Embgrep
Local semantic search — embedding-powered grep for files, zero external services.
What can you do with Embgrep?
- Local embeddings — Uses fastembed (ONNX Runtime), no API keys needed
- SQLite storage — Single-file index, no external vector DB
- Incremental indexing — Only re-indexes changed files (SHA-256 hash comparison)
- Smart chunking — Function-level splitting for code, heading-level for docs
- MCP native — 4-tool FastMCP server for LLM agent integration
- 15+ file types —
.py,.js,.ts,.java,.go,.rs,.md,.txt,.yaml,.json,.toml, and more
Install
Add this to your client's MCP configuration (Claude Desktop: claude_desktop_config.json; Cursor: .cursor/mcp.json; VS Code and others use the same "mcpServers" shape).
embgrepclaude mcp add embgrep -- uvx embgrep==0.1.0
{
"mcpServers": {
"embgrep": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": [
"embgrep==0.1.0"
]
}
}
}
Documentation
From the project's README on GitHub, refreshed weekly. Links open on GitHub.
Contents
embgrep
Local semantic search — embedding-powered grep for files, zero external services.
Search your codebase and documentation by meaning, not just keywords. embgrep indexes files into local embeddings and lets you run semantic queries — no API keys, no cloud services, no vector database servers.
Features
- Local embeddings — Uses fastembed (ONNX Runtime), no API keys needed
- SQLite storage — Single-file index, no external vector DB
- Incremental indexing — Only re-indexes changed files (SHA-256 hash comparison)
- Smart chunking — Function-level splitting for code, heading-level for docs
- MCP native — 4-tool FastMCP server for LLM agent integration
- 15+ file types —
.py,.js,.ts,.java,.go,.rs,.md,.txt,.yaml,.json,.toml, and more
Install
pip install embgrep # core (fastembed + numpy)
pip install embgrep[cli] # + click/rich CLI
pip install embgrep[mcp] # + FastMCP server
pip install embgrep[all] # everything
Quick Start
Python API
from embgrep import EmbGrep
eg = EmbGrep()
# Index a directory
eg.index("./my-project", patterns=["*.py", "*.md"])
# Semantic search
results = eg.search("database connection pooling", top_k=5)
for r in results:
print(f"{r.file_path}:{r.line_start}-{r.line_end} (score: {r.score:.4f})")
print(f" {r.chunk_text[:80]}...")
# Incremental update (only changed files)
eg.update()
# Index statistics
status = eg.status()
print(f"{status.total_files} files, {status.total_chunks} chunks, {status.index_size_mb} MB")
eg.close()
CLI
# Index a project
embgrep index ./my-project --patterns "*.py,*.md"
# Search
embgrep search "error handling patterns"
# Filter by file type
embgrep search "async database query" --path-filter "%.py"
# Check status
embgrep status
# Update changed files
embgrep update
Convenience functions
import embgrep
embgrep.index("./src")
results = embgrep.search("authentication middleware")
status = embgrep.status()
embgrep.update()
MCP Server
Add to your Claude Desktop / MCP client configuration:
{
"mcpServers": {
"embgrep": {
"command": "embgrep-mcp"
}
}
}
Or with uvx:
{
"mcpServers": {
"embgrep": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["--from", "embgrep[mcp]", "embgrep-mcp"]
}
}
}
MCP Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
index_directory | Index files in a directory for semantic search |
semantic_search | Search indexed files using natural language |
index_status | Get current index statistics |
update_index | Incremental update — re-index changed files only |
How It Works
flowchart TD
A["📁 Files"] --> B["Smart Chunking\ncode: function-level\ndocs: heading-level"]
B --> C["fastembed\nlocal embeddings"]
C --> D["SQLite\nvector index"]
D --> E["🔍 Query"]
E --> F["Cosine Similarity\nranked results"]
F --> G["✅ Matches\nwith context"]
- Chunking — Files are split into semantically meaningful chunks:
- Code files (
.py,.js,.ts, etc.): split by function/class boundaries - Documents (
.md,.txt): split by headings or paragraph breaks - Config files: fixed-size chunking
- Code files (
- Embedding — Each chunk is converted to a 384-dimensional vector using BGE-small-en-v1.5 via ONNX Runtime (no PyTorch needed)
- Storage — Embeddings are stored as BLOBs in a local SQLite database
- Search — Query text is embedded and compared against all chunks using cosine similarity
Configuration
| Parameter | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
db_path | ~/.local/share/embgrep/embgrep.db | SQLite database location |
model | BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5 | fastembed model name |
max_chunk_size | 1000 chars | Maximum chunk size for fixed-size splitting |
top_k | 5 | Number of search results |
QuartzUnit Ecosystem
| Package | Description |
|---|---|
| markgrab | HTML/YouTube/PDF/DOCX to LLM-ready markdown |
| snapgrab | URL to screenshot + metadata |
| docpick | OCR + LLM document structure extraction |
| browsegrab | Local LLM browser agent |
| feedkit | RSS feed collection + MCP |
| embgrep | Local semantic search for files |
Used in
- newswatch — RSS news monitoring pipeline (feedkit → markgrab → embgrep → diffgrab)
License
MIT
Part of the QuartzUnit ecosystem — composable Python libraries for data collection, extraction, search, and AI agent safety.
Frequently asked questions
What is Embgrep?
Local semantic search — embedding-powered grep for files, zero external services.
How do I install Embgrep?
It runs on your machine. In Claude Code: claude mcp add embgrep -- uvx embgrep==0.1.0. For other clients, paste the JSON configuration from this page into their MCP settings.
Does Embgrep need an API key?
Its registry entry lists no required key or secret. Some features may still need an account with the service it connects to.
Is Embgrep open source?
Yes. Its code is on GitHub under the MIT license.
Who maintains Embgrep?
It is published by QuartzUnit. AI.tn lists it but does not maintain or endorse it.
From the official MCP Registry. Listing is not an endorsement: review a server's code and permissions before giving it access to your data.