Index Server

Governed knowledge base for AI agents via the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

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🚀 Quick Start Guide — Get running in 5 minutes with HTTPS and semantic search

📖 Use Case Scenarios — Real-world examples for support engineers, dev teams, and knowledge management

What Is Index Server?

Index Server is a central knowledge base that AI agents connect to via the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Agents search, read, and contribute knowledge that persists across sessions and repositories — building a governed catalog with versioning, audit trails, and approval workflows. An optional admin dashboard provides real-time monitoring of catalog health, usage analytics, and drift detection.

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Prerequisite: Node.js

Index Server requires Node.js 22 or newer before using the npx or source install options. Download Node.js from nodejs.org or install it with Windows Package Manager from administrator prompt:

winget install OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS

Quick Start Options

Option A: MCP-native via npx (recommended)

Run the latest published package without cloning the repo. Choose this when you want the fastest local start and already have Node.js installed.

Start with the setup wizard so it can generate the right MCP client config for VS Code, Copilot CLI, or Claude Desktop:

npx -y @jagilber-org/index-server@latest --setup

To launch the server directly without the wizard:

npx -y @jagilber-org/index-server@latest --dashboard

Prefer a stable index-server command on PATH? Install globally instead: npm install -g @jagilber-org/index-server, then run index-server --setup / index-server --dashboard. The GitHub Packages mirror requires authentication, so npx against npm.pkg.github.com needs a per-scope .npmrc plus a GITHUB_TOKEN with read:packages.

Upgrading or hitting "unsupported INDEX_SERVER key" / "Cannot find module" errors after install? Run the wizard-driven cleanup: index-server --uninstall (aliases: --remove, --clean). It can selectively remove data paths, MCP client entries, and the global package, or wipe everything with --non-interactive --all. See Upgrading and Uninstalling for the full reference.

Bootstrap HTTPS for the dashboard

Generate a self-signed TLS cert+key in one command:

# Generate at ~/.index-server/certs/, then start with HTTPS automatically
npx -y @jagilber-org/index-server@latest --init-cert --start --dashboard

--init-cert alone exits after generation. --init-cert --start continues into normal startup with the generated cert wired into --dashboard-tls automatically.

Prerequisite: openssl must be on PATH. On Windows, Git for Windows (git.exe) is the recommended TLS prerequisite because it ships an openssl build, typically at C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\openssl.exe. If it is missing, install Git for Windows from an admin prompt:

winget install --id Git.Git -e --source winget

See docs/cert_init.md for setup guidance, the full flag reference, security notes, and troubleshooting.

Option B: VS Code MCP configuration

Use VS Code's built-in MCP support with .vscode/mcp.json or your global mcp.json. You can add the server entry manually or run npx -y @jagilber-org/index-server@latest --setup to generate the config for you.

Option C: Docker

Run the server in a container. Choose this when you want isolated runtime dependencies or you are preparing a container-based deployment.

docker compose up        # HTTP on :8787
docker compose up tls    # HTTPS on :8787 with self-signed certs

See Docker Deployment Guide for volumes, environment variables, and production configuration.

Option D: From source

Clone and build the repository yourself. Choose this when you want to modify the server, run tests locally, or work from the latest source.

git clone https://github.com/jagilber-org/index-server.git
cd index-server
npm install
npm run build

After the build completes, run the interactive setup wizard to generate .env and your MCP client config:

node dist/server/index-server.js --setup
# or
npm run setup

Configure Your MCP Client

Best practice: set INDEX_SERVER_DIR to a well-known data folder such as C:/mcp/index-data/instructions or ~/.index-server/instructions. Keep it outside VS Code and MCP client config paths so backups and reinstalls do not move or overwrite your catalog.

<details> <summary>VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json)</summary>

{
  "servers": {
    "index-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@jagilber-org/index-server@latest",
        "--dashboard"
      ],
      "env": {
        "INDEX_SERVER_DIR": "C:/mcp/index-data/instructions",
        "INDEX_SERVER_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

</details>

<details> <summary>Copilot CLI (~/.copilot/mcp-config.json)</summary>

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "index-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@jagilber-org/index-server@latest", "--dashboard"],
      "env": {
        "INDEX_SERVER_DIR": "C:/mcp/index-data/instructions",
        "INDEX_SERVER_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      },
      "tools": ["*"]
    }
  }
}

</details>

<details> <summary>Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json)</summary>

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "index-server": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@jagilber-org/index-server@latest", "--dashboard"],
      "env": {
        "INDEX_SERVER_DIR": "C:/mcp/index-data/instructions",
        "INDEX_SERVER_LOG_LEVEL": "info"
      },
      "tools": ["*"]
    }
  }
}

</details>

See MCP Configuration Guide for advanced patterns, environment variables, and TLS setup.

Verify

• Server appears in your MCP client's server list
• Run tools/list to see 50+ available tools
• Run prompts/list to discover setup/config/verification prompts
• Run resources/list to discover quickstart and configuration guides
• Dashboard (if enabled) at http://localhost:8787

Built-in MCP prompts and resources

Clients that support MCP prompts/resources can use the built-in read-only setup guidance surface:

• Prompts: setup_index_server, configure_index_server, verify_index_server
• Resources: index://guides/quickstart, index://guides/client-config, index://guides/verification

These surfaces are intentionally static and read-only. Use them for setup help, config review, and verification/troubleshooting without changing server state.

Enable Semantic Search (optional)

Add one env variable to any MCP config above to get embedding-based similarity search:

"env": {
  "INDEX_SERVER_SEMANTIC_ENABLED": "1"
}

First search downloads a ~90MB model (one-time). After that, all searches automatically use semantic mode — no code changes needed. See Quick Start Guide for GPU acceleration and offline options.

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Teach Your Agents

Copy-paste these instructions so your AI agents discover and use the shared knowledge base automatically.

Global instructions (~/.github/copilot-instructions.md)

## Index Server
- If index-server MCP tools are available, use them as a shared knowledge base for validated cross-repo patterns and standards.
- Search before creating: use `index_search` with 2-5 keywords, then `index_dispatch` with action="get" for details.
- After learning something reusable, add it with `index_add` or promote from a repo with `promote_from_repo`.
- Index entries are promoted snapshots — always prefer current repo files over index content.

Per-repo instructions (.github/copilot-instructions.md)

## Index Server Integration
- Search order: repo files → .instructions/ → index-server → external docs
- **Search before add/promote**: Always search for existing guidance before creating new instructions. Use `index_search` with relevant keywords and inspect top results.
- To retrieve: `index_search` → `index_dispatch` with action="get" and the instruction ID
- To contribute: validate locally in `.instructions/` first, then promote with `promote_from_repo`
- To maintain: use `index_dispatch` with action="groom" to clean duplicates, `index_governanceUpdate` to deprecate stale content
- Current repo state always wins over promoted index snapshots

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Dashboard

The optional admin dashboard provides a Grafana-dark themed interface for monitoring and catalog management:

Panel	Description
Overview	Server health, uptime, system status
Instructions	Catalog browser with usage counts and governance status
Monitoring	Performance metrics and error rates
Maintenance	Backup, repair, and catalog operations
Graph	Mermaid dependency graph of instructions

See dashboard.md for full details. REST client scripts (scripts/index-server-client.ps1 and scripts/index-server-client.sh) provide full CRUD access for CI pipelines and subagents without MCP — see tools.md.

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Key Features

• MCP protocol compliance — Full JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdio with schema validation
• 50+ tools for search, CRUD, governance, analytics, messaging, and feedback
• Semantic search — Optional embedding-based similarity search (HuggingFace models)
• Bootstrap security — Mutations gated until human confirmation on fresh installs
• Cross-repo knowledge promotion — Validate locally, then promote proven patterns to the shared catalog
• Governance workflows — Ownership, versioning, approval status, and deterministic governance hashing
• REST client scripts — PowerShell and Bash scripts for CI/agents without MCP

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Documentation

Document	Purpose
Quick Start	Get running in 5 minutes
Use Cases	Real-world scenarios and workflows
API Reference	Complete MCP tool documentation
MCP Configuration	Setup patterns for all environments
Server Configuration	Environment variables and CLI options
Architecture	System design and component overview
Admin Dashboard	UI features, drift monitoring, maintenance
Content Guidance	Local vs. central instruction guidance
Network Privacy	Network transparency and offline deployment
Documentation Index	Full documentation map

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Security

Index Server makes zero telemetry calls and sends no data to external services during normal operation. The dashboard binds to localhost only by default. Mutations are audit-logged, can be forced read-only with INDEX_SERVER_MUTATION=0, and fresh installations gate writes until human confirmation via the bootstrap workflow. Optional subsystems can be disabled at boot (e.g. INDEX_SERVER_MESSAGING_ENABLED=0 to remove all messaging_* MCP tools and the dashboard Messaging tab).

See SECURITY.md for vulnerability reporting, PRIVACY.md for data collection policy and optional outbound connections, and Network Privacy Guide for offline deployment and verification.

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Development

npm install          # Install dependencies
npm run build        # Build TypeScript
npm run setup        # Interactive configuration wizard (generates .env + mcp.json)
npm test             # Run the fast default suite
npm run test:slow    # Run heavy integration/perf tests
npm run test:all     # Run the full Vitest suite
npm run typecheck    # Type checking
npm run lint         # Linting

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full workflow, code standards, and testing requirements.

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License

MIT License — see LICENSE file for details.

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Built with Model Context Protocol (MCP), TypeScript, Node.js, Vitest, and AJV.