greplm-search

Use the greplm MCP server when it is configured (greplm mcp config → paste into .cursor/mcp.json). Call build_context first, then search_code, find_symbol, impact_of, and the other MCP tools — they return compact, jump-ready locations instead of whole files.

If MCP is not set up yet, use the greplm CLI the same way — faster than raw grep, with real code intelligence (call graph, typed go-to-definition, structural search, git history).

greplm index                          # build or refresh the index

# Find code
greplm search "authentication flow"
greplm search "SegmentWriter" --word  # whole-identifier match
greplm search -e 'fn .*candidates' --lang rust --limit 20
greplm search "needle" --exhaustive       # every match: no ranking/limit/per-file cap (grep parity)
greplm symbols extract --exact        # symbol / definition lookup
greplm outline crates/greplm-core/src/trigram.rs
greplm snippet crates/greplm-core/src/trigram.rs 15 25 --context 3

# Code intelligence
greplm pack "how does incremental indexing work" --budget 8000  # task -> ranked, budgeted context
greplm def <file> <line> <col>   # typed go-to-definition (file line col)
greplm callers references            # who calls this symbol
greplm callees merge_segments        # what this symbol calls
greplm impact add_doc --depth 3      # blast radius: what breaks if I change this
greplm xref SegmentWriter            # resolved references (defs + calls + imports)
greplm ast 'fn $NAME() {}' --lang rust   # structural / AST search (or a tree-sitter query)

# Git time-travel
greplm blame <file> <line>
greplm history references            # commits that touched a symbol
greplm changed main                  # files + symbols changed since a revision

greplm summary

Pass -C ./my-project to search another directory. Add --json for machine-readable output.

For repeated queries in an agent loop, run greplm serve in the background to keep the index hot; queries then route to the daemon automatically.

If greplm is not on $PATH, install with:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/KhaledSMQ/greplm/main/install.sh | sh

Workflow

1. Run greplm index before searching a project (incremental by default). indexed 0 files means nothing changed since the last run — not an empty index; confirm the index is populated with greplm status/greplm summary (check files/doc_count) before falling back to grep.
2. Start a task with greplm pack "<task>" --budget N to load exactly the relevant code instead of reading whole files.
3. Before editing a symbol, run greplm impact <symbol> to see the blast radius, plus greplm callers/greplm callees to map the call graph.
4. Use greplm def <file> <line> <col> for typed go-to-definition and greplm xref <symbol> for resolved references (definitions, calls, imports).
5. Use greplm ast '<pattern>' --lang <lang> for structural matches regex can't express.
6. Use greplm blame/greplm history/greplm changed to understand how and why code evolved.
7. For "find every occurrence", use greplm search --exhaustive (no ranking/limit/per-file cap); drop to raw grep only for a quick one-off confirmation of an exact string.