cocoindex-code-quickstart

name	cocoindex-code.quickstart
description	Install cocoindex-code, auto-register MCP via supercli plugin install, then prefer the fast direct search capability for repository search; keep MCP search for MCP-native flows.
tags	cocoindex,mcp,semantic-search,code,agents

cocoindex-code Quickstart

Use this when you need semantic code search over a repository via SuperCLI.

Prefer supercli cocoindex code search for normal bot and human usage. It is the easiest and fastest path.

1) Install upstream binary

pipx install cocoindex-code
# or
uv tool install --upgrade cocoindex-code --prerelease explicit --with "cocoindex>=1.0.0a24"

2) Install plugin (auto MCP registration)

supercli plugins learn cocoindex-code
supercli plugins install cocoindex-code --json

This creates MCP server cocoindex-code (if missing) and binds capabilities cocoindex.code.search and cocoindex.mcp.search.

3) Build index once (recommended)

supercli cocoindex index build --json

For small repos this is optional; indexing can happen on first search.

4) Preferred search flow (humans and bots)

supercli cocoindex code search --query "how are sessions stored" --limit 5 --json
supercli cocoindex code search --query "error handling middleware" --offset 5 --json
supercli cocoindex code search --query "entrypoint reads process.argv rawArgs and parses flags" --paths "cli/*" --limit 5 --json

cocoindex code search runs directly against the installed cocoindex-code package, so it avoids MCP server startup overhead and targets the current repo by default.

5) MCP-native search (optional)

supercli cocoindex mcp search --query "how are sessions stored" --limit 5 --json

Use this only when you explicitly need MCP-native execution.

6) Advanced search with language/path filters

supercli mcp call --mcp-server cocoindex-code --tool search --input-json '{"query":"database connection","languages":["typescript"],"paths":["src/*"],"limit":10}' --timeout-ms 180000 --json

Optional Configuration

export COCOINDEX_CODE_ROOT_PATH=/path/to/repo
export COCOINDEX_CODE_EMBEDDING_MODEL=sbert/nomic-ai/CodeRankEmbed

COCOINDEX_CODE_EXCLUDED_PATTERNS expects a JSON array string, for example:

export COCOINDEX_CODE_EXCLUDED_PATTERNS='["**/generated/**","**/*.snap"]'