Kotlin/Java: Retrofit client interfaces are minted as server Route nodes instead of outbound HTTP_CALLS #2723

Version

codebase-memory-mcp 0.12.1

Platform

Linux (x64)

Install channel

GitHub release archive / install.sh / install.ps1

Binary variant

ui

What happened, and what did you expect?

A Retrofit service interface (@GET/@POST/... from retrofit2.http, in Kotlin or Java) declares the HTTP calls
a client makes, but it is indexed as if the client served them: each annotated method becomes a Route
node of the client project with a HANDLES edge from the interface method. Three consequences:

• Outbound calls lost. The interface methods get no HTTP_CALLS edge, so cross-repo-intelligence reports
  cross_http_calls: 0 for a client whose whole HTTP surface is Retrofit, which is the usual shape of an
  Android app.
• Other callers get linked to the client. A path written with a leading slash (@GET("/v1/orders/{id}"),
  which Retrofit treats as absolute: "Endpoint values which contain a leading / are absolute",
  Retrofit.java:581)
  yields a Route identical to the server's real one. cross-repo-intelligence from any other project that
  calls the same endpoint then emits a CROSS_HTTP_CALLS pair into the client as well as into the server, as if
  the client's interface method handled the request.
• Paths collapse onto /. Any path that is not a string literal with a leading slash becomes /, so all
  such methods collide on __route__GET__/ / __route__POST__/:
  • the idiomatic relative path (@POST("v1/orders")), resolved at runtime against the baseUrl
    (Retrofit.java:560);
  • a Kotlin const val, alone (@GET(ORDERS)) or in a string template (@GET("$ORDERS/{id}/status")), even
    when the constant itself starts with /. Retrofit annotation arguments must be compile-time constants, so
    this is a common way to share a path prefix across the methods of one interface.

Expected: see "Result vs expected" in the Reproduction section.

Reproduction

1. Code. Three dummy repos, created as /tmp/cbm-kotlin-retrofit-client, /tmp/cbm-orders-server and
/tmp/cbm-billing-caller.

Client repo /tmp/cbm-kotlin-retrofit-client, under src/main/kotlin/com/acme/client/:

// OrderApi.kt   (Retrofit, Kotlin coroutines)
package com.acme.client

import retrofit2.http.Body
import retrofit2.http.GET
import retrofit2.http.POST
import retrofit2.http.Path

private const val ORDERS = "/v1/orders"

interface OrderApi {
    @GET("/v1/orders/{id}")
    suspend fun getOrder(@Path("id") id: String): String

    @POST("v1/orders")
    suspend fun createOrder(@Body body: String): String

    @GET(ORDERS)
    suspend fun listOrders(): String

    @GET("$ORDERS/{id}/status")
    suspend fun getOrderStatus(@Path("id") id: String): String
}

Server repo /tmp/cbm-orders-server, under src/main/java/com/acme/server/ (JAX-RS; indexes correctly):

// OrderResource.java
package com.acme.server;
import jakarta.ws.rs.GET;
import jakarta.ws.rs.POST;
import jakarta.ws.rs.Path;
import jakarta.ws.rs.PathParam;
@Path("/v1/orders")
public class OrderResource {
    @GET public String list() { return "[]"; }
    @GET @Path("/{id}") public String get(@PathParam("id") String id) { return id; }
    @GET @Path("/{id}/status") public String status(@PathParam("id") String id) { return id; }
    @POST public String create(String body) { return body; }
}

Another caller of the same server, /tmp/cbm-billing-caller, under src/main/java/com/acme/billing/ (an inline
RestTemplate, a shape that already produces HTTP_CALLS):

// BillingJob.java
package com.acme.billing;
import org.springframework.web.client.RestTemplate;
public class BillingJob {
    public String order(String id) {
        return new RestTemplate().getForObject("/v1/orders/{id}", String.class, id);
    }
}

2. Commands. The project ids below are what the indexer derives from the /tmp/... paths.

codebase-memory-mcp cli index_repository '{"repo_path":"/tmp/cbm-kotlin-retrofit-client","mode":"moderate"}'
codebase-memory-mcp cli index_repository '{"repo_path":"/tmp/cbm-orders-server","mode":"moderate"}'
codebase-memory-mcp cli index_repository '{"repo_path":"/tmp/cbm-billing-caller","mode":"moderate"}'
codebase-memory-mcp cli query_graph '{"project":"tmp-cbm-kotlin-retrofit-client","query":"MATCH (f)-[e:HANDLES]->(r:Route) RETURN f.file_path, f.name, r.qualified_name"}'
codebase-memory-mcp cli query_graph '{"project":"tmp-cbm-kotlin-retrofit-client","query":"MATCH (f)-[e:HTTP_CALLS]->(r) RETURN f.name, r.qualified_name"}'
codebase-memory-mcp cli query_graph '{"project":"tmp-cbm-orders-server","query":"MATCH (r:Route) RETURN r.qualified_name"}'
codebase-memory-mcp cli index_repository '{"repo_path":"/tmp/cbm-kotlin-retrofit-client","mode":"cross-repo-intelligence","target_projects":["tmp-cbm-orders-server"]}'
codebase-memory-mcp cli index_repository '{"repo_path":"/tmp/cbm-billing-caller","mode":"cross-repo-intelligence","target_projects":["tmp-cbm-kotlin-retrofit-client","tmp-cbm-orders-server"]}'
codebase-memory-mcp cli query_graph '{"project":"tmp-cbm-kotlin-retrofit-client","query":"MATCH (h)-[e:CROSS_HTTP_CALLS]->(r) RETURN h.file_path, h.name, r.qualified_name"}'
codebase-memory-mcp cli query_graph '{"project":"tmp-cbm-orders-server","query":"MATCH (h)-[e:CROSS_HTTP_CALLS]->(r) RETURN h.file_path, h.name, r.qualified_name"}'

3. Result vs expected. CLI output, trimmed to the rows.

Client HANDLES edges (expected: 0 rows; only the leading-slash literal keeps its path, the relative path and
both const val forms collapse to /):

rows: 4  (cols: f.file_path f.name r.qualified_name)
  src/main/kotlin/com/acme/client/OrderApi.kt getOrder __route__GET__/v1/orders/{}
  src/main/kotlin/com/acme/client/OrderApi.kt createOrder __route__POST__/
  src/main/kotlin/com/acme/client/OrderApi.kt listOrders __route__GET__/
  src/main/kotlin/com/acme/client/OrderApi.kt getOrderStatus __route__GET__/

Client HTTP_CALLS edges:

rows: 0  (cols: f.name r.qualified_name)

Expected 4 rows:

  getOrder       __route__GET__/v1/orders/{}
  createOrder    __route__POST__/v1/orders
  listOrders     __route__GET__/v1/orders
  getOrderStatus __route__GET__/v1/orders/{}/status

Server Route nodes (correct):

rows: 4  (cols: r.qualified_name)
  __route__GET__/v1/orders
  __route__GET__/v1/orders/{}
  __route__GET__/v1/orders/{}/status
  __route__POST__/v1/orders

cross-repo-intelligence from the client: "cross_http_calls":0. Expected 4.

cross-repo-intelligence from the billing caller: "cross_http_calls":2 for its single call. Expected 1. The
reverse edges show the second one landing on the client's interface method:

# tmp-cbm-kotlin-retrofit-client (expected: 0 rows)
rows: 1  (cols: h.file_path h.name r.qualified_name)
  src/main/kotlin/com/acme/client/OrderApi.kt getOrder __route__GET__/v1/orders/{}

# tmp-cbm-orders-server (correct)
rows: 1  (cols: h.file_path h.name r.qualified_name)
  src/main/java/com/acme/server/OrderResource.java get __route__GET__/v1/orders/{}

The same holds for a Java Retrofit interface: @GET("v1/orders/{id}") and @POST("v1/orders") on a Java
interface give HANDLES to __route__GET__/ and __route__POST__/ and no HTTP_CALLS.

Related: #2668 (Java outbound calls through injected clients, format strings and request builders yield no
HTTP_CALLS; same "outbound call lost" family, different mechanism), #1248 (false Routes minted from
non-registration string literals).

Logs

Diagnostics trajectory (memory / performance / leak issues)

Project scale (if relevant)

Impact on a real codebase. On a production Kotlin Android app (29 Retrofit interfaces, 85 annotated
methods; proprietary, so only counts here):

• 85 HANDLES edges onto 67 client Route nodes, 0 HTTP_CALLS;
• 16 methods (relative paths and const val templates) collapse onto __route__GET__/ and
  __route__POST__/;
• of the 65 other distinct paths, 55 match a HANDLES-backed Route of the backend services the app talks to,
  so classifying them as outbound calls would give the app 55 correct cross-repo links instead of 0 (the
  remaining 10 are static files and third-party APIs);
• 15 CROSS_HTTP_CALLS from call sites in 6 other repositories of the same fleet land on the app's interface
  methods.

Confirmations

• I searched existing issues and this is not a duplicate.
• My reproduction uses shareable code (a dummy snippet or a public OSS repository), not proprietary code.