data-structure-protocol
Give agents persistent structural memory of a codebase — navigate dependencies, track public APIs, and understand why connections exist without re-reading the whole repo.
Profile →npx skills add sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills --skill data-structure-protocol --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Data Structure Protocol (DSP) LLM coding agents lose context between tasks. On large codebases they spend most of their tokens on "orientation" — figuring out where things live, what depends on what, and what is safe to change. DSP solves this by externalizing the project's structural map into a persistent, queryable graph stored in a `.dsp/` directory next to the code. DSP is NOT documentation for humans and NOT an AST dump. It captures three things: **meaning** (why an entity exists), **boundaries** (what it imports and exposes), and **reasons** (why each connection exists). This is enough for an agent to navigate, refactor, and generate code without loading the entire source tree into the context window. ## When to Use Use this skill when: - The project has a `.dsp/` directory (DSP is already set up) - The user asks to set up DSP, bootstrap, or map a project's structure - Creating, modifying, or deleting code files in a DSP-tracked project (to keep the graph updated) - Navigating project structure, understanding dependencies, or finding specific modules - The user mentions DSP, dsp-cli, `.dsp`, or structure mapping - Performing impact analysis before a refactor or dependency r
- When to Use
- Core Concepts
- Code = graph
- Identity by UID, not by file path
- Every connection has a "why"
- Storage format
- Full import coverage
- How It Works
- Initial Setup
- Bootstrap (initial mapping)
- Workflow Rules
- Key Commands
- When to Update DSP
- Examples
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/k-kolomeitsev/data-structure-protocol/main/skills/data-structure-protocol/scripts/dsp-cli.py python dsp-cli.py --root . init python dsp-cli.py --root . create-object "src/app.ts" "Main application entrypoint" python dsp-cli.py --root . create-function "src/app.ts#start" "Starts the HTTP server" --owner obj-a1b2c3d4 python dsp-cli.py --root . create-shared obj-a1b2c3d4 func-7f3a9c12 python dsp-cli.py --root . add-import obj-a1b2c3d4 obj-deadbeef "HTTP routing" python dsp-cli.py --root . search "authentication" python dsp-cli.py --root . get-entity obj-a1b2c3d4 python dsp-cli.py --root . get-children obj-a1b2c3d4 --depth 2 python dsp-cli.py --root . get-recipients obj-a1b2c3d4
What does the data-structure-protocol skill do?
Give agents persistent structural memory of a codebase — navigate dependencies, track public APIs, and understand why connections exist without re-reading the whole repo.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills --skill data-structure-protocol --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills, a repository with 44,414 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.