rlm-cli 1.2.4

Recursive Language Model (RLM) REPL for Claude Code - handles long-context tasks via chunking and recursive sub-LLM calls
Documentation

rlm-rs

CI Rust Version License

Recursive Language Model (RLM) CLI for Claude Code - handles long-context tasks via chunking and recursive sub-LLM calls.

Based on the RLM pattern from arXiv:2512.24601, enabling analysis of documents up to 100x larger than typical context windows.

Features

  • Hybrid Semantic Search: Combined semantic + BM25 search with RRF fusion
  • Auto-Embedding: Embeddings generated automatically during load (BGE-M3 model)
  • Pass-by-Reference: Retrieve chunks by ID for efficient subagent processing
  • Multiple Chunking Strategies: Fixed, semantic, code-aware, and parallel chunking
  • Code-Aware Chunking: Language-aware chunking at function/class boundaries
  • HNSW Vector Index: Optional scalable approximate nearest neighbor search
  • Incremental Embedding: Efficient partial re-embedding for updated content
  • Agentic Workflow Support: dispatch/aggregate commands for parallel subagent processing
  • SQLite State Persistence: Reliable buffer management across sessions
  • Regex Search: Fast content search with context windows
  • Memory-Mapped I/O: Efficient handling of large files
  • JSON/NDJSON Output: Machine-readable output for integration

How It Works

Installation

Via Cargo (Recommended)

cargo install rlm-rs

Via Homebrew

brew tap zircote/tap
brew install rlm-rs

From Source

git clone https://github.com/zircote/rlm-rs.git
cd rlm-rs
make install

Quick Start

# Initialize the database
rlm-rs init

# Load a large document (auto-generates embeddings)
rlm-rs load document.md --name docs --chunker semantic

# Search with hybrid semantic + BM25
rlm-rs search "your query" --buffer docs --top-k 10

# Retrieve chunk by ID (pass-by-reference)
rlm-rs chunk get 42

# Check status
rlm-rs status

# Regex search content
rlm-rs grep docs "pattern" --max-matches 20

# View content slice
rlm-rs peek docs --start 0 --end 3000

Commands

Command Description
init Initialize the RLM database
status Show current state (buffers, chunks, DB info)
load Load a file into a buffer with chunking (auto-embeds)
search Hybrid semantic + BM25 search across chunks
update-buffer Update buffer content with re-chunking
dispatch Split chunks into batches for parallel subagent processing
aggregate Combine findings from analyst subagents
chunk get Retrieve chunk by ID (pass-by-reference)
chunk list List chunks for a buffer
chunk embed Generate embeddings (or re-embed with --force)
chunk status Show embedding status
list List all buffers
show Show buffer details
delete Delete a buffer
peek View a slice of buffer content
grep Search buffer content with regex
write-chunks Write chunks to individual files
add-buffer Add text to a new buffer
export-buffers Export all buffers to JSON
var Get/set context variables
global Get/set global variables
reset Delete all RLM state

Chunking Strategies

Strategy Best For Description
semantic Markdown, prose Splits at natural boundaries (headings, paragraphs)
code Source code Language-aware chunking at function/class boundaries
fixed Logs, plain text Splits at exact byte boundaries
parallel Large files (>10MB) Multi-threaded fixed chunking 
# Semantic chunking (default)
rlm-rs load doc.md --chunker semantic

# Code-aware chunking for source files
rlm-rs load src/main.rs --chunker code

# Fixed chunking with overlap
rlm-rs load logs.txt --chunker fixed --chunk-size 150000 --overlap 1000

# Parallel chunking for speed
rlm-rs load huge.txt --chunker parallel --chunk-size 100000

Supported Languages (Code Chunker)

Rust, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, Java, C/C++, Ruby, PHP

Claude Code Integration

rlm-rs is designed to work with the rlm-rs Claude Code plugin, implementing the RLM architecture:

RLM Concept Implementation
Root LLM Main Claude Code conversation (Opus/Sonnet)
Sub-LLM rlm-subcall agent (Haiku)
External Environment rlm-rs CLI + SQLite

Development

Prerequisites

  • Rust 1.88+ (2024 edition)
  • cargo-deny for supply chain security

Build

# Using Makefile
make build          # Debug build
make release        # Release build
make test           # Run tests
make check          # Format + lint + test
make ci             # Full CI check
make install        # Install to ~/.cargo/bin

# Or using Cargo directly
cargo build --release
cargo test
cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features

Project Structure

src/
├── lib.rs           # Library entry point
├── main.rs          # CLI entry point
├── error.rs         # Error types
├── core/            # Core types (Buffer, Chunk, Variable)
├── chunking/        # Chunking strategies
├── storage/         # SQLite persistence
├── io/              # File I/O with mmap
└── cli/             # Command implementations

tests/
└── integration_test.rs

MSRV Policy

The Minimum Supported Rust Version (MSRV) is 1.88.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Documentation

Acknowledgments