Workspace Qdrant MCP

workspace-qdrant-mcp

Project-scoped vector database for AI assistants, providing hybrid semantic + keyword search with automatic project detection.

🚧 v0.2.0 rebuild in progress

workspace-qdrant-mcp is being rebuilt from the ground up in preparation for v0.2.0 — a unified storage model, better search quality, more reliable file watching, and a cleaner architecture, with a no-re-index migration for existing users. Once the design is locked (targeted early July) we'll open the work to outside contributors. See the Roadmap for the top-line plan.

Features

• Hybrid Search - Combines semantic similarity with keyword matching using Reciprocal Rank Fusion
• Project Detection - Automatic Git repository awareness and project-scoped collections
• 7 MCP Tools - search, retrieve, rules, store, grep, list, embedding
• Code Intelligence - Tree-sitter semantic chunking + LSP integration for active projects
• Code Graph - Relationship graph with algorithms (PageRank, community detection, betweenness centrality)
• High-Performance CLI - Rust-based wqm command-line tool
• Background Daemon - memexd for continuous file monitoring and processing

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Qdrant - docker run -d -p 6333:6333 -v qdrant_storage:/qdrant/storage qdrant/qdrant
• C compiler - Required for compiling Tree-sitter grammars on first use. Tree-sitter grammars are distributed as C source and compiled locally.
  • macOS: xcode-select --install (Xcode Command Line Tools)
  • Linux: apt install build-essential (Debian/Ubuntu) or dnf groupinstall "Development Tools" (Fedora)
  • Windows: Install Visual Studio Build Tools with C++ workload
• Clang/LLVM - Required only to build memexd from source, for the LadybugDB C++ core (the default graph backend). Pre-built binaries (Homebrew, release artifacts) do not need it.
  • macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools include Clang (xcode-select --install)
  • Linux: apt install clang libclang-dev (Debian/Ubuntu) or dnf install clang (Fedora)
  • Alternative: build without the C++ toolchain using the SQLite-only backend — cargo build --no-default-features --features sqlite

Install

Option 1: Homebrew (Recommended — macOS & Linux)

brew install ChrisGVE/tap/workspace-qdrant
brew services start workspace-qdrant

Option 2: Pre-built Binaries

# macOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ChrisGVE/workspace-qdrant-mcp/main/scripts/download-install.sh | bash

# Windows (PowerShell)
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ChrisGVE/workspace-qdrant-mcp/main/scripts/download-install.ps1 | iex

Installs wqm, memexd, and workspace-qdrant-mcp to ~/.local/bin (Linux/macOS) or %LOCALAPPDATA%\wqm\bin (Windows).

Option 3: Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/ChrisGVE/workspace-qdrant-mcp.git
cd workspace-qdrant-mcp
./install.sh

See Installation Reference for detailed instructions and platform-specific notes. For Windows, see the Windows Installation Guide.

Configure MCP

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "workspace-qdrant-mcp": {
      "command": "workspace-qdrant-mcp",
      "env": {
        "QDRANT_URL": "http://localhost:6333"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code:

claude mcp add workspace-qdrant-mcp -- workspace-qdrant-mcp

Verify

wqm --version
wqm status health

CLAUDE.md Integration

Add the following to your project's CLAUDE.md (or your global ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md) so Claude Code uses workspace-qdrant proactively:

## workspace-qdrant

The `workspace-qdrant` MCP server provides codebase-aware search, a library knowledge base, a scratchpad for accumulated insights, and persistent behavioral rules. The tool schemas are self-describing; these instructions cover *when* and *how* to use them.

### Primary Search and Knowledge Base

**Use `workspace-qdrant` first whenever context is uncertain** — first session on a project, returning after a significant gap, or exploring an unfamiliar subsystem. It is faster and more accurate than walking files manually, and it retrieves findings from prior sessions that would otherwise be lost.

**Three-step protocol:**
1. **Search** with `workspace-qdrant` (`search`, `grep`, `list`, or `retrieve`)
2. **Fall back** to `Grep`, `Glob`, `WebSearch` only when workspace-qdrant is insufficient or unavailable
3. **Store** any new findings, analysis, or design rationale via `store` so they are retrievable in future sessions

When a fresh handover or strong prior context already covers what you need, skip the exploratory search — but always store new findings at the end.

**Collections and their purpose:**
- `projects` — indexed codebase; use `scope="project"` (current project) or `scope="all"` (across all projects)
- `libraries` — external reference docs, API specs, third-party documentation; add via `store` with `collection="libraries"` and search with `includeLibraries=true`
- `scratchpad` — analysis, design rationale, research transcripts, architectural insights; complements session handovers by building a growing, semantically searchable knowledge layer across sessions
- `rules` — persistent behavioral rules; load at session start via `rules` → `action="list"`

**Practical notes:**
- Use `grep` for exact strings or regex; `list` with `format="summary"` to explore project structure
- Store external docs or specs into `libraries` so they are searchable alongside code
- Use the scratchpad to record *why* decisions were made, not just *what* was done — future sessions can retrieve the reasoning

### Sub-Agents

Sub-agents start with only the prompt you give them — they have no session history or handover context. They must always use `workspace-qdrant` first for any code exploration, without exception. Include this verbatim in every agent prompt:

> "You have no prior context about this codebase. Use `workspace-qdrant` as your mandatory first tool for ALL code searches — symbols, functions, architecture, patterns, prior findings. Use `search`, `grep`, `list`, or `retrieve` before touching any file with Read/Grep/Glob. Store any new findings, analysis, or design rationale via `store` (scratchpad for insights, libraries for reference docs) so they persist for future sessions."

### Project Registration

At session start, check whether the current project is registered with workspace-qdrant. If it is not, ask the user whether they want to register it (do not register silently). Once registered, the daemon handles file watching and ingestion automatically — no further action is needed.

### Behavioral Rules

The `rules` tool manages persistent rules that are injected into context across sessions. Rules are **user-initiated only** — add rules when the user explicitly instructs you to, never autonomously. Use `action="list"` at session start to load active rules.

### Issue Reporting

workspace-qdrant is under active development. If you encounter errors, unexpected behavior, or limitations with any workspace-qdrant tool, report them as GitHub issues at https://github.com/ChrisGVE/workspace-qdrant-mcp/issues using the `gh` CLI.
````

## MCP Tools

| Tool | Purpose |
|------|---------|
| `search` | Hybrid semantic + keyword search across indexed content |
| `retrieve` | Direct document lookup by ID or metadata filter |
| `rules` | Manage persistent behavioral rules |
| `store` | Store content, register projects, save notes |
| `grep` | Exact substring or regex search using FTS5 |
| `list` | List project files and folder structure |

See [MCP Tools Reference](docs/reference/mcp-tools.md) for parameters and examples.

## Collections

| Collection | Purpose | Isolation |
|------------|---------|-----------|
| `projects` | Project code and documentation | Multi-tenant by `tenant_id` |
| `libraries` | Reference documentation (books, papers, docs) | Multi-tenant by `library_name` |
| `rules` | Behavioral rules and preferences | Multi-tenant by `project_id` |
| `scratchpad` | Temporary working storage | Per-session |

## CLI Reference

```bash
# Service management
wqm service start              # Start background daemon
wqm service status             # Check daemon status
wqm status health              # System health check

# Search and content
wqm search "query"             # Search collections
wqm ingest file path.py        # Ingest a file
wqm rules list                 # List behavioral rules

# Project and library
wqm project list               # List registered projects
wqm project watch pause        # Pause file watchers
wqm library list               # List libraries
wqm tags list                  # List tags with counts

# Administration
wqm admin collections list     # List collections
wqm admin rebuild all          # Rebuild all indexes
wqm admin backup create        # Backup snapshots
wqm admin stats overview       # Search analytics

# Code graph
wqm graph stats --tenant <t>   # Node/edge counts
wqm graph query --node-id <id> --tenant <t> --hops 2   # Related nodes
wqm graph impact --symbol <name> --tenant <t>           # Impact analysis
wqm graph pagerank --tenant <t> --top-k 20              # PageRank centrality

# Setup
wqm init completions zsh       # Shell completions
wqm init man install           # Install man pages
wqm init hooks install         # Install Claude Code hooks (respects CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR)

# Queue and monitoring
wqm queue stats                # Queue statistics

See CLI Reference for complete documentation.

Configuration

Environment Variables

Claude Code Integration

wqm init hooks reads and writes Claude Code's settings.json. The location is resolved from:

Example — Claude Code Enterprise:

export CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR=~/.config/claude/claude-ent
wqm init hooks install

Observability

The daemon exposes metrics and traces. Both are disabled by default.

Prometheus (/metrics, pull)

Enable via config or env var, then scrape:

# in the daemon config
observability:
  telemetry:
    prometheus:
      enabled: true
      port: 9464
      bind: 0.0.0.0

or:

WQM_PROMETHEUS_ENABLED=true WQM_PROMETHEUS_PORT=9464 memexd --foreground
curl http://localhost:9464/metrics | head

The --metrics-port <N> CLI flag is a shortcut that forces enabled=true and overrides the port. See docs/observability/prometheus-scrape-example.yaml for a scrape_configs snippet and docs/observability/memexd-telemetry-dashboard.json for a Grafana 10 dashboard.

OTLP traces (push)

#[tracing::instrument] spans on the queue processor, watcher, gRPC, embedding, and Qdrant paths are exported over OTLP/gRPC when:

observability:
  telemetry:
    service_name: memexd
    otlp:
      enabled: true
      endpoint: http://collector.example:4317
      protocol: grpc   # http/protobuf is also recognized (logs a warning)
      sample_rate: 0.1

Standard OpenTelemetry env vars are honored: OTEL_SERVICE_NAME, OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT, OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL, OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS, OTEL_TRACES_SAMPLER_ARG.

OTLP metrics export is not currently implemented — Prometheus is the canonical metrics surface.

Architecture

                    +-----------------+
                    |  Claude/Client  |
                    +--------+--------+
                             |
                    +--------v--------+
                    |   MCP Server    |  (TypeScript)
                    +--------+--------+
                             |
              +--------------+--------------+
              |                             |
     +--------v--------+           +--------v--------+
     |   Rust Daemon   |           |     Qdrant      |
     |    (memexd)     |           | Vector Database |
     +--------+--------+           +-----------------+
              |
     +--------v--------+
     |  File Watcher   |
     |  Code Graph     |
     |  Embeddings     |
     +-----------------+

The Rust daemon handles file watching, embedding generation, code graph extraction, and queue processing. All writes route through the daemon for consistency.

Documentation

User guides:

• Quick Start — get running in 5 minutes
• User Manual — full usage guide
• LLM Integration — best practices for Claude

Reference:

• Installation | Windows
• CLI Reference — all wqm commands
• MCP Tools — tool parameters and examples
• Configuration — all options and defaults
• Architecture — component overview

See the Documentation Index for specifications, ADRs, and developer resources.

Development

# Rust daemon, CLI, and MCP server (from src/rust/)
# Builds memexd (daemon), wqm (CLI), and workspace-qdrant-mcp (MCP server)
cargo build --release
cargo test

# Graph benchmarks
cargo bench --package workspace-qdrant-core --bench graph_bench

# Binaries output to:
# - target/release/wqm
# - target/release/memexd

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup and guidelines.

License

Apache License 2.0 - see LICENSE for details.

Inspired by claude-qdrant-mcp