Search-Mesh

Search-Mesh is a Rust-native codebase intelligence service for autonomous coding agents.

The goal is to reduce agent latency and token waste by moving repository search, syntax-aware filtering, context extraction, and precise patching into a local MCP-compatible process.

Status

This repository is in early setup. The current focus is a small, correct MVP:

A Rust workspace with separate core and MCP crates.
A JSON-RPC over stdio server implementing the MCP initialize lifecycle handshake, suitable for Claude Code, OpenCode, and other MCP-compatible agents.
A first search tool, scan, backed by multi-keyword scanning.
A syntax probe tool, ast_probe, backed by tree-sitter for Rust, Python, JavaScript, and TypeScript.
A context extraction tool, squeeze, that returns AST-bounded source blocks.
A patch tool, patch, that applies precise line/column edits and reports syntax validity.

SIMD acceleration, tree-sitter verification, semantic squeezing, and atomic patching are planned phases, not current guarantees.

Intended Tools

scan: scan target directories for multiple keywords in one pass.
ast_probe: validate raw hits against syntax tree node types.
squeeze: return the smallest useful AST-bounded code block around a hit.
patch: apply byte-offset edits and verify syntax after mutation.

See docs/usage.md for local examples and docs/mcp-protocol.md for the draft protocol.

Install

Claude Code Plugin (Recommended)

This repository is a self-hosted Claude Code plugin marketplace. It bundles the search-mesh MCP server registration and the agent skill together, so /plugin install wires up both in one step:

/plugin marketplace add jamestkelly/search-mesh
/plugin install search-mesh@search-mesh

On macOS and Linux, the plugin downloads and verifies the correct prebuilt search-mesh-mcp binary automatically the first time it's used — no separate install step. Windows isn't supported by the automatic installer yet; use cargo install search-mesh-mcp or a manual binary install there.

Manual Install

For OpenCode, or Claude Code configured manually rather than through the plugin, search-mesh-mcp needs to be on your PATH first.

search-mesh-mcp is published to crates.io and as prebuilt GitHub Release binaries.

Via cargo:

cargo install search-mesh-mcp

Via prebuilt binary: download search-mesh-mcp-<target>.tar.gz for your platform (macOS arm64, macOS x64, or Linux x64) from the Releases page, extract it, and put search-mesh-mcp on your PATH.

Configure Claude Code Manually

Add to .mcp.json at your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "search-mesh": {
      "command": "search-mesh-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Configure OpenCode

Add to opencode.jsonc:

{
  "mcp": {
    "search-mesh": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["search-mesh-mcp"],
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

Agent Skill

The Claude Code plugin install above already includes this skill. To install it manually for other agents/setups, skills/search-mesh/SKILL.md teaches an agent when to prefer scan, ast_probe, squeeze, and patch over shell tools like grep, cat, and sed. Copy it into your own skills directory:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/search-mesh
cp skills/search-mesh/SKILL.md ~/.claude/skills/search-mesh/SKILL.md

Repository Layout

.claude-plugin/
  plugin.json       Claude Code plugin manifest.
  marketplace.json  Self-hosted marketplace catalog listing this plugin.
.mcp.json           Bundled MCP server registration (used by the plugin).
crates/
  search-mesh-core/   Core search, parsing, squeezing, and patching logic.
  search-mesh-mcp/    JSON-RPC/MCP stdio server.
docs/
  architecture.md     System shape and phased design.
  mcp-protocol.md     Tool schemas and response shapes.
  roadmap.md          Near-term implementation plan.
  usage.md            Local MCP usage examples.
examples/
  scan-request.jsonl  Example newline-delimited JSON-RPC requests.
  initialize-request.jsonl
  ast-probe-request.jsonl
  squeeze-request.jsonl
  patch-request.jsonl
  patch-target.txt
scripts/
  search-mesh-mcp-launcher.sh  Installs search-mesh-mcp on first use (macOS/Linux), then execs it.
skills/
  search-mesh/SKILL.md  Agent skill teaching when to use these tools.

Development

Install Rust with rustup, then run:

just check

Equivalent commands:

cargo fmt --all -- --check
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo test --workspace

CI And Releases

Pull requests and pushes to main run the Review workflow:

cargo fmt --all -- --check
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
cargo test --workspace
MCP JSONL example smoke tests

Releases are prepared with release-plz from Conventional Commits:

release-plz opens a release PR that bumps Cargo.toml/Cargo.lock versions and updates the changelog.
Merging that PR to main creates a git tag and GitHub Release per changed package, and publishes both crates to crates.io.
When a search-mesh-mcp-v* release is published, the Release Binaries workflow builds and attaches search-mesh-mcp binaries (plus a .sha256 checksum file for each) for macOS (arm64, x64) and Linux (x64) as release assets.

Design Principles

Prefer the smallest correct implementation before optimization.
Keep protocol handling separate from core repository intelligence.
Measure performance before adding specialized acceleration paths.
Avoid .unwrap() and .expect() outside tests.
Return agent-friendly payloads instead of whole files when possible.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

Search Mesh

README