basemind 0.22.8

---
title: basemind
description: >-
  The context and communication layer for coding agents. A pure-Rust code map, document RAG,
  git intelligence, shared memory, and agent-to-agent comms — served over MCP.
template: splash
hero:
  title: The context and communication layer for coding agents
  tagline: >-
    Turn any repo into an always-current map of its code, documents, history, and memory — so agents
    answer from structure and search instead of burning their context window on grep and file reads.
  image:
    file: ../../assets/mark.svg
  actions:
    - text: Scan a repo and ask your first questions
      link: /start/quickstart/
      icon: right-arrow
      variant: primary
    - text: View on GitHub
      link: https://github.com/Goldziher/basemind
      icon: external
      variant: minimal
---

import { Card, CardGrid, LinkCard, Tabs, TabItem, Code } from '@astrojs/starlight/components';

A code map across **300+ languages**, and documents in **90+ formats** — one server does both jobs.

It also gives you semantic + full-text search, git history & blame, shared memory, web crawl, and
agent-to-agent comms. Every answer comes back as **paths, line numbers, and signatures, not whole
files**, so a question about your code costs a small fraction of the tokens it takes to read the
source.

## The operating rule: basemind first, shell/grep/git fallback

<CardGrid>
    <Card title="Answer from structure" icon="magnifier">
        `outline` a file before you open it, `search_symbols` instead of grep, `find_references`
        instead of grepping call sites. Pointers, not file bodies.
    </Card>
    <Card title="Ask history directly" icon="git-branch">
        `recent_changes`, `blame_symbol`, `commits_touching`, `diff_outline` — git intelligence at
        symbol resolution, in tens of microseconds.
    </Card>
    <Card title="Search everything" icon="open-book">
        Semantic + full-text search over PDFs, Office, HTML, email, and images (OCR) — plus scraped
        web pages — with reranking and per-document summaries.
    </Card>
    <Card title="Coordinate agents" icon="comment">
        A shared channel for a team of agents on the same repo: rooms, inboxes, direct messages, and
        orchestration of many named subagents.
    </Card>
</CardGrid>

## Install in one step

The plugin sets up the server, helper skills, comms, and slash commands — and downloads the
`basemind` program for you on first use. Or install the program directly with a package manager.

<Tabs syncKey="installer">
    <TabItem label="Claude Code">
        <Code
            code={`/plugin marketplace add Goldziher/basemind\n/plugin install basemind@basemind`}
            lang="text"
        />
    </TabItem>
    <TabItem label="Codex">
        <Code
            code={`codex plugin marketplace add Goldziher/basemind\ncodex plugin add basemind@basemind`}
            lang="bash"
        />
    </TabItem>
    <TabItem label="Cursor">
        <Code code={`/add-plugin basemind`} lang="text" />
    </TabItem>
    <TabItem label="Gemini CLI">
        <Code code={`gemini extensions install https://github.com/Goldziher/basemind`} lang="bash" />
    </TabItem>
    <TabItem label="Copilot CLI">
        <Code
            code={`copilot plugin marketplace add Goldziher/basemind\ncopilot plugin install basemind@basemind`}
            lang="bash"
        />
    </TabItem>
    <TabItem label="Homebrew">
        <Code code={`brew install Goldziher/tap/basemind`} lang="bash" />
    </TabItem>
    <TabItem label="npm">
        <Code code={`npm install -g basemind`} lang="bash" />
    </TabItem>
    <TabItem label="pip">
        <Code code={`pip install basemind`} lang="bash" />
    </TabItem>
</Tabs>

More hosts — Windsurf, Factory Droid, OpenCode, Kimi, Hermes, Cline, Continue, and others — plus the plain
[MCP server](/start/installation/#2-as-an-mcp-server) and [standalone CLI](/reference/cli/) paths are
in the full [installation guide](/start/installation/).

## Explore

<CardGrid>
    <LinkCard title="Introduction" href="/start/introduction/" description="What basemind is and why it exists." />
    <LinkCard title="Quickstart" href="/start/quickstart/" description="Scan a repo and ask your first questions." />
    <LinkCard title="How it works" href="/concepts/how-it-works/" description="One scan, then instant answers held in memory." />
    <LinkCard title="MCP tools" href="/reference/mcp-tools/" description="Every tool, what it returns, and when to reach for it." />
    <LinkCard title="CLI reference" href="/reference/cli/" description="The scriptable surface, at 1:1 parity with the MCP tools." />
    <LinkCard title="Performance" href="/reference/performance/" description="Scan speed and microsecond git-history queries." />
</CardGrid>