Data Structure Protocol

---
name: data-structure-protocol
description: Give agents persistent structural memory of a codebase — navigate dependencies, track public APIs, and understand why connections exist without re-reading the whole repo. 
category: Document Processing
source: antigravity
tags: [python, node, api, ai, agent, llm, workflow, design, document, image]
url: https://github.com/sickn33/antigravity-awesome-skills/tree/main/skills/data-structure-protocol
---


# 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 replacement

## Core Concepts

### Code = graph

DSP models the codebase as a directed graph. Nodes are **entities**, edges are **imports** and **shared/exports**.

Two entity kinds exist:
- **Object**: any "thing" that isn't a function (module/file/class/config/resource/external dependency)
- **Function**: an exported function/method/handler/pipeline

### Identity by UID, not by file path

Every entity gets a stable UID: `obj-<8hex>` for objects, `func-<8hex>` for functions. File paths are attributes that can change; UIDs survive renames, moves, and reformatting.

For entities inside a file, the UID is anchored with a comment marker in source code:

```js
// @dsp func-7f3a9c12
export function calculateTotal(items) { ... }
```

```python
# @dsp obj-e5f6g7h8
class UserService:
```

### Every connection has a "why"

When an import is recorded, DSP stores a short reason explaining *why* that dependency exists. This lives in the `exports/` reverse index of the imported entity. A dependency graph without reasons tells you *what imports what*; reasons tell you **what is safe to change and who will break**.

### Storage format

Each entity gets a small directory under `.dsp/`:

```
.dsp/
├── TOC                        # ordered list of all entity UIDs from root
├── obj-a1b2c3d4/
│   ├── description            # source path, kind, purpose (1-3 sentences)
│   ├── imports                # UIDs this entity depends on (one per line)
│   ├── shared                 # UIDs of public API / exported entities
│   └── exports/               # reverse index: who imports this and why
│       ├── <importer_uid>     # file content = "why" text
│       └── <shared_uid>/
│           ├── description    # what is exported
│           └── <importer_uid> # why this specific export is imported
└── func-7f3a9c12/
    ├── description
    ├── imports
    └── exports/
```

Everything is plain text. Diffable. Reviewable. No database needed.

### Full import coverage

Every file or artifact that is imported anywhere must be represented in `.dsp` as an Object — code, images, styles, configs, JSON, wasm, everything. External dependencies (npm packages, stdlib, etc.) are recorded as `kind: external` but their internals are never analyzed.

## How It Works

### Initial Setup

The skill relies on a standalone Python CLI script `dsp-cli.py`. If it is missing from the project, download it:

```bash
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/k-kolomeitsev/data-structure-protocol/main/skills/data-structure-protocol/scripts/dsp-cli.py
```

Requires **Python 3.10+**. All commands use `python dsp-cli.py --root <project-root> <command>`.

### Bootstrap (initial mapping)

If `.dsp/` is empty, traverse the project from root entrypoint(s) via DFS on imports:

1. Identify root entrypoints (`package.json` main, framework entry, `main.py`, etc.)
2. Document the root file: `create-object`, `create-function` for each export, `create-shared`, `add-import` for all dependencies
3. Take the first non-external import, document it fully, descend into its imports
4. Backtrack when no unvisited local imports remain; continue until all reachable files are documented
5. External dependencies: `create-object --kind external`, add to TOC, but never descend into `node_modules`/`site-packages`/etc.

### Workflow Rules

- **Before changing code**: Find affected entities via `search`, `find-by-source`, or `read-toc`. Read their `description` and `imports` to understand context.
- **When creating a file/module**: Call `create-object`. For each exported function — `create-function` (with `--owner`). Register exports via `create-shared`.
- **When adding an import**: Call `add-import` with a brief `why`. For external deps — first `create-object --kind external` if the entity doesn't exist.
- **When remov