Aidex

What is Aidex?

Aidex is an MCP server that indexes a codebase once using Tree-sitter and provides AI assistants with instant access to every function, class, and method signature. It reduces the token consumption of code searches from thousands of tokens to roughly 50 tokens per query, eliminating the need to grep or read entire files during AI sessions.

How to use Aidex?

Install the package globally with npm install -g aidex-mcp and run aidex setup. The setup command automatically detects and registers Aidex with installed AI clients such as Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, Gemini CLI, and VS Code Copilot.

Key features of Aidex

• Smart extraction using Tree-sitter – parses code properly, indexes identifiers not keywords
• Method signatures – gets function prototypes without reading implementations
• Project summary – auto-detects entry points, main classes, and language breakdown
• Incremental updates – re-indexes single files after changes
• Cross-project links – queries across multiple related projects
• Time-based filtering – finds changes in the last hour, day, or week
• Session notes – leaves reminders that persist in the database
• Interactive viewer – browser-based project explorer with live reload

Use cases of Aidex

• Quickly locating function, class, or method definitions across a large codebase
• Reducing AI context consumption during code exploration sessions
• Querying code changes from a specific time window (e.g., last hour)
• Searching across multiple related projects without switching tools
• Leaving persistent notes for the next AI session about ongoing work

FAQ from Aidex

What languages does Aidex support?

Aidex supports C#, TypeScript, JavaScript, Rust, Python, C, C++, Java, Go, PHP, and Ruby.

How does Aidex differ from grep or ripgrep?

Grep returns all text matches (thousands of tokens per search), while Aidex returns only identifiers (roughly 50 tokens). Aidex knows about methods, classes, and types, and its index persists across sessions instead of starting fresh every time.

What are the system requirements?

Aidex requires Node.js and uses SQLite with WAL mode as its database (zero configuration, single file). No additional database setup is needed.

Does Aidex work with my AI client?

The aidex setup command auto-detects and registers Aidex with Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, Gemini CLI, and VS Code Copilot. It works with any client that supports the MCP protocol.

How often do I need to re-index the codebase?

You only need to run the initial setup once. After code changes, Aidex supports incremental updates to re-index single files without rebuilding the entire index.