vibe-hnindex
Local MCP server — index your repo once, search it in every AI session
Keyword (SQLite FTS5) · Semantic (Qdrant + Ollama embeddings) · Hybrid — your code stays on disk
MCP server (vibe-hnindex) latest: v0.12.0 · hnindex-cli v0.12.0 — Docs · Changelog · GitHub Releases
What this does
vibe-hnindex is a Model Context Protocol server. After you index a folder once, assistants (Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, Antigravity, …) can search that codebase with paths and line ranges — data is stored locally (SQLite + optional Qdrant). Embeddings use Ollama; vectors use Qdrant (Docker, local, or Qdrant Cloud with QDRANT_API_KEY).
Documentation
📚 Full docs site: docs.hnindex.cloud — 16 pages covering Getting Started, Configuration, Tools Reference, Guides, and Code Agent.
| Page | What you'll learn |
|---|---|
| Introduction | What vibe-hnindex does, key features, how it works |
| Installation | Node, Ollama, Qdrant setup + MCP config |
| Quick Start | 5-minute walkthrough with CLI + agent skill |
| Configuration | All 25+ env vars with embedding model comparison |
| Search | 6 search modes, regex, fuzzy, streaming, cache |
| Code Agent 🆕 | code_session + code_apply with safety scopes |
| Setup MCP | Per-platform config (Claude, Cursor, Antigravity, VS Code...) |
Also available in-repo: docs/getting-started.md, docs/configuration.md, docs/tools-reference.md.
CLI installer (hnindex)
Optional — writes the MCP JSON for you (merge-safe, same npx -y vibe-hnindex block as in the docs):
npm install -g hnindex-cli
# Setup MCP config
hnindex init --mcp antigravity # or: claude, cursor, windsurf, vscode, codex
hnindex init --list # show all targets and paths
# Install AI agent skill (recommended)
hnindex init-skill --target claude # or: antigravity, cursor, windsurf, vscode
hnindex init-skill --list # show all skill targets
# Update
hnindex update # npm update -g hnindex-cli
See docs.hnindex.cloud for full documentation.
Install in 5 steps
- Node.js — v20+ (nodejs.org). On Windows, Node 20 or 22 LTS is strongly recommended so
npm installdoes not need a C++ compiler. See Troubleshooting → Windows ifnpm i vibe-hnindexfails. - Ollama — install from ollama.com, then:
ollama pull bge-m3:567mand keepollama serverunning (or setOLLAMA_URLto a remote server). - Qdrant — for semantic/hybrid search:
docker run -d --name qdrant -p 6333:6333 qdrant/qdrant(or use Qdrant Cloud). Keyword-only search works without Qdrant. - MCP config — add the server to your assistant’s MCP settings. Minimal example (self-hosted Qdrant):
{
"mcpServers": {
"vibe-hnindex": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "vibe-hnindex"],
"env": {
"OLLAMA_URL": "http://localhost:11434",
"OLLAMA_MODEL": "bge-m3:567m",
"QDRANT_URL": "http://localhost:6333",
"SEARCH_STREAM_ENABLED": "true",
"CODE_AGENT_ENABLED": "true",
"CODE_AGENT_SCOPE": "moderate",
"CHAT_MEMORY_ENABLED": "true"
}
}
}
}
- Restart the IDE or assistant, then in chat ask to index a path and search — see First steps.
For Qdrant Cloud, add QDRANT_API_KEY and set QDRANT_URL to your HTTPS cluster URL — details in Getting started.
Optional rerank (RERANK_URL)
Semantic/hybrid search already uses Ollama (OLLAMA_URL, OLLAMA_MODEL e.g. bge-m3:567m) for query vectors and Qdrant for retrieval. After that, the server can reorder the top pool of hits:
- Without
RERANK_URL: reorder by Qdrant semantic scores (no extra network service). This is enough for most setups, including when you only run Ollama + Qdrant. - With
RERANK_URL: POST JSON{ "query", "documents" }to your URL; response{ "scores": number[] }(same length asdocuments). Use a small HTTP service you host that wraps your reranker; Ollama does not expose this contract on:11434by default.
Ollama vs rerank: pulling a reranker model in Ollama (e.g. qllama/bge-reranker-v2-m3) does not replace RERANK_URL—you still need an adapter service unless you only rely on the built-in Qdrant reorder. See Configuration → Rerank.
| Env | Role |
|---|---|
SEARCH_RERANK | false disables post-retrieval reorder entirely (default: enabled). |
SEARCH_RERANK_POOL | Max candidates considered before trim (default 50). |
RERANK_URL | Full URL of your {query, documents} → {scores} API (optional). |
RERANK_TIMEOUT_MS | Timeout for that POST (default 15000). |
Timeouts
To prevent hanging when Ollama or Qdrant are unresponsive, vibe-hnindex applies timeouts on all external calls. You can tune these via environment variables:
| Env | Default | Controls |
|---|---|---|
OLLAMA_TIMEOUT_MS | 30000 (30s) | Max wait for Ollama /api/embed and /api/tags calls |
QDRANT_TIMEOUT_MS | 15000 (15s) | Max wait for Qdrant API calls (search, upsert, etc.) |
SEARCH_TIMEOUT_MS | 60000 (60s) | Overall timeout for the entire search operation |
Set any of these to a higher value if you have a slow machine or large dataset. Set to 0 to disable the timeout for that layer (not recommended).
Google Antigravity
Use the same mcpServers block as above, but save it in Antigravity’s MCP file:
| File | mcp_config.json under .gemini/antigravity/ in your user folder |
| Windows | C:\Users\<your-username>\.gemini\antigravity\mcp_config.json |
| macOS / Linux | ~/.gemini/antigravity/mcp_config.json |
| UI | ⋮ menu → MCP → Manage MCP Servers → View raw config |
Step-by-step: Integrations → Google Antigravity.
Features (short)
| Search | 6 modes: keyword (FTS5+BM25), semantic (Qdrant vectors), hybrid (RRF fusion), regex, symbol, auto |
| Code Agent | code_session — 1 call replaces 5-15 searches. code_apply — safe code changes with auto test/lint/typecheck |
| Chat Memory 🆕 | Auto-track tool calls, semantic search via Qdrant, persistent AI context across sessions |
| Streaming | Parallel keyword+semantic search (~1.5-2× faster), 4-phase progress notifications |
| Fuzzy Search | Levenshtein distance auto-corrects typos ("fucntion" → "function") |
| Smart Context | Task-aware context: impact analysis, test file detection, similar code patterns |
| Storage | SQLite on disk + Qdrant for vectors; 100% local, no cloud required |
| Indexing | Incremental (SHA-1 hash), parallel workers (~3-4× faster), watch mode (auto re-index on save), 40+ languages, .hnindexignore |
| Resilience | Keyword search works without Qdrant or Ollama; graceful degradation |
| Benchmark | Built-in benchmark_search tool — compare streaming vs non-streaming, all search modes |
| Multiple Embedding Models | bge-m3 (default), nomic-embed-text, qwen3-embedding, mxbai-embed-large, and more |
Architecture
graph TB
subgraph Input["📂 Input"]
A["💻 Your Codebase<br/>.ts .py .go .rs ..."]
end
subgraph Server["⚙️ vibe-hnindex MCP Server"]
B["🔍 Search Router<br/>keyword | semantic | hybrid"]
C["🔀 RRF Fusion"]
end
subgraph Storage["💾 Storage"]
D[("SQLite<br/>FTS5 + Keyword")]
E[("Qdrant<br/>Vector Embeddings")]
end
subgraph Memory["🧠 Chat Memory (v0.12)"]
F[("SQLite<br/>Chat Context")]
G[("Qdrant<br/>Chat Vectors")]
end
subgraph Infra["🏗️ Infrastructure"]
H["Ollama<br/>Embeddings"]
I["Qdrant<br/>localhost:6333"]
end
subgraph Output["🤖 AI Clients"]
J["Claude · Cursor · Windsurf<br/>Antigravity · VS Code"]
end
A -->|"index_codebase"| Storage
A -->|scan| H
B -->|"keyword"| D
B -->|"semantic"| E
B -->|"hybrid"| C
C --> D
C --> E
B -.->|"auto-track"| F
F --> H
H --> G
D --> J
E --> J
H -.-> I
style F fill:#6366f1,color:#fff
style G fill:#6366f1,color:#fff
style B fill:#f59e0b,color:#000
style J fill:#22c55e,color:#fff
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
Contributing
Issues and PRs: github.com/AndyAnh174/vibe-hnindex.
Contact
Ho Viet Anh (AndyAnh174) · hovietanh147@gmail.com · GitHub