Use Orbit Local with the Orbit CLI (orbit)

The Orbit CLI (orbit) builds a code graph for any local repository and queries it against a local DuckDB file. No GitLab connection required.

Install

Install the standalone orbit binary with the one-line installer:

curl -fsSL "https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/orbit/knowledge-graph/-/raw/main/install.sh" | bash

This adds orbit to your PATH. Open a new terminal, then verify the install:

orbit help

If you already use the GitLab CLI (glab), you can instead install a managed binary with glab orbit local --install. That binary is invoked as glab orbit local <command> rather than orbit directly - see Use Orbit Local with glab.

Build from source

To contribute to Orbit or run an unreleased build, compile the binary yourself.

Prerequisites:

• Rust toolchain (stable)
• mise for tool management

git clone https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/orbit/knowledge-graph.git
cd knowledge-graph
mise install
mise run build:cli

The compiled binary is at target/release/orbit. Add it to your PATH or invoke it directly.

Index a repository

orbit index /path/to/your/repo

Orbit parses the repository and writes a DuckDB graph to ~/.orbit/graph.duckdb. You can index multiple repositories. Each is scoped by project ID and branch in the manifest table.

Inspect the schema

orbit schema lists every table and column in the local DuckDB graph:

orbit schema

Pass table names as positional arguments to scope the output:

orbit schema gl_definition              # scoped to one table
orbit schema gl_definition gl_edge      # scoped to two tables

Run SQL against the local graph

orbit sql 'SELECT count(*) FROM gl_definition'
orbit sql -F json 'SELECT name FROM gl_definition LIMIT 3'
echo 'SELECT 1+1' | orbit sql -
orbit sql --file query.sql

List indexed repositories

The graph can hold more than one repository. To see what it contains, run:

orbit list
orbit list -F json

Each row reports the repository path, branch, commit, indexing status, and when it was last indexed:

+------------------------+--------+------------+---------+---------------------+
| repo_path              | branch | commit_sha | status  | last_indexed_at     |
+------------------------+--------+------------+---------+---------------------+
| /home/dev/workspace/kg | main   | 9606ae8... | indexed | 2026-05-18 10:14:02 |
| /tmp/cli-test          | main   | 654f3a6... | indexed | 2026-05-18 10:13:55 |
+------------------------+--------+------------+---------+---------------------+

If nothing has been indexed yet, orbit list exits 0. The table view prints nothing; structured formats emit valid empty output ([] for json, no records for ndjson) so pipelines like orbit list -F json | jq keep working.

Run as an MCP server

Expose the local graph to any MCP-compatible AI agent over stdio:

orbit mcp serve

It serves run_sql, get_graph_schema, and index against ~/.orbit/graph.duckdb. See Connect via MCP for per-client config.

Storage

The graph is stored at ~/.orbit/graph.duckdb. Multiple repositories share the same database. Delete the file to start over.

Billing

Orbit Local does not consume GitLab Credits. All processing is local.

What to try next

• Connect via MCP - connect Claude Code, Codex, and other agents to the local graph.
• Use Orbit Local with glab - call the CLI through glab orbit local.
• Schema reference - available node types and properties.
• Cookbook - copy-paste queries for common use cases.