CostAffective vs Graphify

Graphify converts codebases into complex spatial coordinate trees. While visually appealing, spatial nodes are highly inefficient for coding agents. CostAffective utilizes standard relational symbol maps optimized for direct scope retrievals.

Feature Breakdown

Feature Capabilities	CostAffective	Graphify
Token Economy Mapping	Yes (45.9% compressed)	No (Sends coordinate meshes)
Fuzzy Symbol Lookup	Yes	Yes
Incremental Rebuilds	Yes (8ms)	No (Slow graph regenerations)

CostAffective Advantages

•Relational index schemas optimized for agent tools.
•Extremely high test coverage on installation binaries.

Graphify Tradeoffs

•No visual graph display rendering frontend tabs.
•Maintains strict Go language dependencies.

Quality & Token Savings Metrics

Context Size

685 tokensvs 1,704 tokens

▼ 59.8%

Setup Latency

2 secondsvs 4 minutes

▼ 99.1%

Structural Comparison

CostAffective Architecture

SQLite database with symbol, caller, and reference scopes.

Graphify Architecture

Custom graph database files requiring spatial clustering libraries.

CostAffective maps AST tags directly to filenames and line bounds, yielding minimal runtime query costs.

Migration Guide: Moving to CostAffective

Switching is quick. CostAffective integrates into the same Model Context Protocol slots as Graphify.

Setup Instructions

Disable Graphify database processes.
Run `costaffective doctor` to verify local system compiler dependencies.

// BEFORE (Graphify)

{
  "graphify-db": "/var/lib/graphify.db"
}

// AFTER (CostAffective)

{
  "costaffective": {
    "command": "costaffective",
    "args": ["serve"]
  }
}