# LARGER: Lexically Anchored Repository Graph Exploration and Retrieval

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.16352 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.16352/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Software engineering coding agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 22 of its 26 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 8 May 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Software engineering coding agents](https://mlsanity.com/agents/software-engineering-coding-agents/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [SWE-agent: Agent-Computer Interfaces Enable Automated Software Engineering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.15793/) (2024)
- [OpenHands: An Open Platform for AI Software Developers as Generalist Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.16741/) (2024)
- [Agentless: Demystifying LLM-based Software Engineering Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.01489/) (2024)
- [From Louvain to Leiden: guaranteeing well-connected communities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.08473/) (2018)
- [G-Retriever: Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Textual Graph Understanding and Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.07630/) (2024)
- [CodePlan: Repository-level Coding using LLMs and Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.12499/) (2023)
- [RepoGraph: Enhancing AI Software Engineering with Repository-level Code Graph](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.14684/) (2024)
- [LocAgent: Graph-Guided LLM Agents for Code Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.09089/) (2025)
- [GRAG: Graph Retrieval-Augmented Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.16506/) (2024)
- [CodexGraph: Bridging Large Language Models and Code Repositories via Code Graph Databases](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.03910/) (2024)
- [When to use Graphs in RAG: A Comprehensive Analysis for Graph Retrieval-Augmented Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05690/) (2025)
- [OrcaLoca: An LLM Agent Framework for Software Issue Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.00350/) (2025)
- [Code Graph Model (CGM): A Graph-Integrated Large Language Model for Repository-Level Software Engineering Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.16901/) (2025)
- [Issue Localization via LLM-Driven Iterative Code Graph Searching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.22424/) (2025)
- [Improving Code Localization with Repository Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.01003/) (2025)
- [GraphCodeAgent: Dual Graph-Guided LLM Agent for Retrieval-Augmented Repo-Level Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.10046/) (2025)
- [RANGER -- Repository-Level Agent for Graph-Enhanced Retrieval](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.25257/) (2025)
- [A2RAG: Adaptive Agentic Graph Retrieval for Cost-Aware and Reliable Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.21162/) (2026)
- [Codebase-Memory: Tree-Sitter-Based Knowledge Graphs for LLM Code Exploration via MCP](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.27277/) (2026)
- [SweRank+: Multilingual, Multi-Turn Code Ranking for Software Issue Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.20482/) (2025)
- [A Benchmark for Localizing Code and Non-Code Issues in Software Projects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.25242/) (2025)
- [GraphSearch: An Agentic Deep Searching Workflow for Graph Retrieval-Augmented Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.22009/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Deep Agentic Search for Repository-Level Code Question Answering: An Empirical Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.01507/) (2026)
- [RepoAtlas: Guiding Coding Agents via Evolving Multimodal Repository Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.16936/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Repository-level coding agents must first localize the files and symbols relevant to a task; failures at this stage can cascade across downstream objectives ranging from patch generation to test writing and codebase question answering. Existing agents navigate repositories primarily through lexical search, often missing structural relations such as imports, call chains, type hierarchies, and code-test links. Graph-based retrieval can recover such dependencies, but existing approaches often require separate graph tools or traversal stages that fragment the agent's interaction loop. We formalize repository context localization as Lexically Anchored Structural Localization, where success depends on turning lexical matches into high-precision structural entry points and exposing the most useful confidence-filtered local neighborhoods within the agent's existing search loop. We introduce LARGER (Lexically Anchored Repository Graph Exploration and Retrieval), a lexically anchored active-set retrieval framework that starts from lexical matches, aligns them to graph anchors, and performs confidence-filtered local expansion within the agent's existing search loop. LARGER integrates directly into existing CLI coding agents without requiring external graph databases or specialized graph interfaces. Across four benchmarks spanning localization, test generation, and codebase understanding, LARGER improves file-level Acc@5 on LocBench by +13.9 points with tuned hyperparameters and still gains +11.8 points with fixed hyperparameters over the strongest baseline, while delivering consistent gains on MuLocBench, SWE-Atlas Test Writing, and SWE-Atlas Codebase QA.