# In Line with Context: Repository-Level Code Generation via Context Inlining

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.00376 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.00376/

## Key facts

- Cited by 18 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 45 of its 71 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 1 Jan 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 45)

- [Qwen3 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.09388/) (2025)
- [SWE-bench: Can Language Models Resolve Real-World GitHub Issues?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.06770/) (2023)
- [Code Llama: Open Foundation Models for Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.12950/) (2023)
- [Qwen2.5-Coder Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.12186/) (2024)
- [DeepSeek-Coder: When the Large Language Model Meets Programming -- The Rise of Code Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.14196/) (2024)
- [CodeGen: An Open Large Language Model for Code with Multi-Turn Program Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.13474/) (2022)
- [Large Language Models Can Be Easily Distracted by Irrelevant Context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.00093/) (2023)
- [WizardCoder: Empowering Code Large Language Models with Evol-Instruct](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.08568/) (2023)
- [RepoCoder: Repository-Level Code Completion Through Iterative Retrieval and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12570/) (2023)
- [UniXcoder: Unified Cross-Modal Pre-training for Code Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.03850/) (2022)
- [CodeAgent: Enhancing Code Generation with Tool-Integrated Agent Systems for Real-World Repo-level Coding Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.07339/) (2024)
- [OpenCodeInterpreter: Integrating Code Generation with Execution and Refinement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.14658/) (2024)
- [CrossCodeEval: A Diverse and Multilingual Benchmark for Cross-File Code Completion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.11248/) (2023)
- [CodePlan: Repository-level Coding using LLMs and Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.12499/) (2023)
- [Debug like a Human: A Large Language Model Debugger via Verifying Runtime Execution Step-by-step](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.16906/) (2024)
- [Repository-Level Prompt Generation for Large Language Models of Code](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.12839/) (2022)
- [Programming Is Hard -- Or at Least It Used to Be: Educational Opportunities And Challenges of AI Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.01020/) (2022)
- [RepoGraph: Enhancing AI Software Engineering with Repository-level Code Graph](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.14684/) (2024)
- [Studying the effect of AI Code Generators on Supporting Novice Learners in Introductory Programming](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.07427/) (2023)
- [EvoCodeBench: An Evolving Code Generation Benchmark Aligned with Real-World Code Repositories](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.00599/) (2024)
- [DevEval: A Manually-Annotated Code Generation Benchmark Aligned with Real-World Code Repositories](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.19856/) (2024)
- [CodexGraph: Bridging Large Language Models and Code Repositories via Code Graph Databases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.03910/) (2024)
- [SWE-Exp: Experience-Driven Software Issue Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.23361/) (2025)
- [Alibaba LingmaAgent: Improving Automated Issue Resolution via Comprehensive Repository Exploration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.01422/) (2024)
- [A parallel corpus of Python functions and documentation strings for automated code documentation and code generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.02275/) (2017)
- [SWE-Debate: Competitive Multi-Agent Debate for Software Issue Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.23348/) (2025)
- [Enhancing Large Language Models in Coding Through Multi-Perspective Self-Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.17272/) (2023)
- [Iterative Refinement of Project-Level Code Context for Precise Code Generation with Compiler Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.16792/) (2024)
- [From Code to Correctness: Closing the Last Mile of Code Generation with Hierarchical Debugging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.01215/) (2024)
- [On the Effectiveness of Large Language Models in Domain-Specific Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.01639/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 18 of 18)

- [SWE-Pruner: Self-Adaptive Context Pruning for Coding Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.16746/) (2026)
- [SWE-MeM: Learning Adaptive Memory Management for Long-Horizon Coding Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.28434/) (2026)
- [Seeing is Coding: On the Effectiveness of Vision Language Models in Code Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.01785/) (2026)
- [EffiSkill: Agent Skill Based Automated Code Efficiency Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.27850/) (2026)
- [Dockerless: Environment-Free Program Verifier for Coding Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.28436/) (2026)
- [Test vs Mutant: Adversarial LLM Agents for Robust Unit Test Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.08146/) (2026)
- [SWE-Bench ProMax: Benchmarking Agents on Large-Scale Multilingual Code Refactoring](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.09802/) (2026)
- [LLM Agents Can See Code Repositories](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.14061/) (2026)
- [Repo0: Design-Driven Zero-to-All Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.19854/) (2026)
- [ClassEval-Pro: A Cross-Domain Benchmark for Class-Level Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.26923/) (2026)
- [SWE-Pruner Pro: The Coder LLM Already Knows What to Prune](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.18213/) (2026)
- [SkillForge: Self-Distilling Agents for Project-Specific Issue Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.18933/) (2026)
- [ParaTempo: Efficient Parallel Reasoning via Temporal Confidence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.16425/) (2026)
- [ShredBench: Evaluating the Semantic Reasoning Capabilities of Multimodal LLMs in Document Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.23813/) (2026)
- [Microskill Architecture: A Modular Skill-Driven Framework for AI-Native Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.05720/) (2026)
- [ProjAgent: Procedural Similarity Retrieval for Repository-Level Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.08691/) (2026)
- [Translator vs. Challenger: Adversarial Agentic Learning for C-to-Rust Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.15381/) (2026)
- [Schr"odinger's Code Repository: Have LLMs Learned SWE-bench or Memorized It?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.27891/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Repository-level code generation has attracted growing attention in recent years. Unlike function-level code generation, it requires the model to understand the entire repository, reasoning over complex dependencies across functions, classes, and modules. However, existing approaches such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) or context-based function selection often fall short: they primarily rely on surface-level similarity and struggle to capture the rich dependencies that govern repository-level semantics. In this paper, we introduce InlineCoder, a novel framework for repository-level code generation. InlineCoder enhances the understanding of repository context by inlining the unfinished function into its call graph, thereby reframing the challenging repository understanding as an easier function-level coding task. Given a function signature, InlineCoder first generates a draft completion, termed an anchor, which approximates downstream dependencies and enables perplexity-based confidence estimation. This anchor drives a bidirectional inlining process: (i) Upstream Inlining, which embeds the anchor into its callers to capture diverse usage scenarios; and (ii) Downstream Retrieval, which integrates the anchor's callees into the prompt to provide precise dependency context. The enriched context, combining draft completion with upstream and downstream perspectives, equips the LLM with a comprehensive repository view.
