LIST REFERENCES / IMPACT, DESCRIBE CONTEXT

Synopsis

LIST REFERENCES TO qualified_name

LIST IMPACT OF qualified_name

DESCRIBE CONTEXT OF qualified_name [ DEPTH n ]

Description

These commands provide different views of cross-reference information for a given element. All three require REFRESH CATALOG FULL to have been run beforehand.

LIST REFERENCES TO lists all elements that reference the specified element. This includes microflows that use an entity, pages that display it, associations that connect to it, and any other form of reference.

LIST IMPACT OF performs an impact analysis showing what would be affected if the specified element were changed or removed. This is broader than LIST REFERENCES as it considers transitive dependencies and indirect effects.

DESCRIBE CONTEXT OF assembles the surrounding context of an element – its definition, its callers, callees, and related elements – suitable for providing to an LLM or for understanding an element in its broader project context. The optional DEPTH parameter controls how many levels of related elements to include.

Attributes, enumerations and enumeration values

The target may also be an attribute (Module.Entity.Attribute), an enumeration, or an enumeration value (Module.Enum.Value). The graph records:

Kind	Meaning
`member`	a microflow, nanoflow, rule, page, snippet, workflow or import/export mapping binds, reads or writes the attribute, or navigates the association
`xpath`	an XPath constraint names the attribute or association, or compares an enumeration attribute with the value
`type`	an attribute, parameter or variable is typed as the enumeration
`value`	an expression names the enumeration value
`mapping`	an import or export mapping maps the entity
`split`	a microflow, nanoflow or rule branches on an object being the entity (an inheritance split)

IMPACT OF an enumeration includes the uses of each of its values, with a Target column naming which one.

Results list each (source, kind) once, and the IMPACT summary counts distinct elements.

When nothing is found, the message says what was searched. An attribute named only through a variable in a free-text expression ($Order/Total), and an enumeration value used only as a decision branch, are not resolved by the catalog, so an empty result for an attribute or a value tells you to run SEARCH before treating it as unused.

Parameters

qualified_name: The fully qualified name of the element to analyze (e.g., Module.EntityName, Module.MicroflowName, Module.Entity.Attribute, Module.Enum.Value).
n (CONTEXT only): The number of levels of related elements to include. Defaults to 1 if not specified. Higher values include more surrounding context but produce more output.

Examples

Find all references to an entity

REFRESH CATALOG FULL;
LIST REFERENCES TO Sales.Customer;

Analyze impact before making changes

LIST IMPACT OF Sales.Customer;

Check an attribute before dropping it

LIST IMPACT OF Sales.Order.DiscountCode;

Gather context for a microflow

DESCRIBE CONTEXT OF Sales.ACT_CreateOrder;

Gather deeper context

DESCRIBE CONTEXT OF Sales.ACT_CreateOrder DEPTH 3;

Check impact before moving an element

mdl 1;
LIST IMPACT OF Sales.CustomerEdit;
MOVE PAGE Sales.CustomerEdit TO NewModule;

From the command line

-- Shell commands:
-- mxcli refs -p app.mpr Sales.Customer
-- mxcli impact -p app.mpr Sales.Customer
-- mxcli context -p app.mpr Sales.ACT_CreateOrder --depth 3

mxcli Documentation