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Goal​

Answer the questions you'd normally ask in SE80 / Eclipse ADT workbench — "who calls this?", "what does this call?", "where is it used?", "what does its structure look like?" — from the CLI, so you can pipe results into scripts or AI agents.

Prerequisites​

Steps​

1. Resolve a name to a definition​

adt wb definition CL_SALV_TABLE

Expected output:

CLAS  CL_SALV_TABLE
  URI:     /sap/bc/adt/oo/classes/cl_salv_table
  Package: SALV

With type hint (faster, avoids name collisions across object types):

adt wb definition CL_SALV_TABLE -t CLAS --json

2. Where-used​

adt wb where-used ZCL_CUSTOMER -m 100 --json > usages.json
jq '.[] | "\(.type)/\(.name)"' usages.json

Human-readable form:

adt wb where-used ZDTEL_CUSTOMER_ID
# →  TABL ZT_CUSTOMER  (field CUSTOMER_ID)
# →  TABL ZS_CUSTOMER  (field CUSTOMER_ID)
# →  CLAS ZCL_CUSTOMER (method get_by_id, param IV_ID)

3. Call hierarchy​

adt wb callers ZCL_CUSTOMER -t CLAS      # who calls my class?
adt wb callees ZCL_CUSTOMER -t CLAS      # what does my class call?

Combine with jq to find external dependencies only:

adt wb callees ZCL_CUSTOMER -t CLAS --json \
  | jq '.[] | select(.name | startswith("Z")|not) | .name' \
  | sort -u

4. Outline​

Structural view — includes, methods, attributes, types:

adt wb outline ZCL_CUSTOMER

Inspect an inactive version (work-in-progress before activation):

adt wb outline ZCL_CUSTOMER --version inactive

5. URI-mode (skip name resolution)​

If you already have the ADT URI (e.g. from adt ls or adt search), pass it directly — saves one round-trip:

adt wb outline --uri /sap/bc/adt/oo/classes/zcl_customer
adt wb where-used --uri /sap/bc/adt/ddic/tables/zt_customer

Recipes​

Build a dependency graph​

for c in $(adt ls \$ZDEMO --types CLAS --json | jq -r '.[].name'); do
  adt wb callees "$c" -t CLAS --json \
    | jq -r --arg src "$c" '.[] | "\($src) -> \(.name)"'
done > deps.txt

Pipe into Graphviz:

( echo 'digraph G {'; sed 's/$/;/' deps.txt; echo '}') | dot -Tsvg > deps.svg

Impact analysis before a refactor​

adt wb where-used ZCL_OLD_NAME --json \
  | jq -r '.[] | [.type, .name, .package] | @tsv'

Hand this list to your reviewer or feed it into an MCP-capable assistant (find_references).

Troubleshooting​

ErrorCauseFix
Ambiguous name: resolved 3 definitionsSame name exists as CLAS + INTF + ...Pass -t CLAS (or the correct kind)
No where-used data availableWhere-used index not built on systemRun SE80 → Utilities → Where-used in Background (basis task)
Outline emptyObject is inactive and has no inactive version eitheradt <type> read <name> first to confirm existence

See also​