Gives Claude four semantic search tools over your local codebase without needing API keys or vector databases. Uses fastembed with ONNX Runtime to generate embeddings and stores them in SQLite. The index_directory tool chunks code by functions and docs by headings, semantic_search runs natural language queries with cosine similarity ranking, and update_index does incremental reindexing based on SHA-256 hashes. Supports 15+ file types including Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Rust, Go, and Markdown. Useful when you want Claude to find relevant code or documentation by meaning rather than exact string matches, especially across large projects where keyword search falls short.
Local semantic search — embedding-powered grep for files, zero external services.
Search your codebase and documentation by meaning, not just keywords. embgrep indexes files into local embeddings and lets you run semantic queries — no API keys, no cloud services, no vector database servers.
.py, .js, .ts, .java, .go, .rs, .md, .txt, .yaml, .json, .toml, and morepip install embgrep # core (fastembed + numpy)
pip install embgrep[cli] # + click/rich CLI
pip install embgrep[mcp] # + FastMCP server
pip install embgrep[all] # everything
from embgrep import EmbGrep
eg = EmbGrep()
# Index a directory
eg.index("./my-project", patterns=["*.py", "*.md"])
# Semantic search
results = eg.search("database connection pooling", top_k=5)
for r in results:
print(f"{r.file_path}:{r.line_start}-{r.line_end} (score: {r.score:.4f})")
print(f" {r.chunk_text[:80]}...")
# Incremental update (only changed files)
eg.update()
# Index statistics
status = eg.status()
print(f"{status.total_files} files, {status.total_chunks} chunks, {status.index_size_mb} MB")
eg.close()
# Index a project
embgrep index ./my-project --patterns "*.py,*.md"
# Search
embgrep search "error handling patterns"
# Filter by file type
embgrep search "async database query" --path-filter "%.py"
# Check status
embgrep status
# Update changed files
embgrep update
import embgrep
embgrep.index("./src")
results = embgrep.search("authentication middleware")
status = embgrep.status()
embgrep.update()
Add to your Claude Desktop / MCP client configuration:
{
"mcpServers": {
"embgrep": {
"command": "embgrep-mcp"
}
}
}
Or with uvx:
{
"mcpServers": {
"embgrep": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["--from", "embgrep[mcp]", "embgrep-mcp"]
}
}
}
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
index_directory | Index files in a directory for semantic search |
semantic_search | Search indexed files using natural language |
index_status | Get current index statistics |
update_index | Incremental update — re-index changed files only |
flowchart TD
A["📁 Files"] --> B["Smart Chunking\ncode: function-level\ndocs: heading-level"]
B --> C["fastembed\nlocal embeddings"]
C --> D["SQLite\nvector index"]
D --> E["🔍 Query"]
E --> F["Cosine Similarity\nranked results"]
F --> G["✅ Matches\nwith context"]
Chunking — Files are split into semantically meaningful chunks:
.py, .js, .ts, etc.): split by function/class boundaries.md, .txt): split by headings or paragraph breaksEmbedding — Each chunk is converted to a 384-dimensional vector using BGE-small-en-v1.5 via ONNX Runtime (no PyTorch needed)
Storage — Embeddings are stored as BLOBs in a local SQLite database
Search — Query text is embedded and compared against all chunks using cosine similarity
| Parameter | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
db_path | ~/.local/share/embgrep/embgrep.db | SQLite database location |
model | BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5 | fastembed model name |
max_chunk_size | 1000 chars | Maximum chunk size for fixed-size splitting |
top_k | 5 | Number of search results |
| Package | Description |
|---|---|
| markgrab | HTML/YouTube/PDF/DOCX to LLM-ready markdown |
| snapgrab | URL to screenshot + metadata |
| docpick | OCR + LLM document structure extraction |
| browsegrab | Local LLM browser agent |
| feedkit | RSS feed collection + MCP |
| embgrep | Local semantic search for files |
MIT
Part of the QuartzUnit ecosystem — composable Python libraries for data collection, extraction, search, and AI agent safety.
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