codebase-context-mcp

codebase-context-mcp

MCP server for codebase indexing and search that works on every platform — including ARM64 devices like Raspberry Pi and Apple Silicon where most alternatives fail.

The Problem

Popular codebase-indexing MCP servers like @zilliz/claude-context-mcp depend on native C++ bindings (tree-sitter, faiss-node) that ship pre-built binaries only for x86_64. If you're on ARM64 — a Raspberry Pi, Apple Silicon Mac, AWS Graviton, or any other arm64 host — npm install fails with missing prebuilts and no fallback. There's no workaround short of cross-compiling the native modules yourself.

The Solution

This package replaces every native dependency with a WASM equivalent. The tree-sitter parser runs as WebAssembly, search uses a pure-JS BM25 implementation, and the index is stored as plain JSON. Zero native bindings means npm install succeeds on the first try on any architecture: ARM64, x86_64, macOS, Linux, Windows.

Drop-in compatible — provides the same core tools (index, search, outline, summary) via the standard MCP stdio transport.

Tools

| Tool | Description | |---|---| | index_codebase | Parse a directory into symbols/chunks, cache as JSON | | search_symbols | Find functions, classes, types by name or pattern | | search_code | BM25 full-text search across indexed files | | get_file_outline | File structure: functions, classes, imports, exports with line numbers | | get_project_summary | Tech stack, file counts by language, directory structure |

Supported Languages

TypeScript, TSX, JavaScript, Python, C#, VB.NET, XML, CSS, JSON

Install

Claude Code (recommended)

claude mcp add codebase-context -s user -- npx codebase-context-mcp

Or from a local clone:

git clone https://github.com/Jhackman2019/codebase-context-mcp.git
cd codebase-context-mcp
npm install && npm run build
claude mcp add codebase-context -s user -- node /path/to/codebase-context-mcp/dist/index.js

MCP Settings (JSON)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "codebase-context": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["codebase-context-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

How It Works

• Parsing: web-tree-sitter (WASM) — same AST quality as native tree-sitter, runs on any architecture
• Search: BM25 text ranking (pure JS) + symbol name matching
• Storage: JSON file index at ~/.codebase-context-mcp/<project-hash>.json
• Transport: MCP stdio via @modelcontextprotocol/sdk
• Incremental: Files with unchanged content hash are skipped on re-index

Safety Limits

| Limit | Value | |---|---| | Max files | 20,000 | | Max file size | 512KB | | Default ignores | node_modules, .git, dist, build, .venv, binaries, lock files | | .gitignore | Respected (root level) |

Development

npm install
npm run build    # Build with tsup
npm run dev      # Watch mode
npm start        # Run the server

License

MIT