Skip to main content
hc
Submit
mcpSource-backedReview first Safety ✓ Privacy ✓

ChunkHound MCP Server

Local-first codebase intelligence MCP server that indexes repositories with tree-sitter, stores searchable chunks in DuckDB, and gives Claude semantic search, regex search, daemon status, and deep code research tools.

by ChunkHound·added 2026-06-06·
Claude CodeClaude Desktop
HarnessClaude CodeClaude Desktop
Review first — review before installing

Open the source and read safety notes before installing.

Safety notes

  • ChunkHound reads source files, Markdown, text, PDFs, and supported config files under the target directory and stores indexed chunks in a local database.
  • Realtime indexing and daemon mode can continue watching project files after the initial MCP connection.
  • Code research and web search tools require embedding, reranking, and LLM configuration and may invoke local CLIs or external model APIs depending on settings.
  • Exclude generated files, vendored dependencies, secrets, large artifacts, and unrelated repositories before indexing broad workspace roots.
  • Review MCP client configuration carefully when using an absolute project path in a global Claude Desktop config.

Privacy notes

  • Indexed chunks, file paths, symbols, comments, Markdown, PDFs, configuration values, database files, daemon state, and search results can reveal proprietary source code and internal architecture.
  • Embedding, reranking, LLM, and web search providers may receive code-derived queries or snippets if configured.
  • Local ChunkHound database files, logs, daemon state, and MCP transcripts may retain code-derived context after the session ends.
  • Avoid sharing ChunkHound databases, config files with API keys, verbose logs, research outputs, and screenshots from private repositories.

Prerequisites

  • Python 3.10 or newer and the `uv` package manager.
  • A local repository or workspace you are authorized to index.
  • ChunkHound JSON config reviewed for database path, excludes, embeddings, and LLM provider settings.
  • Optional embedding provider credentials for semantic search, or regex-only usage when no embedding key is configured.
  • Optional LLM provider or local CLI reviewed before enabling `code_research`.

Schema details

Install type
cli
Troubleshooting
No
Source repository stats
Scope
Source repo
Collection metadata
Estimated setup
15 minutes
Difficulty
advanced
Tool listing metadata
Disclosure
MIT-licensed open-source codebase intelligence MCP server. Review provider configuration before enabling semantic search, LLM research, reranking, or web search features in sensitive repositories.
Full copyable content
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "chunkhound": {
      "command": "chunkhound",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

About this resource

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

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.

#code-search#semantic-search#local-first#repository#developer-tools

Source citations

Signals

Loading live community signals…

More like this, weekly

A short, calm digest of reviewed Claude resources. Unsubscribe any time.