts** — pygount may count JSON lines conservatively. For accurate JSON line counts, use `wc -l` directly.
4. **Large monorepos** — for very large repos, consider using `--suffix` to target specific languages rather than scanning everything.


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