ast-index

ast-index v3.40.4

Fast code search CLI for 34 programming languages. Native Rust implementation.

Supported Projects

Platform	Languages	File Extensions
Android	Kotlin, Java	.kt, .java
iOS	Swift, Objective-C	.swift, .m, .h
Web/Frontend	TypeScript, JavaScript	.ts, .tsx, .js, .jsx, .mjs, .cjs, .vue, .svelte
Web/Frontend	CSS, SCSS, Less	.css, .pcss, .postcss, .scss, .less
Systems	Rust	.rs
Systems	Zig	.zig, .zon
Backend	C#, Python, Go, C++, Scala	.cs, .py, .go, .cpp, .cc, .c, .hpp, .scala, .sc
Backend	PHP	.php, .phtml
Scripting	Ruby, Perl	.rb, .pm, .pl, .t
Mobile	Dart/Flutter	.dart
Schema	Protocol Buffers, WSDL/XSD	.proto, .wsdl, .xsd
Enterprise	BSL (1C:Enterprise)	.bsl, .os
Scripting	Lua, Bash	.lua, .sh, .bash, .zsh
Functional	Elixir	.ex, .exs
Data	SQL, R	.sql, .r, .R
Scientific	Matlab	.m
JVM	Groovy	.groovy, .gradle
Functional	Common Lisp	.lisp, .lsp, .cl, .asd
Game	GDScript (Godot)	.gd

Project type is auto-detected.

Setup guide for your project — install, commands, and usage examples.

Installation

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew tap defendend/ast-index
brew install ast-index

Winget (Windows)

winget install --id defendend.ast-index

Migration from kotlin-index

If you have the old kotlin-index installed:

brew uninstall kotlin-index
brew untap defendend/kotlin-index
brew tap defendend/ast-index
brew install ast-index

From source

git clone https://github.com/defendend/Claude-ast-index-search.git
cd Claude-ast-index-search
cargo build --release
# Binary: target/release/ast-index (~44 MB)

Troubleshooting: Syntax errors on install

If brew install ast-index fails with merge conflict errors (<<<<<<< HEAD), reset your local tap:

cd /opt/homebrew/Library/Taps/defendend/homebrew-ast-index
git fetch origin
git reset --hard origin/main
brew install ast-index

Quick Start

cd /path/to/project

# Build index
ast-index rebuild

# Search
ast-index search ViewModel
ast-index class BaseFragment
ast-index implementations Presenter
ast-index usages Repository

Monorepo workflow

If your repo has subdirectories with their own VCS markers (git submodules, subtrees, nested Cargo.toml / settings.gradle), read-commands normally stop at the nearest marker — they won't reuse a parent-level index even if one exists. Pass --walk-up, or set AST_INDEX_WALK_UP=1, to tell the lookup to prefer any existing parent DB over nested markers:

# once, in the root
cd /monorepo && ast-index rebuild

# later, from any subproject — reuse the root index
AST_INDEX_WALK_UP=1 ast-index search ViewModel
# or per-call:
ast-index --walk-up search ViewModel

This is opt-in by design: silently preferring a far-away parent DB could surface a stale or misconfigured index from an earlier accidental rebuild higher up. With the flag you explicitly say "trust the parent".

AI Agent Integration

Claude Code Plugin

# Option 1: via marketplace
claude plugin marketplace add defendend/Claude-ast-index-search
claude plugin install ast-index

# Option 2: if ast-index is already installed
ast-index install-claude-plugin

Restart Claude Code to activate. Update: brew upgrade ast-index && claude plugin update ast-index. Uninstall: claude plugin uninstall ast-index.

See examples/.claude/rules/ast-index.md for a template rules file that teaches the agent to prefer ast-index over grep, outline before reading large files, and pass the same instructions to subagents. Adapt before dropping into your project's .claude/rules/.

MCP server (Cursor, Codex, Cline, Continue, OpenCode, Windsurf, …)

An MCP server that exposes ast-index tools to any MCP-compatible agent. Each tool call spawns ast-index <subcommand>, parses the output, and returns a compact TOON-inspired text blob (≈2-3× fewer tokens than pretty JSON). Agents can opt into raw JSON per-call via format: "json" when they need structured parsing.

Build:

cargo build --release -p ast-index-mcp
# Binary: target/release/ast-index-mcp

Exposed tools (20):