Codebase Search

by Helweg

Codebase Search is an Automation skill for Claude Code, published by Helweg in open-codebase-index.

186 stars29 forkson Helweg/open-codebase-indexAdded 2026/09/06+1% in starsRepository updated 2026/09/04

View source on GitHub Download repo ZIP

claude-codecode-searchcodebase-indexingcodexembeddingsmcpopencoderustsemantic-searchtree-sitter

Install in seconds

Install Codebase Search

Copy Codebase Search into your Claude Code skills folder. Run the command in your terminal, or review the source on GitHub before installing.

terminal

npx degit https://github.com/Helweg/open-codebase-index/tree/main/skills/codebase-search ~/.claude/skills/codebase-search

Requires Node.js. Downloads this skill only — not the rest of the repository — into your Claude Code skills folder.

Without Node.js

git clone https://github.com/Helweg/open-codebase-index.git

Clones the whole repository, then copy the skill’s own directory into your skills folder yourself.

In this catalog

Source file: skills/codebase-search/SKILL.md in Helweg/open-codebase-index
Installs to: ~/.claude/skills/codebase-search
Collection: One of 2 skills cataloged from this repository
Category: Automation — 2032 skills

What Codebase Search does

Codebase Search guides a local-first workflow for understanding a repository before web lookup. Use it to check index status, then find symbols, dependencies, implementations, and similar code with semantic and graph tools.

Codebase Search is cataloged under Automation on DirSkills. Codebase Search comes from a repository tagged claude-code, code-search, codebase-indexing, codex and embeddings.

Documentation

README

Excerpt

Codebase Search Skill

Use this skill when you need local repository knowledge before web lookup.

Core workflow

Run index_status when index readiness or freshness is unknown.
Use codebase_context(query, ...) before shell search, grep, or broad file reads. Pass symbol for an authoritative definition or from + to for a dependency path.
Use codebase_peek(query, ...) for specialized metadata-only conceptual lookup.
Use codebase_search(query, ...) when you need full code context.
Use implementation_lookup(query) for known-symbol definitions and call_graph / call_graph_path for execution flow.
Use find_similar(code) for duplicate patterns and refactor planning.

If results are weak, run index_status (check readiness) and index_codebase.

This is the opening of the README. Read the full README on GitHub.

Frequently asked about Codebase Search

What else does Helweg publish alongside Codebase Search?
Codebase Search is one of 2 skills that DirSkills catalogs from Helweg/open-codebase-index, the repository it ships in. Its siblings there include Codebase Search. Each one is a separate skill with its own page in this directory, installs the same way Codebase Search does, and is maintained by Helweg in that same repository. The rest of the collection is listed on the Helweg/open-codebase-index page.
How does Codebase Search compare to other Automation skills?
Codebase Search ranks #1864 by stars among the 2032 Automation skills in this catalog. The most-starred ones next to it are Autonomous Loops, Autonomous Agent Harness and Automation Audit Ops. DirSkills ranks by the star count of the repository each skill ships in, so that order reflects how popular those repositories are rather than any review of Codebase Search against them. Open each page to compare what they document and how they install.