Symbol Not Found

Symptoms

canopy answer "where is the function \X` defined?”` returns “No strong match in this repository” for a symbol you know exists.
A recently added function is not findable after indexing.
list functions defined in \dir/“ misses entries you expect.

Likely Causes

Cause	Indicator
File has not been indexed yet	File was added after the last `canopy index` run
File is excluded by ignore rules	File shows up in `canopy index --list-ignored`
Phrasing didn’t lock the router	Question lacked the entity type or backticks
Symbol shape isn’t statically extractable	Dynamically generated / metaprogrammed symbols
Index is stale or damaged	`canopy doctor` shows a problem

Fix 1: Re-index

The most common cause. Indexing is incremental and fast:

canopy index

If you use canopy serve --watch, changed files re-index automatically as you edit — a missing new symbol usually means the watcher isn’t running.

Fix 2: Check the ignore rules

Canopy respects .gitignore, its bundled defaults, and .canopyignore. If the file is excluded, its symbols don’t exist to the index:

canopy index --list-ignored

If the file appears there, adjust .canopyignore (or pass the ignore-override flags — see canopy index --help) and re-index.

Fix 3: Fix the phrasing

The router locks on when you name the entity type and backtick the symbol:

# Weak — falls through to semantic search
canopy answer "where is createSession"

# Strong — routed straight to the symbol locator
canopy answer "where is the function \`createSession\` defined?"

If the symbol lives in a specific file, be explicit:

canopy answer "show \`createSession\` in \`src/auth/session.ts\`"

Fix 4: Statically invisible symbols

Symbols created at runtime — dynamically defined methods, macro-generated functions, __getattr__-style dispatch — have no AST definition site to extract. For those, ask by meaning instead:

canopy answer "how does session creation work?"

The semantic recipe searches by content rather than by symbol table.

Fix 5: Rebuild from scratch

If canopy doctor shows the index present but answers stay wrong:

canopy index --full

This wipes and rebuilds the repo’s index completely.

Still stuck?

Email support@gulfshieldtech.com with the output of canopy doctor and the exact question you asked.