One binary. Zero dependencies. 29 languages. 32 MCP tools. Local code intelligence for AI coding agents.
Documentation · npm · Issues
Any MCP-compatible AI agent, IDE, or CLI tool connects out of the box. cortex install auto-detects your setup and writes the config.
All 25 supported platforms
| Platform | Install command |
|---|---|
| Claude Code (Linux/Mac) | cortex install |
| Claude Code (Windows) | cortex install --platform claude-code |
| Codex | cortex install --platform codex |
| OpenCode | cortex install --platform opencode |
| GitHub Copilot CLI | cortex install --platform copilot |
| VS Code Copilot Chat | cortex vscode install |
| Aider | cortex install --platform aider |
| OpenClaw | cortex install --platform openclaw |
| Factory Droid | cortex install --platform droid |
| Trae | cortex install --platform trae |
| Trae CN | cortex install --platform trae-cn |
| Gemini CLI | cortex install --platform gemini |
| Hermes | cortex install --platform hermes |
| Kimi Code | cortex install --platform kimi |
| Kiro IDE/CLI | cortex kiro install |
| Pi coding agent | cortex install --platform pi |
| Cursor | cortex cursor install |
| Google Antigravity | cortex antigravity install |
| Windsurf | cortex install --platform windsurf |
| Zed | cortex install --platform zed |
| JetBrains | cortex install --platform jetbrains |
| Cline/Roo | cortex install --platform cline |
| Continue.dev | cortex install --platform continue |
| Supermaven | cortex install --platform supermaven |
| Tabnine | cortex install --platform tabnine |
An agent asking "what calls processOrder" gets a 200-token graph result instead of burning 20,000 tokens reading files. That's 100x fewer tokens on a single structural question.
Cortex indexes your repository into a SQLite call graph and exposes it over the Model Context Protocol. 127 files indexed in 535ms. Incremental re-index in 13ms. Handles 100K to 1M+ line repositories.
npx @1337xcode/cortex installOther methods
Shell script
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/1337Xcode/cortex/main/install.sh | shBuild from source
git clone https://github.com/1337Xcode/cortex.git && cd cortex
cargo build --release
cp target/release/cortex ~/.local/bin/cortex index # parse your repo, build the graph
cortex install # detect Claude Code / Cursor, write MCP config
cortex serve # start the MCP serverYour agent queries the graph instead of reading raw files.
cortex impact UserService.getUser # blast radius: what breaks if I change this?
cortex explain DatabasePool.acquire # offline function explanation, zero LLM calls
cortex security report # taint flows, OWASP patterns, dependency vulns
cortex diff main feature-branch # call graph diff between branches
cortex viz --export graph.html # interactive 3D graph in a standalone HTML file
cortex ci --fail-on-taint # CI quality gate with exit codes
cortex hotspots --months 6 # high-churn risky code ranked by risk score
cortex coverage --lcov coverage.lcov # untested functions ranked by caller count
cortex modules # Leiden community detection module boundaries
cortex federate add ../auth-service # query across repos with unified graph- 29 languages parsed via tree-sitter
- 32 MCP tools exposed over stdio, or 5 in smart mode (the
askmeta-tool routes internally) - Sub-second incremental re-indexing via native OS file watcher (inotify, FSEvents, ReadDirectoryChangesW)
- Taint flow analysis, OWASP Top 10 detection, SBOM generation all running locally, no cloud
- Cross-session memory that marks observations stale when linked code changes
- Multi-repo federation for querying across repositories with a unified graph
- Hybrid search combining FTS5 BM25 with optional local ONNX vector search
- CI quality gates with configurable thresholds and exit codes
- 3D interactive graph visualization exportable to standalone HTML
- Portable JSON bundle (cortex.json) for team sharing via git.
cortex bundle exportserializes the full graph as a portable JSON file. Commit it to git so your team skips the index step entirely. - Works offline. No cloud, no API keys, no Docker, no language runtimes.
All 29 supported languages
| Language | Language | Language |
|---|---|---|
| Python | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Rust | Go | Java |
| C | C++ | C# |
| Ruby | PHP | Swift |
| Kotlin | Scala | Lua |
| Zig | Haskell | Elixir |
| Dart | R | Julia |
| OCaml | Bash | HCL/Terraform |
| Perl | Objective-C | SQL |
| YAML | TOML |
graph TD
A[Repository Files] --> B[File Watcher<br/>notify crate]
B --> C[Indexer Pipeline<br/>Rayon + tree-sitter]
C --> D[SQLite Graph Store<br/>WAL + FTS5 + sqlite-vec]
D --> E[MCP Server<br/>Tokio + JSON-RPC 2.0]
E --> F[AI Coding Agent]
C --> G[Security Pass<br/>Taint + OWASP + SBOM]
G --> D
D --> H[Bundle Exporter<br/>cortex.json]
H --> I[Git Repository<br/>Team Sharing]
D --> J[Memory Layer<br/>Staleness-aware observations]
| Feature | Cortex | codebase-memory-mcp | Srclight | Serena | mcp-codebase-index |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Rust binary, SQLite | C binary, SQLite | Python, SQLite | Python, LSP | Python, SQLite |
| Languages | 29 (tree-sitter) | 66 (tree-sitter) | 10 (tree-sitter) | 40+ (LSP) | 4 |
| MCP tools | 32 (or 5 smart mode) | 14 | 42 | ~20 | 17 |
| Smart tool routing | Yes (ask meta-tool) | No | No | No | No |
| Call graph | Function-level | Full chains | Callers/callees | LSP-precise | Cross-file |
| Hybrid search | FTS5 + sqlite-vec | Graph only | RRF fusion | Keyword | Structural |
| Token reduction | 100x on structural queries | 121x avg | Not measured | Not measured | 87% |
| Incremental update | 13ms (no changes) | Milliseconds | Git hooks | LSP live | Hash-based |
| Security (taint/OWASP/SBOM) | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Cross-session memory | Staleness-aware | No | No | No | No |
| Multi-repo federation | Yes | No | SQLite ATTACH | Partial | No |
| Document ingestion | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Build system awareness | Cargo, npm, Go, Gradle, Maven | No | Yes | No | No |
| Git intelligence | Hotspots, churn | Commit-aware delta | git blame | No | No |
| Community detection | Leiden algorithm | No | Leiden | No | No |
| Coverage gap analysis | Yes (LCOV cross-ref) | No | No | No | No |
| CI quality gates | Yes (exit codes) | No | No | No | No |
| Single binary, zero deps | Yes | Yes | No (Python) | No (Python+LSP) | No (Python) |
| Auto IDE config | 25 agents | No | No | No | No |
| 3D visualization | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Air-gap compatible | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT | MIT | MIT | MIT | MIT |
Full docs site: 1337xcode.github.io/cortex