ChunkHound MCP Server

Content

ChunkHound MCP Server connects Claude to a local-first codebase intelligence index. It parses repositories with tree-sitter, stores searchable chunks in DuckDB, and exposes MCP tools for code search, daemon status, deep code research, and optional web-backed research.

Use it when Claude needs targeted context from a large repository without reading broad files repeatedly. Regex search can work without embedding keys, while semantic search and research workflows depend on the embedding, reranking, and LLM providers configured in .chunkhound.json or environment variables.

Source Review

• https://github.com/chunkhound/chunkhound
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chunkhound/chunkhound/main/site/src/pages/docs/cli-reference.md
• https://pypi.org/pypi/chunkhound/json
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chunkhound/chunkhound/main/README.md
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chunkhound/chunkhound/main/LICENSE
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chunkhound/chunkhound/main/pyproject.toml
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chunkhound/chunkhound/main/site/src/pages/docs/configuration.md
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chunkhound/chunkhound/main/chunkhound/mcp_server/tools.py
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chunkhound/chunkhound/main/chunkhound/mcp_server/stdio.py
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chunkhound/chunkhound/main/chunkhound/api/cli/commands/mcp.py

These sources were reviewed on 2026-06-06. Prefer the live repository, CLI reference, PyPI metadata, README, license, package metadata, configuration docs, MCP tool registry, stdio server, and MCP CLI command source for current setup and behavior.

Features

• Run a stdio MCP server with chunkhound mcp.
• Index local repositories into a DuckDB-backed code intelligence database.
• Parse many programming, configuration, Markdown, text, and PDF formats.
• Search code with semantic search when embeddings are configured.
• Search with regex when no embedding provider is available.
• Use realtime indexing and daemon mode for active repositories.
• Inspect daemon status through MCP.
• Run code_research when embeddings, reranking, and an LLM provider are configured.
• Configure VoyageAI, OpenAI, local-compatible embeddings, DuckDB, LanceDB evaluation mode, indexing excludes, and LLM providers.

Installation

Install ChunkHound with uv:

uv tool install chunkhound

Create a project-local .chunkhound.json, then index the repository:

chunkhound index

Start the MCP server from the project:

chunkhound mcp

Configure Claude or another MCP client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "chunkhound": {
      "command": "chunkhound",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Use an explicit project path only when the global MCP client configuration must launch ChunkHound outside the repository directory.

Use Cases

• Ask Claude to find authentication, routing, migration, or error-handling code across a large repository.
• Run regex searches against indexed files when semantic embeddings are not configured.
• Keep a local code index updated while switching branches.
• Scope search to an approved repository instead of exposing a whole workspace.
• Use code_research for higher-level architecture questions when the LLM and reranking providers are approved.

Safety and Privacy

ChunkHound is local-first, but it still creates a derived index of source code. Limit the target path, configure excludes, and verify what will be indexed before connecting a model to private repositories. Keep .chunkhound databases, logs, API keys, MCP transcripts, and research outputs out of public commits.

Semantic search, reranking, LLM research, and web search can involve external providers depending on configuration. Review every provider endpoint, model, API key, timeout, and custom base URL before enabling those features for sensitive codebases.

Duplicate Check

No chunkhound/chunkhound, ChunkHound MCP Server, chunkhound mcp, or matching source URL entry was found in content/mcp or README.md. Existing code index and codebase memory entries cover different projects; this entry documents ChunkHound's local-first tree-sitter, DuckDB, realtime indexing, and code_research MCP workflow.

• Source repositorygithub.com 2026-07-21T07:17:01+00:00
• Documentationraw.githubusercontent.com
• Submitted by oktofeesh12026-06-06