dev_search

Semantic code search across your indexed repository. Find code by meaning, not just keywords.

Usage

dev_search(query, format?, limit?, scoreThreshold?)

Parameters

Examples

Basic Search

“Use dev_search to find authentication code”

1. [89%] class: AuthMiddleware (src/auth/middleware.ts:15)
2. [84%] function: verifyToken (src/auth/jwt.ts:5)
3. [72%] function: validateSession (src/auth/session.ts:23)

With Parameters

“Use dev_search with query ‘database connection’, limit 5, format verbose”

1. [Score: 91.2%] function: connectDB
   Location: src/db/connection.ts:20
   Signature: export async function connectDB(config: DBConfig): Promise<Connection>
   Metadata: language: typescript, exported: true, lines: 35

2. [Score: 85.4%] class: ConnectionPool
   Location: src/db/pool.ts:8
   Signature: export class ConnectionPool implements Pool {...}
   Metadata: language: typescript, exported: true, lines: 120

High Precision Search

“Use dev_search with query ‘error handling middleware’, scoreThreshold 0.8”

Only returns results with 80%+ similarity.

Related Test Files

When search results include source files, dev_search checks for corresponding test files:

1. [89%] function: authenticate (src/auth.ts:15)
2. [84%] class: AuthMiddleware (src/middleware.ts:5)

---
Related test files:
  • src/auth.test.ts
  • src/middleware.test.ts

Patterns detected: *.test.ts, *.spec.ts

This surfaces test files without affecting semantic search rankings — tests are found by filename, not similarity.

How It Works

1. Query embedding — Your query is converted to a vector using MiniLM-L6-v2
2. Vector search — LanceDB finds semantically similar code components
3. Ranking — Results are sorted by cosine similarity score
4. Formatting — Results are formatted for LLM context windows

What Gets Indexed

dev_search indexes these code components:

• Functions — Named function declarations
• Arrow functions — Arrow functions assigned to variables (e.g., const handler = () => {}) ✨ v0.5
• React hooks — Automatically detected by use* naming pattern ✨ v0.5
• Classes — Class declarations and their methods
• Interfaces — TypeScript interfaces
• Types — Type aliases
• Exported constants — Objects, arrays, and factory calls (e.g., export const CONFIG = {}) ✨ v0.5
• Markdown sections — Headers and content blocks

Tips

Ask questions, not keywords. Instead of “auth middleware”, try “Where do we validate user sessions?”

Use scoreThreshold for precision. Set to 0.7+ when you want only highly relevant results.

Response Metadata

{
  "metadata": {
    "tokens": 245,
    "duration_ms": 89,
    "results_total": 23,
    "results_returned": 10,
    "results_truncated": true
  }
}