Vexor

Vexor is a semantic search engine that builds reusable indexes over files and code. It supports configurable embedding and reranking providers, and exposes the same core through a Python API, a CLI tool, and an MCP server.

Featured In

Vexor has been recognized and featured by the community:

• Ruan Yifeng's Weekly (Issue #379) - A leading tech newsletter in the Chinese developer community.

• Awesome Claude Skills - Curated list of best-in-class skills for AI agents.

• Awesome MCP Servers - Curated list of Model Context Protocol servers.

• Awesome CLI Apps - Curated list of command-line apps.

Related MCP server: semantic-search-mcp

Why Vexor?

When you remember what a file does but forget its name or location, Vexor finds it instantly—no grep patterns or directory traversal needed.

Designed for both humans and AI coding assistants, enabling semantic file discovery in autonomous agent workflows.

Install

Download standalone binary from releases (no Python required), or:

pip install vexor  # also works with pipx, uv

Quick Start

0. Guided Setup (Recommended)

vexor init

The wizard also runs automatically before the first interactive operational command when no config exists. Configuration-management (vexor config), MCP, help, and version commands run directly.

1. Search

vexor "api client config"  # defaults to search current directory
# or explicit path:
vexor search "api client config" --path ~/projects/demo --top 5
# in-memory search only:
vexor search "api client config" --no-cache 

Vexor auto-indexes on first search. Example output:

Vexor semantic file search results
──────────────────────────────────
#   Similarity   File path                       Lines   Preview
1   0.923        ./src/config_loader.py          -       config loader entrypoint
2   0.871        ./src/utils/config_parse.py     -       parse config helpers
3   0.809        ./tests/test_config_loader.py   -       tests for config loader

2. Explicit Index (Optional)

vexor index  # indexes current directory
# or explicit path:
vexor index --path ~/projects/demo --mode code

Useful for CI warmup or when auto_index is disabled.

Python API

Vexor can also be imported and used directly from Python:

from vexor import index, search

index(path=".", mode="head")
response = search("config loader", path=".", mode="name")

for hit in response.results:
    print(hit.path, hit.score)

Configuration follows the same global and project-level resolution as the CLI. For runtime overrides, cache controls, and per-call options, see docs/api/python.md.

AI Agent Skill

This repo includes a skill for AI agents to use Vexor effectively:

vexor install --skills claude  # Claude Code
vexor install --skills codex   # Codex

Skill source: plugins/vexor/skills/vexor-cli

MCP Server

Vexor ships a built-in MCP stdio server, so any MCP-capable agent can use semantic file search as a native tool:

claude mcp add vexor -- vexor mcp   # Claude Code
codex mcp add vexor -- vexor mcp    # Codex

Or configure manually in any MCP client, optionally supplying the API key and any config overrides via env (no vexor init needed):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vexor": {
      "command": "vexor",
      "args": ["mcp"],
      "env": {
        "VEXOR_API_KEY": "sk-...",
        "VEXOR_CONFIG_JSON": "{\"provider\": \"gemini\", \"rerank\": \"bm25\"}"
      }
    }
  }
}

The server exposes two tools: vexor_search (semantic file search, returning the matching source text so an agent rarely needs a follow-up file read) and vexor_index (explicit index warm-up). No extra dependencies are required. Vexor is listed on the official MCP registry as io.github.scarletkc/vexor. See docs/mcp.md for tool schemas, environment variables, and client setup details.

Configuration

vexor init                             # guided setup (recommended)
vexor config --set-api-key "YOUR_KEY"  # or env: VEXOR_API_KEY / OPENAI_API_KEY / ...
vexor config --set-provider openai     # default; also gemini/voyageai/custom/local
vexor config --rerank hybrid           # optional: fuse exact keyword + semantic ranking
vexor config --show                    # view effective settings and origins

Global config lives in ~/.vexor/config.json; the nearest <project>/.vexor/config.json can override a restricted set of behavior fields for that project. Non-secret fields can also be injected via VEXOR_CONFIG_JSON (useful for MCP clients and CI), and fully offline use is supported through local embedding models.

See docs/configuration.md for the complete reference: project config fields and precedence, all config commands, API keys and environment variables, rerank strategies (hybrid / BM25 / FlashRank / remote), remote vs local providers, embedding dimensions, and offline local model setup.

CLI Reference

Everyday usage fits in vexor "query", vexor search, and vexor index (see Quick Start). The full command table, common flags, index modes (--mode auto/name/head/brief/full/code/outline), .vexorignore files, project-local indexes (vexor index --local), cache behavior, and porcelain output format are documented in docs/cli.md.

Documentation

• Configuration — providers, API keys, rerank, embedding dimensions, local models

• CLI reference — commands, flags, index modes, cache behavior

• MCP server — client setup, environment variables, tool schemas

• Python API — programmatic usage

• Collections API — database-backed text records and filtered search

Contributing

Contributions, issues, and PRs welcome! Commit messages and PR titles follow Conventional Commits (e.g. feat(mcp): add stdio server). Star if you find it helpful.

Star History

License

MIT