semantic-search

The semantic-code server splits a project into functions, classes, methods, module docstrings and document sections and finds them by the words their code uses, ranked, the chunks named as the query first. It answers what Grep cannot: the few chunks that best match, not every line. It does not answer what Grep does better.

1. Which tool

The loop that works: search_code → Read the line range of the best hit → Grep the names you found there.

The server indexes Python, Rust and Markdown files: languages takes python, rust and markdown.

2. Before the first search

• project_path is absolute. Give the repository's root, or a directory inside it to keep the search to that directory: the repository keeps one index either way, and project_root in the answers of index_status and index_codebase names it (a directory the repository ignores, or one in a repository that holds the home directory, is a project of its own, and names itself). Left out, it is the client's workspace root, the directory Claude Code was started in, which must lie in a git repository: a folder of projects, or the home directory, would be indexed as one. Give it whenever the work lies outside that directory or outside any repository; a client that names no single root, or a root no repository holds, gets an error asking for project_path.
• The first call indexes the whole project's words, seconds even on a large one; on a server its user set to search by meaning too, the first search also embeds every chunk, minutes on a large one and about an hour on one of 90k chunks, with progress. Wait for it; do not call again while it runs.
• If the tools are missing, tell the user the server is not installed and point them to semantic-code-mcp's README (github.com/vrppaul/semantic-code-mcp); do not install it yourself.