aiqbench analysis
FeatLens advances repository-level code generation by replacing expensive, persistent graph maintenance with a dynamic, feature-guided retrieval system that significantly reduces token overhead and reasoning complexity. By linking natural language features directly to code entities via semantic-structural graph reasoning, the method achieves superior dependency retrieval efficiency without consuming LLM tokens during the search phase. This approach marks a notable shift toward scalable, lightweight infrastructure for large-scale software development tasks powered by AI models.
FeatLens: Feature-Guided Dynamic Code Graph Construction and Retrieval for Repository-Level Code Generation
arXiv:2609.26480v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Recent code generation research has moved from isolated function completion toward repository-level generation in existing codebases. To implement a target function correctly, an LLM must identify reusable repository dependencies such as existing functions, APIs, and cross-file definitions. Existing retrieval methods provide such context through code similarity search, persistent whole-repository graphs, or LLM-driven graph exploration, but often incur high graph construction, reasoning, and token costs. Feature-oriented methods offer a natural view of software functionality, yet they mainly support requirement decomposition, planning, or feature editing rather than code dependency retrieval. This paper presents \textbf{FeatLens}, a feature-guided dynamic code graph construction and retrieval approach for repository-level code generation. FeatLens builds a feature index that links natural-language feature descriptions to function-level code entities. Given a generation task, it dynamically constructs a task-specific seed graph from the feature index and applies semantic-structural graph reasoning with personalized PageRank to select a compact reasoning graph. This design replaces persistent whole-repository graph maintenance and LLM exploration with deterministic and lightweight dependency retrieval. Experiments on DevEval and EvoCodeBench show that FeatLens achieves the best DR@15 among sparse, dense, and graph-based baselines (0.501 and 0.460). On DevEval generation, it obtains the highest DIR@1, reaching 52.91\% with DeepSeek-V3.2 and 53.58\% with GPT-5-mini, while maintaining competitive Pass@1 and producing shorter code. Compared with the strongest graph-based baseline, FeatLens reduces graph nodes by 61.0\%, edges by 86.2\%, and total token overhead by 45.9\%, with no LLM tokens used during retrieval.
Abstract:Recent code generation research has moved from isolated function completion toward repository-level generation in existing codebases. To implement a target function correctly, an LLM must identify reusable repository dependencies such as existing functions, APIs, and cross-file definitions. Existing retrieval methods provide such context through code similarity search, persistent whole-repository graphs, or LLM-driven graph exploration, but often incur high graph construction, reasoning, and token costs. Feature-oriented methods offer a natural view of software functionality, yet they mainly support requirement decomposition, planning, or feature editing rather than code dependency retrieval. This paper presents \textbf{FeatLens}, a feature-guided dynamic code graph construction and retrieval approach for repository-level code generation. FeatLens builds a feature index that links natural-language feature descriptions to function-level code entities. Given a generation task, it dynamically constructs a task-specific seed graph from the feature index and applies semantic-structural graph reasoning with personalized PageRank to select a compact reasoning graph. This design replaces persistent whole-repository graph maintenance and LLM exploration with deterministic and lightweight dependency retrieval. Experiments on DevEval and EvoCodeBench show that FeatLens achieves the best DR@15 among sparse, dense, and graph-based baselines (0.501 and 0.460). On DevEval generation, it obtains the highest DIR@1, reaching 52.91\% with DeepSeek-V3.2 and 53.58\% with GPT-5-mini, while maintaining competitive Pass@1 and producing shorter code. Compared with the strongest graph-based baseline, FeatLens reduces graph nodes by 61.0\%, edges by 86.2\%, and total token overhead by 45.9\%, with no LLM tokens used during retrieval.
Software Engineering (cs.SE); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
arXiv:2609.26480 [cs.SE]
(or arXiv:2609.26480v1 [cs.SE] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.26480 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.
Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.
Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.
Full text under the publisher's open licence · 334 words
Related coverage
From Vector Search to Agentic RAG: Building an Enterprise Research Analyst with hipVS
AMD · Jul 15, 2026
GeoGR^2:Zero-Shot Geospatial Inference via Geostatistically-Guided Iterative Refinement with LLMs
arXiv · Sep 2, 2026
RES-MR: Risk-Aware Reasoning for Explainable and Safe Medication Recommendation
arXiv · Oct 15, 2026
Graph2Idea:Retrieval-Augmented Scientific Idea Generation with Graph-Structured Contexts
arXiv · Jun 10, 2026