Sensegrep MCP server

sensegrep

semantic grep for AI coding agents

sensegrep understands your code semantically. Instead of matching text patterns, it uses AI embeddings and tree-sitter AST parsing to find code by meaning - so you can search for "authentication logic" and actually find your auth functions, even if they never contain the word "authentication".

AI agents should not read more code, they should read the right code. sensegrep combines semantic search, exact matching, and AST-aware structural retrieval to deliver smaller, more relevant context.

For agent routing, search is the default for discovery: questions about behavior, concepts, structure, or where/how something is implemented. Use literal only for a known exact string or regex, an exhaustive occurrence audit, or verification/refinement after semantic discovery. If the intent is ambiguous, start with search.

MP4 fallback: assets/time-to-value.mp4

Watch full product demo (25s): assets/time-to-value-full.mp4

Why sensegrep?

Traditional search tools (grep, ripgrep, ast-grep) match text patterns. sensegrep matches concepts:

Quickstart

Optional remote evaluation: Jev setup, evidence-aware reranking, group labels and duplicate judgments. It is off by default and works alongside local Ollama embeddings.

Claude Code Plugin (recommended)

The fastest way to get sensegrep into Claude Code — zero configuration:

claude plugin marketplace add Stahldavid/sensegrep
claude plugin install sensegrep

This automatically sets up the MCP server and teaches Claude when and how to use sensegrep instead of grep. No manual JSON editing required.

Marketplace setup (required on first install):

bash

claude plugin marketplace add Stahldavid/sensegrep

claude plugin install sensegrep

After the marketplace has been added once, the explicit marketplace form also works:

bash

claude plugin install sensegrep@sensegrep

Running claude plugin install sensegrep@sensegrep on a fresh machine before claude plugin marketplace add Stahldavid/sensegrep will fail because Claude Code does not know the sensegrep marketplace yet.

CLI

npm i -g @sensegrep/cli

# Smoke-test local CLI/core/config without calling embeddings
sensegrep selftest --root .

# Default local embeddings use Ollama when no API key/provider is configured
ollama pull qwen3-embedding:0.6b
sensegrep index --root .

# Search by meaning
sensegrep search "error handling and retry logic" --type function --exported --exclude "*.md"

# Known exact text, deterministic and exhaustive: no embedding call
sensegrep literal "X-Goog-Message-Number" --include "src/**"

# Compact evidence cards, followed by deterministic expansion
sensegrep search "authentication flow" --purpose understand --json
sensegrep show <result-id> --before 10 --after 20

# Exhaustive within the ripgrep-visible filesystem, independent of the index
sensegrep literal "TODO:" --filesystem --max-output-bytes 50000 --json

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.