Coding agents can edit code once they have the right context. In a workspace with dozens of services, the expensive first question is often: which repositories should own this task?

WhichRepo indexes the workspace locally, ranks the likely repositories, follows cross-service dependencies, and shows the evidence behind every result. It works without an account, API key, network connection, Go, Node.js, Python, Java, or a database server.

"Add retry limits to checkout webhooks"
                  │
                  ▼
         primary: payments-api
         related: webhook-worker
        evidence: internal/webhooks/retry.go

Install

macOS and Linux

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/smallshellctw/whichrepo/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

Windows PowerShell

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/smallshellctw/whichrepo/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex

The installers download the matching release asset and verify its SHA-256 checksum. No language runtime is installed or required. You can also download a binary directly from GitHub Releases or run the GHCR image.

Developers building from source can use make build; end users do not need Go. See the complete installation guide.

Install with an AI agent

Open AI_INSTALL.md, replace the workspace path in its prompt, and paste it into Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, OpenCode, or Gemini CLI. The agent uses the checksum-verifying installer, initializes the workspace, configures detected MCP clients, and verifies tool calls without editing source code.

30-second start

Point WhichRepo at the directory that contains your services:

whichrepo init ~/code/commerce-platform
cd ~/code/commerce-platform
whichrepo "Add retry limits to checkout webhooks"

Open the local signal-map dashboard:

whichrepo dashboard --open

Refresh after repositories or manifests change:

whichrepo index

The SQLite index lives in the OS cache directory and is managed automatically. There is no database to install or keep running.

Why WhichRepo?

• Microservice-aware — identifies the primary repository and related services instead of returning one fuzzy match.
• Language-agnostic — understands package manifests, workspace references, imports, and syntax across mixed-language systems.
• Evidence-backed — returns matching paths, symbols, aliases, package identities, and dependency signals.
• Local by default — SQLite + BM25, no telemetry, no source upload, and no required API key.
• Agent-native — stdio MCP and a bundled skill for Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, OpenCode, and Gemini CLI.
• One binary — CLI, MCP server, language analyzers, SQLite, and the React dashboard ship together.
• Optional AI decision layer — Jev via Vercel, TypeSafe, or OpenRouter with classified errors and local fallback.

Language support

Ecosystem	Project discovery	Dependency extraction	Syntax-aware evidence
Go	go.mod, go.work	modules + imports	Tree-sitter
JavaScript / TypeScript	package.json, npm/pnpm/yarn workspaces	packages + imports	Tree-sitter
Python	pyproject.toml, requirements.txt	distributions + imports	Tree-sitter
Java / Kotlin	Maven and Gradle	modules + dependencies + imports	Tree-sitter for Java
Rust	Cargo.toml, Cargo workspaces	crates + use	Tree-sitter
.NET	.sln, .csproj, .fsproj, .vbproj	project/package references	Tree-sitter for C#
PHP	composer.json	Composer packages + namespaces	Tree-sitter
Ruby	Gemfile, gemspec	gems + require	Tree-sitter

Tree-sitter runs through a pure-Go runtime, so release binaries remain static and cross-platform with CGO_ENABLED=0. Indexed source extensions without syntax support still participate in local text retrieval. See language support and the analyzer extension contract.

Coding-agent integration

MCP tools: route_task, refresh_index, list_projects, and workspace_status.

Automatically configure every detected supported client:

whichrepo setup auto --workspace /path/to/workspace

Preview changes first with --dry-run. Cursor configuration is backed up before modification.

Codex:

codex mcp add whichrepo -- whichrepo mcp --workspace /path/to/workspace

Claude Code:

claude mcp add whichrepo --scope user -- whichrepo mcp --workspace /path/to/workspace

Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "whichrepo": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/whichrepo",
      "args": ["mcp", "--workspace", "/path/to/workspace"]
    }
  }
}

Restart the client after adding the server. Client-specific examples are in docs/integrations.

Dashboard

The embedded Dashboard binds only to 127.0.0.1 and includes:

• Router — task-to-repository signal map and evidence.
• Repositories — languages, package identities, dependencies, and index coverage.
• Evaluation — reproducible Top-1/Top-3 routing benchmarks.
• Settings & Privacy — provider state and the exact remote payload boundary.

CLI, Dashboard, and MCP use the same routing engine and result schema.

Configuration

Commit shared metadata as .whichrepo.yaml:

version: 1
workspace:
  name: commerce-platform
  exclude: [archive-*, tmp-*]
projects:
  payments-api:
    path: services/payments-api
    description: Checkout, payments, and webhook endpoints
    aliases: [checkout, payments, webhooks]

Keep personal or private aliases in .whichrepo.local.yaml, which should remain untracked.

whichrepo init writes all optional settings with defaults. Inspect the merged result and its sources with:

whichrepo config show
whichrepo config paths
whichrepo config defaults
whichrepo config validate

Configuration precedence is defaults → .whichrepo.yaml → .whichrepo.local.yaml → environment variables → CLI flags. See the complete configuration reference and its editor-friendly JSON Schema.

Environment variable	Purpose
WHICHREPO_WORKSPACE	Workspace root
WHICHREPO_DB	SQLite index path
WHICHREPO_CONFIG	Explicit configuration path
WHICHREPO_PROVIDER	local, jev-vercel, jev-typesafe, or jev-openrouter
WHICHREPO_PROVIDER_URL	Override the provider endpoint
WHICHREPO_MODEL	Override the provider model
WHICHREPO_PROVIDER_TIMEOUT	Override the provider HTTP timeout

Optional Jev routing

Local routing is the default. Jev is an optional re-ranker:

export WHICHREPO_PROVIDER=jev-vercel
export AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY="..."
whichrepo "Add retry limits to checkout webhooks"

Authentication, billing, rate-limit, timeout, and availability failures are reported separately and fall back to local results. Remote providers receive task text, candidate summaries, and redacted evidence—not complete source files.

Reproducible evaluation

The included fixture contains Go, TypeScript, Python, Java, Rust, C#, PHP, and Ruby services:

whichrepo index --workspace ./examples/polyrepo \
  --config ./examples/polyrepo/.whichrepo.yaml \
  --db /tmp/whichrepo-demo.db

whichrepo eval --workspace ./examples/polyrepo \
  --config ./examples/polyrepo/.whichrepo.yaml \
  --db /tmp/whichrepo-demo.db \
  --dataset benchmarks/starter.jsonl

Current 100-task local baseline: 79% Top-1, 95% Top-3. The benchmark and every fixture are public and run without a model API. See the methodology and limits.

Privacy

• Source files and the SQLite index stay on the local machine.
• Known credentials, environment files, private keys, generated code, and dependency directories are excluded.
• There is no default telemetry.
• Routing evidence is not authorization to edit, commit, deploy, or access production systems.

See SECURITY.md for the threat model.

Development

Only contributors need Go and Node.js:

make test
make web
make build

See CONTRIBUTING.md, good first contributions, troubleshooting, CHANGELOG.md, and ROADMAP.md.

License

MIT