Docsearch Mcp

docsearch-mcp

A local-first document search and indexing system that provides hybrid semantic + keyword search across local files (including PDFs) and Confluence pages through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Perfect for AI assistants like Claude Code/Desktop to access your documentation, codebase, and research materials.

✨ Features

• 🔍 Hybrid Search: Combines full-text search (FTS) with vector similarity for optimal results
• 📁 Multi-Source: Index local files (code, docs, PDFs, office documents, ebooks, audio/video) and Confluence spaces
• 📄 PDF Support: Extract and search text from PDF documents with metadata preservation
• 📝 Office Documents: Extract and search text from DOCX, XLSX, PPTX files, plus legacy DOC, XLS, PPT via OnlyOffice conversion
• 📚 EPUB Support: Chapter-aware parsing and indexing of ebook files
• 🎵 Audio/Video: Media metadata extraction with optional Whisper API transcription
• 🖼️ Image Search: AI-powered image description and search for diagrams, screenshots, and charts
• 🗄️ Database Flexibility: Support for SQLite (local-first), PostgreSQL (scalable), and VectorChord (high-performance vector search)
• 🤖 MCP Integration: Seamless integration with Claude Code and other MCP-compatible tools
• 💻 CLI Tool: Standalone command-line interface with multiple output formats
• ⚡ Real-time Updates: File watching with automatic re-indexing
• 🎯 Smart Chunking: Intelligent text chunking for code, documentation, PDFs, ebooks, and audio transcripts
• 📊 Multiple Output Formats: Text, JSON, and YAML output with format-specific metadata
• 🔒 Secure: API keys and sensitive data stay on your machine

🚀 Installation & Usage

npm Package

# Install globally
npm install -g docsearch-mcp

# Or use with npx
npx docsearch-mcp --help

Docker Container

# Pull the image
docker pull ghcr.io/patrickkoss/docsearch-mcp:v0.0.2

# Run the MCP server with proper permissions
docker run --rm -i \
  -v /path/to/your/documents:/app/documents \
  -v /path/to/data:/app/data \
  --env-file .env \
  --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \
  ghcr.io/patrickkoss/docsearch-mcp:v0.0.2

MCP Server Usage

Add to your MCP client configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "docsearch": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["docsearch-mcp", "start"]
    }
  }
}

Local Development Setup (Optional)

For development or customization:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/patrickkoss/docsearch-mcp.git
cd docsearch-mcp

# Quick setup with Make
make setup

# Or manual setup
pnpm install
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your API keys and configuration

Basic Usage

CLI Tool

# Ingest documents
docsearch-mcp ingest files              # Index local files
docsearch-mcp ingest confluence         # Index Confluence pages
docsearch-mcp ingest all --watch        # Index all sources with file watching

# Search documents
docsearch-mcp search "your query"       # Basic search
docsearch-mcp search "typescript" -k 5 -o json  # JSON output, top 5 results
docsearch-mcp search "API docs" -s confluence   # Search only Confluence

# Get help
docsearch-mcp --help
docsearch-mcp search --help

MCP Server

# Run the MCP server directly
npx docsearch-mcp start

# Or if installed globally
docsearch-mcp start

Docker Usage

# Run with official Docker image (recommended)
docker run --rm -i \
  -v /path/to/your/documents:/app/documents \
  -v /path/to/data:/app/data \
  --env-file .env \
  --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \
  ghcr.io/patrickkoss/docsearch-mcp:v0.0.2

# Run CLI commands with Docker
docker run --rm -i \
  -v /path/to/your/documents:/app/documents \
  -v /path/to/data:/app/data \
  --env-file .env \
  --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \
  ghcr.io/patrickkoss/docsearch-mcp:v0.0.2 \
  npx docsearch-mcp search "your query"

# Alternative: Use Docker volumes (simpler but less control)
docker run --rm \
  -v ./documents:/app/documents \
  -v docsearch-data:/app/data \
  --env-file .env \
  ghcr.io/patrickkoss/docsearch-mcp:v0.0.2

# For development (requires cloning repo)
docker-compose up -d docsearch-mcp

⚙️ Configuration

Docker Configuration

When using the official Docker image, create a .env file:

echo "OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-key" > .env
echo "FILE_ROOTS=/app/documents" >> .env

Key considerations for Docker deployment:

• Document Volume: Mount your documents directory to /app/documents in the container
• Data Persistence: Mount your data directory to /app/data to persist the SQLite database
• User Permissions: Use --user $(id -u):$(id -g) to avoid permission issues with mounted volumes
• Environment Variables: Pass configuration via .env file or environment variables
• Official Image: Use ghcr.io/patrickkoss/docsearch-mcp:v0.0.2 for production deployments

Using the Official Docker Image

Recommended approach with proper permissions:

# Basic usage with user permissions (avoids file ownership issues)
docker run --rm -i \
  -v /absolute/path/to/documents:/app/documents \
  -v /absolute/path/to/data:/app/data \
  --env-file .env \
  --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \
  ghcr.io/patrickkoss/docsearch-mcp:v0.0.5

# For MCP server integration (background service)
docker run -d --name docsearch-mcp \
  -v /absolute/path/to/documents:/app/documents \
  -v /absolute/path/to/data:/app/data \
  --env-file .env \
  --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \
  ghcr.io/patrickkoss/docsearch-mcp:v0.0.5

Alternative approach with Docker volumes:

# Using Docker volumes (simpler but less direct file access)
docker run --rm \
  -v ./documents:/app/documents \
  -v docsearch-data:/app/data \
  --env-file .env \
  ghcr.io/patrickkoss/docsearch-mcp:v0.0.2

Docker Permissions Explained:

• --user $(id -u):$(id -g): Runs the container with your user ID and group ID, preventing file permission issues
• Dynamic User Creation: The container automatically creates a user matching your mounted volume permissions
• Automatic File Ownership: Container files are automatically owned by the correct user
• Cross-Platform Compatibility: Works consistently across different host systems

Local Development Configuration

Create a .env file from .env.example and configure:

Embeddings (Required)

EMBEDDINGS_PROVIDER=openai
OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_key
OPENAI_EMBED_MODEL=text-embedding-3-small

File Indexing

FILE_ROOTS=.
FILE_INCLUDE_GLOBS=**/*.{ts,js,py,md,txt,pdf,png,jpg,jpeg,gif,svg,webp}
FILE_EXCLUDE_GLOBS=**/node_modules/**,**/dist/**

Image Search (Optional)

ENABLE_IMAGE_TO_TEXT=true
IMAGE_TO_TEXT_PROVIDER=openai
IMAGE_TO_TEXT_MODEL=gpt-4o-mini

Database Configuration

# Use SQLite (default, local-first)
DB_TYPE=sqlite
DB_PATH=./data/index.db

# OR use PostgreSQL with pgvector (for scalability)
DB_TYPE=postgresql
POSTGRES_CONNECTION_STRING=postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/docsearch

# OR use PostgreSQL with VectorChord (high-performance vector search)
DB_TYPE=vectorchord
POSTGRES_CONNECTION_STRING=postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/docsearch
# Optional VectorChord tuning (shown with defaults)
VECTORCHORD_RESIDUAL_QUANTIZATION=true
VECTORCHORD_LISTS=100
VECTORCHORD_SPHERICAL_CENTROIDS=true
VECTORCHORD_BUILD_THREADS=4
VECTORCHORD_PROBES=10

VectorChord is a PostgreSQL extension that uses RaBitQ compression and hierarchical K-means for faster indexing and lower storage costs compared to pgvector's IVFFlat. It is fully pgvector-compatible and requires the vchord extension installed in your PostgreSQL instance (or use the tensorchord/vchord-suite Docker image).

Confluence (Optional)

CONFLUENCE_BASE_URL=https://yourcompany.atlassian.net
[email protected]
CONFLUENCE_API_TOKEN=your_confluence_token
CONFLUENCE_SPACES=SPACE1,SPACE2

# Advanced filtering (all optional)
# Filter by parent page IDs - only index pages under these parent pages
CONFLUENCE_PARENT_PAGES=12345678,87654321

# Title patterns to include (supports * wildcards)
CONFLUENCE_TITLE_INCLUDES=API*,User Guide,*Documentation*

# Title patterns to exclude (supports * wildcards)
CONFLUENCE_TITLE_EXCLUDES=Draft*,*Archive*,Test*

Confluence Filtering Options:

• Parent Page Filtering: Specify page IDs to only index pages within specific folder hierarchies
• Title Include Patterns: Define patterns to only index pages with matching titles
• Title Exclude Patterns: Define patterns to skip pages with matching titles
• Wildcard Support: Use * for flexible pattern matching (e.g., API* matches any title starting with "API")

Supported File Types

The system automatically detects and processes different file types:

• Code files: .ts, .js, .py, .go, .rs, .java, .cpp, .c, .rb, .php, .kt, .swift
• Documentation: .md, .mdx, .txt, .rst, .adoc, .yaml, .yml, .json
• PDFs: .pdf files are automatically parsed with text extraction and metadata preservation
• Office Documents: .docx, .xlsx, .pptx files with text extraction and format-specific metadata; .doc, .xls, .ppt via OnlyOffice conversion
• Ebooks: .epub files with chapter-aware parsing and metadata extraction
• Audio: .mp3, .wav, .flac, .ogg, .m4a, .aac files with metadata extraction and optional transcription
• Video: .mp4, .webm, .mkv, .avi, .mov files with metadata extraction and optional transcription
• Images: .png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .svg, .webp files with optional AI-powered description generation

PDF files are processed with:

• Text extraction using advanced parsing
• Metadata preservation (page count, document info)
• Smart text normalization and chunking
• Error handling for corrupted or encrypted files

Office documents are processed with:

• DOCX: Text and paragraph extraction via mammoth, preserving document structure
• XLSX: Cell text extraction from all sheets (up to 100 sheets, 10,000 rows each) with sheet-name prefixes
• PPTX: Slide text extraction with slide number prefixes
• Legacy formats (DOC, XLS, PPT): Converted to modern formats via OnlyOffice Conversion API, then processed through the parsers above

OnlyOffice Setup (for legacy DOC/XLS/PPT support)

Legacy Office formats require a running OnlyOffice Document Server:

docker run -d --name onlyoffice -p 8080:80 onlyoffice/documentserver

Then configure in .env:

ONLYOFFICE_URL=http://localhost:8080
# ONLYOFFICE_JWT_SECRET=your-secret    # if JWT auth is enabled on your server
# ONLYOFFICE_TIMEOUT=30000             # conversion timeout in ms (default: 30000)

When ONLYOFFICE_URL is not set, legacy Office files are silently skipped during ingestion.

Docling Setup (ML-powered document parsing with OCR)

For superior PDF parsing with OCR, layout analysis, and table extraction, you can use Docling as the document parser:

# Run docling-serve as a Docker container
docker run -d --name docling -p 5001:5001 quay.io/docling-project/docling-serve

# For CPU-only (smaller image):
docker run -d --name docling -p 5001:5001 quay.io/docling-project/docling-serve-cpu

Then configure in .env:

DOCUMENT_PARSER=docling
DOCLING_URL=http://localhost:5001

Docling supports: PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, HTML, images (PNG, JPG, TIFF), and EPUB. Audio, video, and code files always use the built-in parsers regardless of this setting.

When DOCUMENT_PARSER is not set or set to builtin, the existing lightweight parsers (pdf-parse, mammoth, etc.) are used.

EPUB files are processed with:

• Chapter-by-chapter HTML content extraction and text conversion
• Chapter-aware chunking (chunks never span chapter boundaries)
• Metadata extraction (title, author, language, chapter count)

Audio/video files are processed with:

• Metadata Extraction: Duration, bitrate, sample rate, codec, artist, album, title, genre via music-metadata
• Optional Transcription: Speech-to-text via OpenAI Whisper API (or compatible endpoint), enabled with ENABLE_AUDIO_TRANSCRIPTION=true
• Timestamp Preservation: Transcript chunks include time ranges for locating content in the original file
• File Size Limit: Files over 25MB are indexed with metadata only (Whisper API limit)
• Configuration: WHISPER_API_KEY (defaults to OPENAI_API_KEY), WHISPER_BASE_URL, WHISPER_MODEL (defaults to whisper-1)

Image files support optional AI-powered description generation:

• Vision Model Integration: Uses OpenAI vision models (or compatible APIs) to generate detailed descriptions
• Configurable Processing: Enable/disable image-to-text via ENABLE_IMAGE_TO_TEXT environment variable
• Fallback Support: Images are indexed by filename when vision processing is disabled
• Metadata Preservation: Stores image dimensions, file size, and description metadata
• Search Integration: Image descriptions are indexed as searchable text content

📖 Usage

CLI Tool

The CLI tool provides a convenient way to ingest and search documents directly from the command line:

CLI Commands & Flags

All CLI flags support configuration precedence: CLI args > Environment variables > Config file

Global Options (Available for all commands)

Flag	Environment Variable	Default	Description
-c, --config <file>	-	.env	Configuration file path
--embeddings-provider <provider>	EMBEDDINGS_PROVIDER	openai	Embeddings provider (openai or tei)
--openai-api-key <key>	OPENAI_API_KEY	-	OpenAI API key
--openai-base-url <url>	OPENAI_BASE_URL	-	OpenAI base URL (for custom endpoints)
--openai-embed-model <model>	OPENAI_EMBED_MODEL	text-embedding-3-small	OpenAI embedding model
--openai-embed-dim <dimension>	OPENAI_EMBED_DIM	1536	OpenAI embedding dimension
--tei-endpoint <url>	TEI_ENDPOINT	-	Text Embeddings Inference endpoint
--enable-image-to-text	ENABLE_IMAGE_TO_TEXT	false	Enable image-to-text processing
--image-to-text-provider <provider>	IMAGE_TO_TEXT_PROVIDER	openai	Image-to-text provider
--image-to-text-model <model>	IMAGE_TO_TEXT_MODEL	gpt-4o-mini	Image-to-text model
--confluence-base-url <url>	CONFLUENCE_BASE_URL	-	Confluence base URL
--confluence-email <email>	CONFLUENCE_EMAIL	-	Confluence email
--confluence-api-token <token>	CONFLUENCE_API_TOKEN	-	Confluence API token
--confluence-spaces <spaces>	CONFLUENCE_SPACES	-	Confluence spaces (comma-separated)
--file-roots <roots>	FILE_ROOTS	.	File roots to index (comma-separated)
--file-include-globs <globs>	FILE_INCLUDE_GLOBS	**/*.{go,ts,tsx,js,py,rs,java,md,mdx,txt,yaml,yml,json,pdf}	File include patterns
--file-exclude-globs <globs>	FILE_EXCLUDE_GLOBS	**/{.git,node_modules,dist,build,target}/**	File exclude patterns
--db-type <type>	DB_TYPE	sqlite	Database type (sqlite, postgresql, or vectorchord)
--db-path <path>	DB_PATH	./data/index.db	SQLite database path
--postgres-connection-string <string>	POSTGRES_CONNECTION_STRING	-	PostgreSQL connection string

Ingest Command

docsearch ingest [source] [options]

Arguments:

• source - Source to ingest: files, confluence, or all (default: all)

Options:

• -w, --watch - Watch for file changes and re-index

Examples:

# Basic ingestion with environment config
docsearch ingest files
docsearch ingest confluence
docsearch ingest all --watch

# Override config with CLI args
docsearch ingest files --file-roots "./src,./docs" --openai-api-key sk-xxx

# Use custom config file and database
docsearch --config prod.env --db-path /data/prod.db ingest all

# Ingest with custom file patterns
docsearch ingest files \
  --file-include-globs "**/*.{ts,md,py}" \
  --file-exclude-globs "**/node_modules/**,**/venv/**"

# Use PostgreSQL instead of SQLite
docsearch ingest all \
  --db-type postgresql \
  --postgres-connection-string "postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/docs"

Search Command

docsearch search <query> [options]

Arguments:

• query - Search query (required)

Options:

Flag	Default	Description
-k, --top-k <number>	10	Number of results to return (1-100)
-s, --source <source>	-	Filter by source: file or confluence
-r, --repo <repo>	-	Filter by repository name
-p, --path-prefix <prefix>	-	Filter by path prefix
-m, --mode <mode>	auto	Search mode: auto, vector, or keyword
-o, --output <format>	text	Output format: text, json, or yaml
--include-images	-	Include images in search results
--images-only	-	Search only images

Examples:

# Basic search
docsearch search "typescript interface"

# Limit results and format as JSON
docsearch search "API documentation" --top-k 5 --output json

# Search only Confluence with repository filter
docsearch search "deployment guide" --source confluence --repo backend-docs

# Semantic search only with path filtering
docsearch search "authentication" --mode vector --path-prefix src/auth/

# Override database and output as YAML
docsearch --db-path /custom/index.db search "error handling" --output yaml

# Complex search with multiple filters
docsearch search "React hooks" \
  --source file \
  --repo frontend \
  --path-prefix src/components/ \
  --mode auto \
  --top-k 20 \
  --output json

# Search including images (architecture diagrams, screenshots)
docsearch search "user authentication flow" --include-images

# Search only images for diagrams and charts
docsearch search "system architecture" --images-only --output json

CLI Configuration

The CLI supports multiple configuration sources in order of precedence:

1. Command-line arguments (highest priority)
2. Custom config file (--config path/to/.env)
3. .env.local file
4. .env file (lowest priority)

CLI Output Formats

• Text (default): Human-readable with icons and formatting
• JSON: Structured data with timestamps for integration
• YAML: Clean hierarchical format for configuration or documentation

MCP Integration

The MCP (Model Context Protocol) server provides seamless integration with Claude Code and other MCP-compatible tools.

MCP Configuration Options

All configuration options are passed via environment variables to the MCP server:

Required Configuration

Environment Variable	Default	Description
EMBEDDINGS_PROVIDER	openai	Embeddings provider (openai or tei)
OPENAI_API_KEY	-	OpenAI API key (required if using OpenAI)

Optional Configuration

Environment Variable	Default	Description
OPENAI_BASE_URL	-	OpenAI base URL (for custom endpoints)
OPENAI_EMBED_MODEL	text-embedding-3-small	OpenAI embedding model
OPENAI_EMBED_DIM	1536	OpenAI embedding dimension
TEI_ENDPOINT	-	Text Embeddings Inference endpoint
FILE_ROOTS	.	File roots to index (comma-separated)
FILE_INCLUDE_GLOBS	**/*.{go,ts,tsx,js,py,rs,java,md,mdx,txt,yaml,yml,json,pdf}	File include patterns
FILE_EXCLUDE_GLOBS	**/{.git,node_modules,dist,build,target}/**	File exclude patterns
CONFLUENCE_BASE_URL	-	Confluence base URL
CONFLUENCE_EMAIL	-	Confluence email
CONFLUENCE_API_TOKEN	-	Confluence API token
CONFLUENCE_SPACES	-	Confluence spaces (comma-separated)
DB_TYPE	sqlite	Database type (sqlite, postgresql, or vectorchord)
DB_PATH	./data/index.db	SQLite database path
POSTGRES_CONNECTION_STRING	-	PostgreSQL connection string

Quick Setup

1. Install the package:

   npm install -g docsearch-mcp
   

2. Create your configuration:

   # Create a .env file in your project directory
   echo "OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-key" > .env
   echo "FILE_ROOTS=." >> .env
   

3. Add to Claude Code MCP settings:

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "docsearch": {
         "command": "npx",
         "args": ["docsearch-mcp", "start"],
         "env": {
           "OPENAI_API_KEY": "your-openai-key",
           "EMBEDDINGS_PROVIDER": "openai",
           "FILE_ROOTS": ".,../other-project",
           "DB_PATH": "/path/to/your/index.db"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   

Docker Integration

Method 1: Direct Docker Run

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "docsearch": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "-v",
        "/path/to/your/documents:/app/documents",
        "-v",
        "docsearch-data:/app/data",
        "--env-file",
        ".env",
        "ghcr.io/patrickkoss/docsearch-mcp:v0.0.2"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Method 2: Using Docker Compose

Create a docker-compose.yml file:

version: '3.8'
services:
  docsearch-mcp:
    image: ghcr.io/patrickkoss/docsearch-mcp:v0.0.5
    volumes:
      - ./documents:/app/documents
      - docsearch-data:/app/data
    env_file:
      - .env
    stdin_open: true
volumes:
  docsearch-data:

Then configure MCP:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "docsearch": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["exec", "-i", "docsearch-mcp", "node", "dist/src/server/mcp.js"]
    }
  }
}

Advanced MCP Configuration Examples

Multi-Project Setup

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "docsearch-work": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["docsearch-mcp", "start"],
      "env": {
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-your-key",
        "FILE_ROOTS": "/work/projects/frontend,/work/projects/backend",
        "FILE_INCLUDE_GLOBS": "**/*.{ts,tsx,js,py,md,yaml}",
        "DB_PATH": "/work/data/work-index.db",
        "CONFLUENCE_BASE_URL": "https://company.atlassian.net",
        "CONFLUENCE_SPACES": "DEV,API,DOCS"
      }
    },
    "docsearch-personal": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["docsearch-mcp", "start"],
      "env": {
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-your-key",
        "FILE_ROOTS": "/home/user/projects,/home/user/documents",
        "DB_PATH": "/home/user/.docsearch/personal.db",
        "EMBEDDINGS_PROVIDER": "tei",
        "TEI_ENDPOINT": "http://localhost:8080/embeddings"
      }
    }
  }
}

PostgreSQL Setup

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "docsearch": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["docsearch-mcp", "start"],
      "env": {
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-your-key",
        "DB_TYPE": "postgresql",
        "POSTGRES_CONNECTION_STRING": "postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/docsearch",
        "FILE_ROOTS": ".,/other/projects"
      }
    }
  }
}

VectorChord Setup (High-Performance)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "docsearch": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["docsearch-mcp", "start"],
      "env": {
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-your-key",
        "DB_TYPE": "vectorchord",
        "POSTGRES_CONNECTION_STRING": "postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/docsearch",
        "FILE_ROOTS": ".,/other/projects",
        "VECTORCHORD_PROBES": "20"
      }
    }
  }
}

MCP Tools

The MCP server provides these tools for Claude Code:

doc-search

Search indexed documents with optional output formatting.

Parameters:

• query (string, required): Search query
• topK (number, optional): Number of results to return (default: 10, max: 100)
• source (string, optional): Filter by source (file or confluence)
• repo (string, optional): Filter by repository name
• pathPrefix (string, optional): Filter by path prefix
• mode (string, optional): Search mode (auto, vector, keyword, default: auto)
• outputFormat (string, optional): Output format (text, json, yaml, default: text)
• includeImages (boolean, optional): Include images in search results
• imagesOnly (boolean, optional): Search only images

Example:

Use the doc-search tool to find "TypeScript interfaces" with JSON output format, limited to 5 results from file sources only.

doc-ingest

Ingest documents from files or Confluence.

Parameters:

• source (string, required): Source to ingest (files, confluence, or all)
• watch (boolean, optional): Watch for file changes and re-index (default: false)

Example:

Use the doc-ingest tool to index all local files and Confluence pages.

doc-ingest-status

Get indexing statistics and status.

No parameters required.

Example:

Use the doc-ingest-status tool to check how many documents are currently indexed.

MCP Resources

The server also provides chunk resources via URIs:

• docchunk://{chunk_id}: Retrieve full content of a specific document chunk by ID

📚 Practical Examples

Complete Setup Workflows

Quick Setup Workflow

# 1. Install globally
npm install -g docsearch-mcp

# 2. Configure with your API key
echo "OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-key-here" > .env
echo "FILE_ROOTS=.,../other-project" >> .env

# 3. Index your documents
docsearch-mcp ingest all --watch &

# 4. Test search
docsearch-mcp search "how to deploy" --output json --top-k 3

# 5. Test MCP server
npx docsearch-mcp start

Production Docker Workflow

# 1. Setup production environment
echo "OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-your-key" > .env
echo "FILE_ROOTS=/app/documents" >> .env
# Add other configuration as needed

# 2. Create documents directory
mkdir -p documents
cp -r /path/to/your/docs/* documents/

# 3. Run the official Docker image
docker run -d \
  --name docsearch-mcp \
  -v $(pwd)/documents:/app/documents \
  -v docsearch-data:/app/data \
  --env-file .env \
  ghcr.io/patrickkoss/docsearch-mcp:v0.0.5

# 4. Index documents
docker exec docsearch-mcp npx docsearch-mcp ingest all

# 5. Test search
docker exec docsearch-mcp npx docsearch-mcp search "authentication" -o json

Common Use Cases

Code Documentation Search

Setup for a TypeScript/React Project:

# CLI configuration
docsearch-mcp ingest files \
  --file-roots "./src,./docs,./README.md" \
  --file-include-globs "**/*.{ts,tsx,md,yaml,json}" \
  --file-exclude-globs "**/node_modules/**,**/dist/**,**/.git/**"

# Search for React patterns
docsearch-mcp search "useEffect hook patterns" --source file --top-k 10
docsearch-mcp search "TypeScript interface" --mode vector --output json

MCP Configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "project-docs": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["docsearch-mcp", "start"],
      "env": {
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-your-key",
        "FILE_ROOTS": "./src,./docs,./README.md",
        "FILE_INCLUDE_GLOBS": "**/*.{ts,tsx,md,yaml,json}",
        "FILE_EXCLUDE_GLOBS": "**/node_modules/**,**/dist/**",
        "DB_PATH": "./project-search.db"
      }
    }
  }
}

Multi-Repository Setup

Team Documentation Hub:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "team-knowledge": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["docsearch-mcp", "start"],
      "env": {
        "OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-your-key",
        "FILE_ROOTS": "/team/frontend,/team/backend,/team/mobile,/team/docs",
        "CONFLUENCE_BASE_URL": "https://company.atlassian.net",
        "CONFLUENCE_SPACES": "TEAM,API,ARCH,DEPLOY",
        "CONFLUENCE_EMAIL": "[email protected]",
        "CONFLUENCE_API_TOKEN": "your-token",
        "DB_TYPE": "postgresql",
        "POSTGRES_CONNECTION_STRING": "postgresql://user:pass@localhost/team_docs"
      }
    }
  }
}

Personal Research Setup:

# Index academic papers and personal notes
docsearch-mcp ingest files \
  --file-roots "/home/user/papers,/home/user/notes,/home/user/projects" \
  --file-include-globs "**/*.{pdf,md,txt,py,ipynb}" \
  --embeddings-provider tei \
  --tei-endpoint "http://localhost:8080/embeddings"

# Search across all personal knowledge
docsearch-mcp search "machine learning optimization" --mode auto --top-k 15

# Search for diagrams and technical images
docsearch-mcp search "neural network architecture" --include-images --top-k 10
docsearch-mcp search "flowchart" --images-only --output json

PDF-Heavy Workflow

# Setup for research document collection
docsearch-mcp ingest files \
  --file-roots "/research/papers,/research/reports" \
  --file-include-globs "**/*.{pdf,docx,md,txt}" \
  --openai-embed-model "text-embedding-3-large" \
  --openai-embed-dim 3072

# Search through research papers
docsearch-mcp search "neural network architectures" \
  --mode vector \
  --top-k 20 \
  --output yaml

Advanced Search Examples

Complex Filtering

# Search only TypeScript files in components directory
docsearch-mcp search "button component" \
  --source file \
  --path-prefix src/components/ \
  --mode auto

# Find Confluence deployment docs from specific space
docsearch-mcp search "kubernetes deployment" \
  --source confluence \
  --repo DEVOPS \
  --mode keyword

# Semantic search across all sources with high precision
docsearch-mcp search "error handling patterns" \
  --mode vector \
  --top-k 50 \
  --output json | jq '.results[] | select(.score > 0.8)'

# Search for architecture diagrams and flowcharts
docsearch-mcp search "system design diagram" \
  --images-only \
  --mode vector \
  --output json

# Include images when searching for UI/UX content
docsearch-mcp search "user interface design" \
  --include-images \
  --path-prefix docs/ \
  --top-k 20

Output Format Examples

Text Output (Human-readable):

docsearch-mcp search "authentication middleware" --output text

JSON Output (For scripts):

# Get results for further processing
RESULTS=$(docsearch-mcp search "API rate limiting" --output json)
echo "$RESULTS" | jq '.results[].path' | head -5

YAML Output (For documentation):

# Generate documentation from search results
docsearch-mcp search "configuration options" --output yaml > config-docs.yml

Troubleshooting Examples

Debug Search Quality

# Compare search modes
docsearch-mcp search "async function" --mode keyword --top-k 5
docsearch-mcp search "async function" --mode vector --top-k 5
docsearch-mcp search "async function" --mode auto --top-k 5

# Check what's indexed
docsearch-mcp ingest-status

Performance Optimization

# Use smaller embedding model for speed
docsearch-mcp ingest all \
  --openai-embed-model "text-embedding-3-small" \
  --openai-embed-dim 1536

# Use local TEI for privacy/speed
docker run -d --name tei -p 8080:80 \
  ghcr.io/huggingface/text-embeddings-inference:cpu-1.2 \
  --model-id sentence-transformers/all-MiniLM-L6-v2

docsearch-mcp ingest all \
  --embeddings-provider tei \
  --tei-endpoint http://localhost:8080/embeddings

Integration Examples

CI/CD Pipeline Integration

# .github/workflows/docs-index.yml
name: Update Documentation Index
on:
  push:
    paths: ['docs/**', 'src/**/*.md', 'README.md']

jobs:
  update-index:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: 18
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install -g pnpm && pnpm install
      - name: Build docsearch
        run: pnpm build
      - name: Update search index
        run: |
          pnpm start:cli ingest files \
            --file-roots "." \
            --openai-api-key "${{ secrets.OPENAI_API_KEY }}" \
            --db-path "./search-index.db"
        env:
          OPENAI_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.OPENAI_API_KEY }}

Script Integration

#!/bin/bash
# update-docs.sh - Automated documentation indexing

# Check if API key is set
if [ -z "$OPENAI_API_KEY" ]; then
    echo "Please set OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable"
    exit 1
fi

# Index all project documentation
echo "Indexing project documentation..."
docsearch-mcp ingest files \
    --file-roots "./src,./docs,./examples" \
    --file-include-globs "**/*.{ts,js,md,yaml,json}" \
    --db-path "./project-index.db"

# Generate search summary
echo "Search index updated. Statistics:"
docsearch-mcp ingest-status --output json | jq '.documents'

Search Modes

• Auto (default): Hybrid keyword + semantic search
• Keyword: Full-text search only
• Vector: Semantic search only

Make Commands

Run make help to see all available commands:

# Development Commands
make install                    # Install dependencies
make dev                        # Start development server for MCP
make dev-ingest                 # Start development ingestion
make setup                      # Setup project for development

# Build Commands
make build                      # Build the project
make clean                      # Clean all generated files

# Quality Assurance
make lint                       # Run linter
make lint-fix                   # Run linter with auto-fix
make format                     # Format code with Prettier
make typecheck                  # Run TypeScript type checking
make test                       # Run tests
make test-run                   # Run tests once
make test-unit                  # Run unit tests only
make test-integration           # Run integration tests (requires Docker)
make check-all                  # Run all quality checks

# Production Commands
make start                      # Start production MCP server
make start-ingest               # Start production ingestion

# Data Management
make ingest-files               # Ingest local files
make ingest-confluence          # Ingest Confluence pages
make watch                      # Watch for file changes and re-index
make clean-data                 # Clean data directory

NPM Scripts (Alternative)

# CLI Tool
pnpm dev:cli                    # CLI development mode
pnpm start:cli                  # CLI production mode (after build)

# Ingestion (legacy scripts)
pnpm dev:ingest files           # Index local files
pnpm dev:ingest confluence      # Index Confluence pages
pnpm dev:ingest watch           # Watch for file changes

# MCP Server
pnpm dev:mcp                    # Development server
pnpm start:mcp                  # Production server

# Quality
pnpm lint                       # Run linter
pnpm test                       # Run tests
pnpm test:unit                  # Run unit tests only
pnpm test:integration           # Run integration tests (requires Docker)
pnpm build                      # Build project

🏗️ Architecture

The system follows a clean ports and adapters (hexagonal) architecture:

┌─────────────────┐    ┌─────────────────┐
│   Local Files   │    │   Confluence    │
└─────────┬───────┘    └─────────┬───────┘
          │                      │
          ▼                      ▼
    ┌─────────────────────────────────┐
    │        Ingestion Engine         │
    │   • Content extraction         │
    │   • Smart chunking             │
    │   • Embedding generation       │
    └─────────────┬───────────────────┘
                  │
                  ▼
    ┌─────────────────────────────────┐
    │      Database Layer             │
    │   SQLite (sqlite-vec) OR        │
    │   PostgreSQL (pgvector) OR      │
    │   PostgreSQL (VectorChord)      │
    │   • Document metadata          │
    │   • Text chunks                │
    │   • Vector embeddings          │
    │   • Full-text search index     │
    └─────────────┬───────────────────┘
                  │
        ┌─────────┴─────────┐
        ▼                   ▼
┌─────────────────┐  ┌─────────────────┐
│   CLI Tool      │  │   MCP Server    │
│ • Text output   │  │ • Tool calls    │
│ • JSON output   │  │ • Resources     │
│ • YAML output   │  │ • Claude integration │
│ • Config mgmt   │  │ • Ingestion tools     │
└─────────────────┘  └─────────────────┘

Key Components

• Domain Layer: Core interfaces and business logic
• Adapters: Configuration, database, and output formatting
• CLI: Command-line interface with multiple output formats
• MCP Server: Model Context Protocol integration with Claude Code

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Development Workflow

1. Fork the project

2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)

3. Set up the development environment:

   make setup
   

4. Make your changes and ensure quality:

   make check-all          # Run linter, typecheck, and tests
   make format             # Format your code
   

5. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')

6. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)

7. Open a Pull Request

🚀 Deployment (Postgres / VectorChord on a VM)

SQLite is the default for local development and requires no extra infrastructure. When you're ready to run Postgres or VectorChord on a production VM, use the Ansible playbook in deploy/ansible/.

It handles:

• Docker installation
• TLS (self-signed for labs, Let's Encrypt for production)
• UFW firewall with configurable CIDRs
• Credential management via ansible-vault
• Nightly pg_dump backups with optional S3 upload
• Molecule tests that prove the database is reachable after deploy

See deploy/ansible/README.md for the full operator guide.

📝 License

This project is licensed under the Apache License Version 2 - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Model Context Protocol for the integration standard
• sqlite-vec for vector search capabilities
• VectorChord for high-performance PostgreSQL vector search
• Claude Code for the AI-powered development experience