Repository Search MCP server

Model Context Protocol (MCP) server provides enhanced content search functionality beyond Claude's built-in search_files tool. It features regular expression support, .reposearchignore file filtering with gitignore format, output format control, and token explosion prevention.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Go development environment
• Git

Installing the MCP Server

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/your-username/mcp-server.git
cd mcp-server

2. Build the server:

go build -o mcp-server

3. Run the server:

./mcp-server

By default, the server listens on port 8080. You can specify a different port with the -port flag:

./mcp-server -port 9090

Usage

Configuring Search Filters

Create a .reposearchignore file in your repository root to control which files are filtered out during searches. This file uses the gitignore format:

# Ignore node modules
node_modules/

# Ignore build artifacts
build/
dist/

# Ignore specific file types
*.log
*.tmp

Making Search Requests

You can make requests to the MCP server using HTTP:

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/search \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "pattern": "function findUser",
    "directory": "/path/to/your/repo",
    "include_content": true,
    "use_regex": true
  }'

Request Parameters

• pattern: The search pattern (string or regex)
• directory: The directory to search in
• include_content: Whether to include file content in results (boolean)
• use_regex: Whether to treat the pattern as a regular expression (boolean)

Integrating with Claude

To use this MCP server with Claude, include the following in your system prompt:

Please do not use the built-in search_files tool. Instead, use the MCP server to search for content.

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

• Server won't start: Ensure the port is not already in use by another application
• No search results: Check your .reposearchignore file to ensure you're not filtering out the files you want to search
• Regex not working: Verify your regular expression syntax is correct

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "repository-search" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","mcp-server-reposearch"]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "repository-search": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "mcp-server-reposearch"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "repository-search": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "mcp-server-reposearch"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect