Codehelper
Local-first repo intelligence for AI coding assistants.
Codehelper indexes git repositories on your machine, builds a symbol and call graph, and exposes 60+ MCP tools so Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, and other MCP clients can search, understand, and safely change your code — without uploading the whole repo to a cloud model.
Three reasons to use Codehelper
- Project-aware agents — Search symbols, callers, and blast radius locally instead of grepping whole files.
- Works offline — No API keys; your code stays on your machine.
- Fits your editor — MCP for Cursor, Claude Code, Codex; one
codehelper init per repo.
Installation
Linux / macOS (recommended):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/VeyrForge/codehelper/main/scripts/install.sh | sh
Windows (PowerShell):
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\scripts\install.ps1
From source (requires Go 1.25+, CGO, and a C compiler):
git clone https://github.com/VeyrForge/codehelper.git && cd codehelper
npm run build
Prebuilt 3.0.2 bundles (Linux, macOS, Windows) include codehelper, MCP server, ge 1.0.0, and greencompress 1.0.0 on GitHub Releases.
Updates: codehelper upgrade downloads the latest release from VeyrForge/codehelper. codehelper update rebuilds from a local git checkout.
30-second example
cd your-git-repo
codehelper init
codehelper help tools --main
Reload Cursor or Claude Code after the first init, then call project_context once per session so the agent knows which tools exist and how fresh the index is.
See it work
No bundled demo video yet — here is a typical first session:
$ codehelper init
init: ready — index + watch daemon active
$ codehelper status
symbols: 1247 edges: 3891 freshness: current
$ codehelper help tools --main
project_context bootstrap tool catalog + index stats
query search the symbol graph
context source + callers + callees
impact blast radius before you edit
Recorded benchmark results: docs/BENCHMARK.md.
| Platform | Install | Notes |
|---|
| Linux | scripts/install.sh | Full support; primary CI target |
| macOS | scripts/install.sh | Universal + per-arch release binaries |
| Windows | scripts/install.ps1 | x64 supported |
| Client | Setup |
|---|
| Cursor | Per-project .mcp.json via codehelper init |
| Claude Code | Managed block in ~/.claude.json |
| Codex | Reads generated AGENTS.md |
How it works
| Layer | Technology |
|---|
| Indexing | tree-sitter parsers + SQLite symbol/call graph |
| Search | BM25 + trigrams + call-graph ranking (optional semantic rerank via local embed server) |
| MCP transport | stdio (default) or HTTP (codehelper mcp --http :8765) |
| Optional LLM | Green Engine embed/chat + Green Compress weights |
init indexes the repo, starts the watch daemon, wires MCP for your editor, and writes agent rules. Optional local dashboard: ge ui serve → http://127.0.0.1:8780
Full tool reference: docs/MCP_TOOLS.md
Benchmarks
See docs/BENCHMARK.md for recorded retrieval and indexing benchmarks on real repositories.
Documentation
Limitations
- Requires a git repository for indexing.
- CGO and a C compiler are required to build from source (tree-sitter).
- Semantic rerank and some enrichment features need optional local LLM services (Green Engine).
- Windows arm64 prebuilt CI is temporarily disabled; x64 is fully supported.
Contributing
Bug reports, benchmark results, compatibility notes, and suggested improvements are welcome on the official VeyrForge/codehelper repository.
To prepare a code change: fork the official repository only to open a pull request back to VeyrForge. Do not publish forks as competing distributions. See License and permitted use below.
Public release history
See CHANGELOG.md and GitHub Releases.
License and permitted use
Codehelper is source-available software — not open source.
You may download, clone, install, inspect, and run Codehelper for personal use or internal use within your organization.
You may fork the official repository solely for the purpose of preparing and submitting a contribution back to the official VeyrForge repository.
You may not redistribute Codehelper, publish modified builds, sell or sublicense it, offer it as a competing hosted service, or use its source code to create a competing product without written permission from VeyrForge.
Tutorials and blog posts may include short illustrative snippets from the published source for explanation, provided they do not redistribute the software or imply an open-source license.
For commercial redistribution, OEM licensing, or other usage not covered above, contact VeyrForge.
This section is a plain-language summary. The binding terms are in LICENSE.