SocratiCode

The codebase context engine for AI assistants.
Same understanding of your code, every assistant, every tool switch.

Full documentation, configuration reference, and benchmarks on GitHub →

The big number. On a 2.45M-line codebase, SocratiCode answers the same architectural question with 61% less context burned, 84% fewer tool calls, and 37x faster than a grep-based AI agent. Same model, dramatically better answers. Full benchmark on GitHub.

This extension auto-registers the SocratiCode MCP server in any MCP-compatible chat or agent in your editor, with no mcp.json editing required.

What it does

• Hybrid search (semantic + BM25, fused via Reciprocal Rank Fusion). Tested on codebases over 40 million lines.
• File-level dependency graphs across 18+ languages with circular- dependency detection.
• Symbol-level call graph and impact analysis: answers "what breaks if I change function X?" before the AI changes it.
• Call-flow tracing from any entry point, so onboarding to a legacy module takes minutes instead of days.
• Cross-repo search across linked workspaces. The bug is in the API gateway and the AI is looking at the front-end? It sees the full system in one query.
• Interactive graph viewer with blast-radius overlay, search, click-to-open-file, and PNG export. Opens directly inside the editor as a webview panel.
• Context artefacts: index database schemas, API specs and architecture docs alongside code. The AI sees the schema your team designed, not what it guessed from filenames.
• Branch-aware indexing: every branch gets its own index, so PR reviews see the code actually being reviewed.

Built for real-world big teams and projects

• Refactor safety on a monorepo. Blast-radius analysis surfaces every file and symbol that calls into a target before any change goes in. Particularly useful in regulated and legacy contexts.
• Multi-repo orgs. Cross-project search treats your microservices as one searchable surface, not N disconnected repos.
• Tool-independent. Move from Cursor to Copilot to Cline to whatever ships next. The index, dependency graphs and context artefacts survive every tool switch. No vendor lock-in.
• Air-gapped friendly. The default deployment runs entirely on your machine via Docker (Qdrant + Ollama). Code never leaves the network unless you explicitly point at an external service via the socraticode.env setting.
• Open source at the core (AGPL-3.0). Battle-tested across thousands of repositories. Every component that touches your code is inspectable.
• 18+ languages out of the box. TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Go, Rust, Java, Kotlin, Scala, C#, C, C++, Ruby, PHP, Swift, Bash, Dart, Lua, Svelte, Vue, plus 35+ plain-text formats.

Quick start

1. Install the extension. Search SocratiCode in your editor's Extensions panel. The MCP server registers automatically.
2. Index the workspace. Open the SocratiCode sidebar (Activity Bar icon) and click Index this workspace. The first index downloads the embedding model; subsequent updates are incremental.
3. Ask anything. Use your AI assistant: "where is auth handled?", "what breaks if I change processOrder?", "trace the nightly cron job", "what tables does this API touch?".
4. Open the interactive graph. Command Palette → SocratiCode: Open interactive graph.

A walkthrough is shown on first install; re-open it any time via SocratiCode: Open getting-started walkthrough.

Requirements

• An editor on the VS Code 1.99+ API (any of the editors listed above).
• Node.js 18+ on PATH (the engine launches via npx).
• Docker Desktop running (for the default local engine), OR a reachable external Qdrant if you'd rather not use Docker (configured via socraticode.env, see Settings).

Commands

All commands appear under SocratiCode: in the Command Palette.

• SocratiCode: Index current workspace: kick off a one-time index.
• SocratiCode: Open interactive graph: render the dependency / call graph as an in-editor webview.
• SocratiCode: Refresh indexed projects: reload the sidebar tree.
• SocratiCode: Open getting-started walkthrough: replay the onboarding.
• SocratiCode: Show output / logs: open the SocratiCode output channel.

Settings

Compatibility

Editors. This extension installs in any editor that supports the VS Code 1.99+ extension API:

• Microsoft VS Code (Stable / Insiders)
• Cursor
• VSCodium
• Gitpod
• code-server
• Eclipse Theia-based editors
• Google Antigravity
• Particle Workbench

AI surfaces. The MCP server registered by this extension is discovered automatically by any MCP-compatible chat or agent installed in your editor:

• GitHub Copilot agent mode
• Cursor's Agent / Composer
• The Gemini chat surface in Antigravity
• Cline
• Continue
• Roo Code
• Any other MCP-aware client, including ones not listed here

If your editor or AI surface speaks MCP, SocratiCode shows up.

SocratiCode Cloud (private beta)

The same engine, hosted by us. Adds managed infrastructure (no Docker or Qdrant or Ollama on your machine), webhook-driven auto-indexing on every push and every branch, shared team indexes across your whole organisation, SSO/SAML, audit logs, and SOC 2 / ISO 27001-aligned controls. Currently in private beta.

Request access at socraticode.cloud →

Privacy and data

• The engine indexes locally by default. Code never leaves your machine unless you explicitly configure an external service via socraticode.env.
• No telemetry from the extension.
• The engine is open source under AGPL-3.0; every component that touches your code is inspectable.

Learn more

The extension is the install surface. The full picture lives in the project repo:

• Full README, configuration reference, and benchmark methodology
• Issues and feature requests
• Discord community

Troubleshooting

• "Cannot find Docker": install Docker Desktop from https://docker.com/products/docker-desktop, or set socraticode.env with QDRANT_MODE=external plus QDRANT_URL to use an existing Qdrant instance.
• MCP tools don't appear in your assistant: restart the chat after install, or run MCP: List Servers from the command palette and confirm SocratiCode is listed and started.
• First index is slow: the engine downloads the embedding model the first time. Subsequent runs are fast.
• Anything else: SocratiCode: Show output / logs from the command palette has the engine output.

License

AGPL-3.0-only. The engine and this extension are open source.