codescout

MCP server giving AI coding agents IDE-grade code intelligence — symbol navigation, semantic search, persistent memory — optimized for token efficiency.

Works with Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and any MCP-capable agent.

What it does

Symbol navigation — find_symbol, list_symbols, find_references, goto_definition, replace_symbol, backed by LSP across 9 languages
Semantic search — find code by concept using embeddings, not grep
Token efficiency — compact by default, details on demand, never dumps full files

Why not just read files?

Without codescout	With codescout
Agent reads full files to find one function	Navigates by symbol name — zero file reads
`grep` returns noise (comments, strings, docs)	`find_references` returns exact call sites
Context burns on navigation overhead	Token-efficient by design — compact by default
State lost between sessions	Persistent memory across sessions
Re-reads same modules from different entry points	Symbol index built once, queried instantly

Quick start

cargo install codescout

Then register as an MCP server. Example config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "codescout": {
      "command": "codescout",
      "args": ["start"]
    }
  }
}

Config file locations:

Claude Code: ~/.claude/settings.json
Cursor: .cursor/mcp.json (uses "mcpServers" key)
VS Code/Copilot: ~/.config/Code/User/mcp.json (uses "servers" key instead of "mcpServers")

→ Full installation guide

Agent integrations

Agent	Guide
Claude Code	docs/agents/claude-code.md
GitHub Copilot	docs/agents/copilot.md
Cursor	docs/agents/cursor.md

Multi-agent infrastructure

codescout's design is informed by research on compound error in multi-agent systems — research and empirical evidence confirm failure rates of 41–87% in production pipelines. This finding drove the choice of single-session skill-based workflows over agent orchestration chains. Read the analysis →

Tools (29)

Symbol navigation (9) · File operations (6) · Semantic search (3) · Memory (1) · Library navigation (1) · Workflow (2) · Config (2) · GitHub (5)

Supported languages: Rust, Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, Go, Java, Kotlin, C/C++, C#, Ruby.

→ Tool reference

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for how to get started. PRs from Claude Code are welcome!

License

MIT

codescout 0.3.0