index1

English | 中文

AI memory system for coding agents. Code index + cognitive facts, persistent across sessions.

index1 tested in real-world Claude grep! Comparison of index1 + Claude grep vs Claude grep only:

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b689b0bb-b767-4fc8-9055-cc3ae872559e

What is index1?

index1 gives AI coding agents persistent memory — two things LLMs lack natively:

Module	Memory Type	What it stores
corpus/	Semantic memory	Code index — files, functions, classes, structure
cognition/	Episodic memory	Cognitive facts — lessons learned, bug root causes, decisions made

index1/
├── corpus/     Code index — what does the project look like?
└── cognition/  Cognitive facts — what did I learn last session?

Install

One-click (recommended):

# macOS / Linux
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gladego/index1/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

# Windows (PowerShell)
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gladego/index1/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex

The script auto-detects Python, installs via pipx, sets up Ollama, and creates default config.

Manual install:

pipx install index1    # recommended
# or: pip install index1

Note: macOS blocks global pip install by default. Use pipx instead:

• macOS: brew install pipx
• Linux: pip install --user pipx && pipx ensurepath
• Windows: scoop install pipx or pip install --user pipx

Quick Start

index1 setup                          # one-click Claude Code plugin install (hooks + MCP)
index1 index ./docs ./src             # index your project
index1 search "how does auth work"    # hybrid search
index1 web                            # open Web UI at localhost:6888

No Ollama required — index1 ships with built-in ONNX embedding (bge-small-en-v1.5, 384d). Ollama is optional for enhanced multilingual support.

AI Tool Integration

Claude Code

One-click setup (recommended):

index1 setup

This automatically registers hooks (SessionStart, PostToolUse, SessionEnd) and MCP server. Restart Claude Code — six tools become available:

Tool	Description
recall	Unified search across code + facts
learn	Record an insight or decision
read	Read file content with index metadata
status	Index and cognition statistics
reindex	Rebuild project index
config	View/modify configuration

Manual setup — add .mcp.json to your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "index1": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "index1",
      "args": ["serve"]
    }
  }
}

Full setup guide: Claude Code integration — MCP config, hooks, search strategy, CLAUDE.md setup

Other AI Tools (OpenClaw, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline...)

MCP-compatible tools: Add the same .mcp.json config above to your tool's MCP settings.

CLI mode (works with any tool):

index1 search "how does authentication work"
index1 cog search "previous bug fixes"

Full setup guide: Other AI agents integration

CLI Commands

# Core
index1 index <paths...>              # Index files/directories
index1 search <query>                # Hybrid search (BM25 + vector)
index1 status                        # View index & cognition statistics
index1 serve                         # Start MCP Server (stdio)
index1 web                           # Start Web UI (port 6888)

# Cognition
index1 cog search <query>            # Search cognitive facts
index1 cog list                      # List recent facts
index1 cog stats                     # Cognition statistics

# Setup & Maintenance
index1 setup                         # Install Claude Code plugin (hooks + MCP)
index1 doctor                        # Diagnose environment & health
index1 init                          # Configure embedding backend
index1 config [key] [value]          # View/modify configuration

# Advanced
index1 watch <paths...>              # Watch files for auto-reindex
index1 backfill                      # Backfill missing vectors
index1 repo-map                      # Generate project structure map
index1 symbols                       # View symbol statistics

Embedding Backends

index1 supports multiple embedding backends with automatic fallback:

ONNX (default, built-in) → Ollama (optional) → BM25-only (always available)

Backend	Model	Dim	Setup	Best for
ONNX (default)	bge-small-en-v1.5	384	Zero config	English, works offline, no external deps
Ollama	nomic-embed-text	768	ollama pull nomic-embed-text	Multilingual, higher accuracy
Ollama	bge-m3	1024	ollama pull bge-m3	Chinese-optimized, 100+ languages

Switch backend:

index1 init              # interactive backend selection
# or manually:
index1 config embed_backend ollama
index1 config embedding_model nomic-embed-text

Without any embedding backend, index1 falls back to BM25-only keyword search. ONNX is bundled by default so vector search works out of the box.

Supported File Types

Structure-aware chunking (language-specific parsers):

.md .markdown — headings-based splitting .py — AST-based (functions, classes, methods) .rs — regex pattern matching (fn, impl, struct, enum) .js .ts .jsx .tsx — regex pattern matching (function, class, const)

Generic chunking (text-based splitting):

.txt .text .yaml .yml .toml .json .cfg .ini .conf .sh .bash .html .css

Architecture

                    ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
                    │          index1 MCP Server           │
Claude Code ──────► │                                     │
  (hooks +          │  ┌─────────┐    ┌──────────────┐    │
   MCP tools)       │  │ corpus  │    │  cognition   │    │
                    │  │         │    │              │    │
CLI ────────────►   │  │index.db │    │cognitive.db  │    │
                    │  │ FTS5    │    │ FTS5         │    │
Web UI ─────────►   │  │ vec     │    │ vec          │    │
                    │  └────┬────┘    └──────┬───────┘    │
                    │       │               │             │
                    │       └───────┬───────┘             │
                    │               │                     │
                    │     ONNX / Ollama Embedding         │
                    └─────────────────────────────────────┘

Hooks:
  SessionStart  → awaken (restore context)
  PostToolUse   → observe (capture facts from tool output)
  SessionEnd    → reflect (maintenance + consolidation)

• Storage: Dual SQLite databases — index.db (corpus) + cognitive.db (cognition)
• Search: BM25 + vector with Reciprocal Rank Fusion (RRF, k=60)
• Chunking: Structure-aware splitting by file type (AST/regex/headings)
• Embedding: ONNX (default, built-in) or Ollama (optional, multilingual)
• Resilience: safe_db_write, CircuitBreaker, ServiceCooldown, mcp_error_boundary

Configuration

Config file: ~/.claude-index1/config.yaml

embed_backend: onnx                   # "onnx" (default) | "ollama"
onnx_model: BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5    # ONNX model
embedding_model: nomic-embed-text     # Ollama model (when embed_backend=ollama)
embedding_dim: 768
ollama_url: http://localhost:11434
top_k: 10                             # Results per query
collection: default                   # Namespace isolation
web_port: 6888                        # Web UI port

Project-level override: .index1.yaml in project root.

Environment variable: INDEX1_HOME overrides default ~/.claude-index1/ directory.

Performance

Mode	Cold	Hot (cached)
Hybrid (BM25 + Vector)	40–180 ms	< 1 ms
BM25-only (no embedding)	~35 ms	< 1 ms
Grep/Glob (native)	4 ms	N/A

Context savings: index1 returns top-k ranked results (~400–500 tokens) vs Grep returning all matches (~5,000–35,000 tokens for common keywords). Saves 90–99% of LLM context window on broad queries.

Full benchmark: Benchmark: index1 vs native tools (中文)

FAQ

Do I need Ollama? No. index1 v2 ships with built-in ONNX embedding — vector search works out of the box. Ollama is optional for enhanced multilingual and Chinese support.

Can I use multiple projects? Yes. Use --collection to isolate namespaces:

index1 index ./project-a -c proj_a
index1 search "query" -c proj_a

With Claude Code hooks, collection is auto-detected from project directory.

Where is data stored?

• Corpus: ~/.claude-index1/index.db
• Cognition: ~/.claude-index1/cognitive.db
• Config: ~/.claude-index1/config.yaml

Override with INDEX1_HOME environment variable.

How to rebuild the index?

index1 index --force ./docs ./src

How to check system health?

index1 doctor

Contributing

git clone https://github.com/gladego/index1.git
cd index1
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

PRs welcome. Please ensure pytest passes before submitting.

Changelog

v2.0.0

• Cognition module — episodic memory with cognitive facts (learn, recall, maintenance)
• Dual database — separate index.db (corpus) + cognitive.db (cognition)
• ONNX default embedding — built-in bge-small-en-v1.5, zero external deps for vector search
• Claude Code plugin system — index1 setup one-click install (hooks + MCP)
• 6 MCP tools — recall, learn, read, status, reindex, config (unified search across code + facts)
• Hook-based fact capture — SessionStart/PostToolUse/SessionEnd automatic observation
• Memory layering — Ebbinghaus decay, layer promotion (L3b → L3a → L2), pattern extraction
• Maintenance pipeline — 10-step background consolidation (embedding, dedup, decay, invalidation)
• Observer Worker — persistent LLM observer for deep fact extraction
• Web UI — dashboard with corpus, cognition, and memory tabs
• Resilience — safe_db_write, CircuitBreaker, ServiceCooldown, mcp_error_boundary
• Query understanding — intent detection, symbol lookup, query expansion
• tree-sitter code graph — repo-map with symbol extraction

v0.1.0

• BM25 + vector hybrid search with RRF fusion
• Structure-aware chunking (Markdown, Python, Rust, JS/TS)
• MCP Server with 5 tools for Claude Code integration
• Web UI with Atom Core animated logo
• L1/L2 query cache (10min TTL)
• File watcher for auto-reindex
• One-click install script

Requirements

• Python >= 3.10
• macOS / Linux / Windows
• ONNX embedding built-in (bge-small-en-v1.5) — vector search works out of the box
• Ollama (optional, for enhanced multilingual/CJK support)

License

Apache 2.0