Lore — AI Codebase Intelligence

Your codebase has a story. Now you can read it.

Ask plain English questions about any codebase and get accurate, sourced answers — without sending a single line of code to the cloud. Lore runs entirely on your own hardware using local AI models via Ollama.

Privacy-first. Air-gap compatible. No API keys. No telemetry. Ever.

Why Not Just Use ChatGPT?

Features

Ask Questions About Your Codebase

Type any question in the Lore sidebar and get a streaming, word-by-word answer sourced from your actual code — with file references.

• "How does authentication work?"
• "Where is the payment processing logic?"
• "What calls this function?"

In-Editor Analysis

• Smell score — risk score for the file you're currently editing
• Change impact — what breaks if you change the current file
• Architecture diagrams — interactive module, dependency, and data flow diagrams inside VS Code

Full Analysis Suite (via CLI)

• Dead code detection — functions defined but never called
• Dependency audit — CVE checks on every package, CycloneDX SBOM generation
• Change impact analysis — downstream blast radius before you touch a line
• Deep file explanation — call graph, smell score, callers, suggestions
• Onboarding guide — tailored doc for new engineers joining a codebase
• Audience briefs — different summaries for engineers, execs, auditors, acquirers
• Architecture diagrams — module overview, call flow, data flow (Mermaid/SVG/PNG)
• PR analysis — impact, smells, and dependency changes for any pull request
• Git changelog — plain English changelog between any two refs
• Decision log — log and query architectural decisions (ADRs)
• Health tracking — track smells, CVEs, and quality scores over time

Keyboard Shortcuts

Right-Click Menu

Select any code and right-click to ask Lore about it directly from the editor context menu.

Setup

Step 1 — Install Ollama

Download from ollama.com. Lore will automatically detect your hardware and pull the right model on first run.

Step 2 — Install the Lore CLI

pip install lore-cli

Step 3 — Try the demo (optional but recommended)

lore demo

Runs a guided walkthrough against a bundled demo codebase — no setup required. See exactly what Lore can do in about 3 minutes.

Step 4 — Index your codebase

lore init --path /path/to/your/codebase

Auto-detects your stack, indexes your codebase, and installs a git hook to keep the index current on every commit.

First time? Run lore doctor to check all dependencies are in place.

Step 5 — Open VS Code

1. Install this extension
2. Open your codebase as a workspace folder
3. Click the Lore icon in the activity bar
4. Start asking questions

Requirements

• Ollama — runs the local AI model (auto-detected and configured on first run)
• Python 3.12+ with pip install lore-cli
• Or: Docker with docker compose up lore-server -d

Configuration

Privacy

Lore runs entirely on your own hardware. No code ever leaves your network.

• No cloud API calls — the AI model runs via Ollama locally
• No telemetry or usage data — Lore does not phone home
• Air-gap compatible — works with zero internet connectivity
• On-premise vector database — embeddings stored locally in ChromaDB
• CVE checks use a local database — no outbound security API calls

Suitable for defense contractors, healthcare, government, and any organization with strict data compliance requirements.

Full CLI Reference

lore ask "how does auth work?"         # Plain English Q&A
lore find "stock reorder logic"        # Semantic code search
lore smell --path .                    # Code quality scoring
lore dead --path .                     # Dead code detection
lore deps --format html                # Dependency audit + CVE report
lore diagram --type module_overview    # Architecture diagram
lore impact --file core/auth.py        # Change impact analysis
lore explain --file core/auth.py       # Deep file explanation
lore onboard --role backend            # Onboarding guide
lore brief --for exec                  # Audience-tailored summary
lore map --path .                      # Full dependency graph
lore changelog --last 10               # Plain English git changelog
lore pr --platform github --repo o/r --pr 42  # PR analysis
lore decide add --title "..." --reason "..."  # Log an ADR
lore remember --save                   # Save health snapshot
lore demo                              # Guided feature walkthrough

License

Business Source License 1.1 — free for individual, non-commercial use. Converts to Apache 2.0 on April 2, 2030. Team and enterprise licensing: get-lore.com

Built by SmithBuilds LLC