Semble

Semble — Code Search via CLI

Fast semantic code search. Returns the exact chunks you need, ~98% fewer tokens than grep+read.

When to use

• Exploring an unfamiliar codebase / answering "where is X" / "how does Y"
• Locating the implementation of a feature, concept, or flow
• Finding code semantically similar to a known location

Prefer grep only for exhaustive literal matches or confirming an exact string. Use Read after semble only when a returned chunk doesn't give enough context.

Core commands

# Search by intent or symbol (path defaults to current dir; git URLs ok)
semble search "authentication flow" ./my-project
semble search "save_pretrained" ./my-project
semble search "save model to disk" ./my-project --top-k 10

# Search docs / config / everything (default is code only)
semble search "deployment guide" ./my-project --content docs
semble search "database host port" ./my-project --content config
semble search "authentication" ./my-project --content all

# Find code similar to a known location (file path + line number)
semble find-related src/auth.py 42 ./my-project

Indexes are built and cached on first run, and invalidated automatically when files change.

If semble is not on $PATH, semble isn't installed in this environment. Tell the user and suggest installing it with:

uv tool install semble

(Requires uv.) Until it's installed, fall back to grep + Read.

Workflow

1. Start with semble search to find relevant chunks.
2. Use --content docs / config / all when the answer isn't in code.
3. Read full files only when the returned chunk lacks enough context.
4. Use semble find-related <file> <line> <path> on a promising result to discover related implementations.
5. Fall back to grep only for exhaustive literal matches or exact-string confirmation.