Cortex

Give AI coding agents the right context from your repository.

Cortex builds a local map of your code, symbols, relationships, and project rules. Coding agents query that map through the CLI instead of guessing or reading the whole repository.

Your code stays on your machine. MCP is not required.

Start

Requires Node.js 20.9+ and Git.

npm install --global @danielblomma/cortex-mcp
cd your-project
cortex init --bootstrap

This indexes the repository, adds Cortex instructions to AGENTS.md, installs Git hooks, and starts the background watcher.

Check the setup:

cortex doctor

Use

# Find relevant code.
cortex search "where is authentication handled?" --json

# Follow relationships from a search result.
cortex related <entity-id> --json

# See what a change may affect.
cortex impact "authentication" --json

# Read repository rules.
cortex rules --json

# Compare a changed file with nearby patterns.
cortex pattern-evidence src/auth.ts --json

Agents can run these commands directly. cortex init adds instructions that tell them to search before answering and check impact before refactoring.

Keep the index fresh

Git hooks and the watcher normally update Cortex automatically.

cortex status
cortex watch status
cortex update

Run cortex update manually after a large change or when results look stale.

Large repositories

Make lexical and graph search available first while semantic indexing continues in the background:

cortex bootstrap --background --profile interactive
cortex indexing status --json

This mode supports macOS, Linux, and WSL. Native Windows should use normal foreground bootstrap.

Upgrade

npm install --global @danielblomma/cortex-mcp@latest
cortex init --force
cortex bootstrap
cortex update

Project configuration and rules are preserved. See CHANGELOG.md for version-specific notes.

Optional MCP compatibility

The normal Cortex workflow uses the CLI. If a client explicitly requires MCP, run cortex connect.

DeepSeek Harness integration (planned)

An installable Cortex integration for DeepSeek Harness is planned, but is not available yet. Stage 0 verified the upstream APIs and found that the official MCP bridge cannot safely isolate concurrent Web workspaces. The selected V1 candidate instead binds a native Cortex provider and its tools to each Harness agent workspace. Local implementation and validation are complete; independent final acceptance and explicit release authorization are still pending. See the V1-to-V2 integration plan.

Links

• Website
• Changelog
• Issues

License

MIT