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Cortex – Local context retrieval for AI coding agents

Cortex, a new open-source tool by Daniel Blomma, provides local context retrieval for AI coding agents by indexing code, symbols, and relationships into a searchable map. It requires Node.js 20.9+ and Git, and can be installed via npm. The tool aims to improve coding agent accuracy by enabling them to search and understand repository context without reading the entire codebase.

read1 min views2 publishedAug 25, 2026
Cortex – Local context retrieval for AI coding agents
Image: Michielbdejong (auto-discovered)

Give AI coding agents the right context from your repository.

Cortex builds a local map of your code, symbols, relationships, and project rules. Coding agents query that map through the CLI instead of guessing or reading the whole repository.

Your code stays on your machine. MCP is not required.

Requires Node.js 20.9+ and Git.

npm install --global @danielblomma/cortex-mcp
cd your-project
cortex init --bootstrap

This indexes the repository, adds Cortex instructions to AGENTS.md

, installs Git hooks, and starts the background watcher.

Check the setup:

cortex doctor
cortex search "where is authentication handled?" --json

cortex related <entity-id> --json

cortex impact "authentication" --json

cortex rules --json

cortex pattern-evidence src/auth.ts --json

Agents can run these commands directly. cortex init

adds instructions that tell them to search before answering and check impact before refactoring.

Git hooks and the watcher normally update Cortex automatically.

cortex status
cortex watch status
cortex update

Run cortex update

manually after a large change or when results look stale.

Make lexical and graph search available first while semantic indexing continues in the background:

cortex bootstrap --background --profile interactive
cortex indexing status --json

This mode supports macOS, Linux, and WSL. Native Windows should use normal foreground bootstrap.

npm install --global @danielblomma/cortex-mcp@latest
cortex init --force
cortex bootstrap
cortex update

Project configuration and rules are preserved. See CHANGELOG.md for version-specific notes.

The normal Cortex workflow uses the CLI. If a client explicitly requires MCP, run cortex connect

.

MIT

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