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Decision brief
Semble is a Python-based tool that facilitates fast and accurate code search for AI agents with up to 98% fewer tokens compared to traditional grep+read methods.
Good fit when
- - Use Semble when you are specifically working with AI agents or models and require efficient, token-economical code search operations.
- - It is ideal when your application involves heavy reliance on embeddings for rapid retrieval of relevant code snippets.
Avoid when
- - Avoid using Semble if your use case does not involve AI agents or the model-context-protocol (MCP). Competitor tools might offer better features tailored to non-agent-based code search.
- - Not recommended in scenarios where token efficiency is not a concern, as competitors may provide more versatile functionalities without focusing on token reduction.
- Requirements:
- Operating with Python, Semble does not require Docker for its operation.
Observed Jul 12, 2026 · Source: enrich:decision_facts
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Maintenance and security
Full trust report- Maintenance
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- As of 2d
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Install
pip install sembleSimilar tools
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Evidence and technical details
Sourced facts, taxonomy, compatibility claims, README excerpt, and machine-readable endpoints.
Overview
A tool that enables efficient code search using significantly fewer tokens compared to grep+read methods.
Capability facts
- CLI
- CLI entrypoint
Source: pyproject.toml:[project.scripts] · Aug 22, 2026
- Languages
- python
Source: github.language+pyproject.toml · Aug 22, 2026
Categories
Compatibility
Sourced claims from the README excerpt - not unsourced marketing copy.
Source: README excerpt (regex_v1, Aug 22, 2026)
ool via AGENTS.md, or a dedicated sub-agent, and any coding agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, etc.) gets instant access to any repo.Source link
Source: README excerpt (regex_v1, Aug 22, 2026)
- **MCP server**: works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, VS Code, and any other MCP-compatible agent.Source link
Tags
README
Fast and Accurate Code Search for Agents
Uses ~99% fewer tokens than grep+read
Quickstart • CLI • MCP Server • Installation • Benchmarks
Semble is a code search library built for agents. It returns the exact code snippets they need instantly, using ~99% fewer tokens than grep+read. Indexing and searching a full codebase end-to-end takes under a second, matching the retrieval quality of a code-specialized transformer while indexing ~220x faster and querying ~17x faster (see benchmarks). Everything runs on CPU with no API keys, GPU, or external services. Use it as an MCP server, a CLI tool via AGENTS.md, or a dedicated sub-agent, and any coding agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, etc.) gets instant access to any repo.
Quickstart
Your agent queries Semble in natural language (e.g. "How is authentication handled?") and gets back only the relevant code snippets, without grepping or reading full files.
The fastest way to get started is the interactive installer. Install uv, then run:
uv tool install semble
semble install
semble install detects installed coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode, and then lets you choose which integrations to enable:
- MCP server: lets the agent call Semble directly as a tool.
- Instructions: adds CLI usage guidance to AGENTS.md / CLAUDE.md.
- Sub-agent: installs a dedicated
semble-searchsub-agent.
To undo the setup, run semble uninstall.
For manual setup instructions (MCP config per agent, AGENTS.md snippet, sub-agent files), see the installation docs.
Updating Semble
uv tool upgrade semble # upgrade
uv cache clean semble # for MCP users (restart your MCP client after)
Unattended install
For sandboxed or scripted environments, skip the prompts with --agent and, optionally, --type:
semble install --agent claude --type mcp subagent --yes
--agent accepts one or more agent ids (e.g. claude, codex, pi); --type accepts mcp, instructions, subagent, or all (default: all); --yes skips the confirmation prompt (requires --agent for a fully non-interactive run).
Main Features
- Fast: indexes an average repo in ~500 ms and answers queries in ~1 ms, all on CPU.
- Accurate: NDCG@10 of 0.854 on our benchmarks, on par with code-specialized transformer models, at a fraction of the size and cost.
- Token-efficient: returns only the relevant chunks, using ~99% fewer tokens than grep+read.
- Zero setup: runs on CPU with no API keys, GPU, or external services required.
- MCP server: works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, VS Code, and any other MCP-compatible agent.
- Local and remote: pass a local path or a git URL.
CLI
Semble also ships as a standalone CLI. This is useful in scripts or anywhere you want search results without an MCP session. Indexes are built and cached on first run, and invalidated automatically when files change.
# Search a local repo
For agents
This page has a .md twin and JSON over the API.