AgentsBestFriend (abf)

Give your AI coding agents superpowers — a local MCP server for fast, token-efficient code navigation, search & analysis.

Works with VS Code Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code/Desktop, Codex, Cline, Zed, Gemini CLI, Goose, OpenCode, and any other MCP-compatible agent.

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Why?

AI coding agents waste tokens re-reading files and searching blindly. ABF gives them purpose-built tools that return exactly what they need — in compact, structured responses that preserve context.

Tools

Tool	What it does
abf_search	Code search — exact (ripgrep), keyword-ranked, or semantic (embedding-based)
abf_search_multi	Run multiple search queries (exact/keyword/semantic) in one call with weighted score merging
abf_symbols	Functions, classes, exports in a file (AST-based for TS/JS, regex for Python)
abf_chunk	Smart file chunk by symbol name, chunk index, or file overview
abf_project_overview	Tech stack, folder structure, key dependencies at a glance
abf_dependencies	Import graph — who imports what
abf_impact	Find all usages of a symbol across the project
abf_impact_typed	AST-aware (ts-morph) impact analysis with classified references (definition/call/import/type_ref/jsx) and confidence levels
abf_blast_radius	BFS over reverse-import graph for a file with risk scoring (low/medium/high)
abf_related_tests	Heuristically rank test files most likely to cover a file or symbol
abf_preview_changes	Read-only preview: diff + symbol/import deltas + risk flags + external usage probe (no writes)
abf_refactor_plan	Read-only ordered edit plan for rename/move/extract/split with collision detection
abf_apply_edit	Write tool — atomic file write with sha256 hash check (disabled unless ABF_ENABLE_WRITES=1)
abf_diagnostics	TypeScript diagnostics (errors/warnings) for one file or all tracked TS/JS files
abf_definition	Goto-definition via the TypeScript language service — file, line range, and source preview
abf_hover	Type signature + JSDoc for an identifier (IDE-style hover)
abf_call_graph	Transitive callers/callees of a function or method (TS/JS, ts-morph)
abf_git	Git log, blame, diff (recent/staged/unstaged)
abf_file_summary	Full-text search across LLM-generated file summaries (FTS5, OR/AND mode)
abf_conventions	Detected naming, structure, and formatting conventions
abf_index	Index status, rebuild, incremental update, or trigger re-summarization
abf_ping	Health check — returns version and project root

Install

npm install -g agentsbestfriend

Prerequisites

• Node.js ≥ 20
• ripgrep — brew install ripgrep (macOS) / apt install ripgrep (Linux)
• git
• Ollama (optional) — for summaries & semantic search: ollama.com

Quick Start

abf init

abf init walks you through everything:

1. Indexes your project — discovers and indexes all files via git ls-files
2. Generates LLM summaries & embeddings (if Ollama is running) — with live (12/80) progress
3. Adds .abf/ to .gitignore — prompts before writing
4. Installs ABF as an MCP server for your agents — you pick which agents (Cursor, VS Code, Claude Code, etc.) and whether to use npx agentsbestfriend start (always latest) or abf start (local install)

Manual Agent Setup

If you prefer to configure manually, add ABF as a stdio MCP server. Using npx is recommended — it always runs the latest published version without requiring a global install:

VS Code / GitHub Copilot (.vscode/mcp.json):

{
  "servers": {
    "abf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["agentsbestfriend", "start"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor (.cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "abf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["agentsbestfriend", "start"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "abf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["agentsbestfriend", "start"]
    }
  }
}

Set ABF_PROJECT_ROOT in the env block if the agent does not pass its working directory automatically.

CLI Commands

abf start             Start MCP server in stdio mode (used by agents)
abf init [path]       Index project, set up .gitignore entry, install MCP for agents
abf skill [path]      Install or update the ABF workflow skill for your coding agents
abf index [path]      Re-index a project (incremental by default)
abf status [path]     Show index stats
abf config            Interactive configuration editor
abf doctor            Health checks (Node, ripgrep, git, Ollama)
abf portal            Interactive TUI dashboard

How It Works

ABF maintains a lightweight SQLite index (.abf/index.db) inside each project root. The index is built once and updated incrementally — only changed files are re-processed. A file watcher keeps it current as you edit.

Table	Contents
files	Paths, hashes, languages, line counts, LLM summaries
symbols	Functions, classes, interfaces, types (AST-extracted)
imports	Dependency edges between files
embeddings	Float32 vectors for semantic search (chunked for large files)
file_chunks	Smart chunks aligned to symbol boundaries
files_fts	FTS5 full-text index over summaries

Optional: LLM Enrichment

With Ollama running locally, ABF generates file summaries and embeddings:

ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:1.5b    # file summaries
ollama pull nomic-embed-text       # embeddings / semantic search

Both abf init and abf portal → Re-index show live progress:

◆  Generating LLM summaries... (14/80)
◆  Generating embeddings... (28/80)

Large files are automatically split into chunks for embedding — no context-length errors.

Without Ollama, all tools still work normally. Semantic search falls back to keyword mode.

Configuration

Global config at ~/.abf/config.json. Edit interactively with abf config or via abf portal.

{
  "llm": {
    "provider": "ollama",
    "ollama": {
      "baseUrl": "http://localhost:11434",
      "summaryModel": "qwen2.5-coder:1.5b",
      "embeddingModel": "nomic-embed-text"
    }
  },
  "indexing": {
    "autoWatch": true,
    "respectGitignore": true,
    "maxFileSizeKb": 512,
    "excludedPatterns": ["*.min.js", "*.min.css", "*.map", "*.lock"]
  },
  "search": {
    "defaultMaxResults": 20
  }
}

Architecture

AgentsBestFriend/
├── packages/
│   ├── core/     Shared logic — DB, config, search, analysis, indexer, LLM
│   ├── server/   MCP server (11 tools)
│   └── cli/      Commander.js CLI + TUI portal
├── turbo.json
└── package.json

Built with Turborepo + pnpm workspaces. Core modules:

Module	Purpose
@abf/core/db	Drizzle ORM + SQLite (WAL, FTS5)
@abf/core/config	Zod-validated config
@abf/core/search	ripgrep, keyword scorer, semantic (cosine similarity)
@abf/core/analysis	ts-morph AST, conventions detector, project overview
@abf/core/indexer	git ls-files discovery, incremental pipeline, file watcher
@abf/core/llm	Ollama client, summary & chunked embedding pipelines
@abf/core/git	Git CLI wrapper

Development

# Install dependencies
pnpm install

# Build all packages
pnpm build

# Watch mode
pnpm dev

# Type-check
pnpm type-check

Links

• GitHub: github.com/TheRealFloatDev/AgentsBestFriend
• npm: npmjs.com/package/agentsbestfriend
• Issues: github.com/TheRealFloatDev/AgentsBestFriend/issues
• MCP Spec: modelcontextprotocol.io

License

MIT