CodeAlive Context Engine

Semantic code intelligence across your entire code ecosystem — current project, organizational repos, dependencies, and any indexed codebase.

Table of Contents

• Tools Overview
• When to Use
• Quick Start
• Tool Reference
• Data Sources
• Configuration

Tools Overview

Cost guidance: Search is lightweight and should be the default starting point. Chat with Codebase invokes an LLM on the server side, making it significantly more expensive per call — use it when you need a synthesized, ready-to-use answer rather than raw search results.

When to Use

Use this skill for semantic understanding:

• "How is authentication implemented?"
• "Show me error handling patterns across services"
• "How does this library work internally?"
• "Find similar features to guide my implementation"

Use local file tools instead for:

• Finding specific files by name or pattern
• Exact keyword search in the current directory
• Reading known file paths
• Searching uncommitted changes

Quick Start

1. Discover what's indexed

python scripts/datasources.py

2. Search for code (fast, cheap)

python scripts/search.py "JWT token validation" my-backend
python scripts/search.py "error handling patterns" workspace:platform-team --mode deep

3. Chat with codebase (slower, richer answers)

python scripts/chat.py "Explain the authentication flow" my-backend
python scripts/chat.py "What about security considerations?" --continue CONV_ID

4. Multi-step exploration

python scripts/explore.py "understand:user authentication" my-backend
python scripts/explore.py "debug:slow database queries" my-service

Tool Reference

datasources.py — List Data Sources

python scripts/datasources.py              # Ready-to-use sources
python scripts/datasources.py --all        # All (including processing)
python scripts/datasources.py --json       # JSON output

search.py — Semantic Code Search

Returns file paths, line numbers, and code snippets. Fast and cheap.

python scripts/search.py <query> <data_sources...> [options]

Content inclusion rule: Use --include-content only for repositories outside your working directory. For the current repo, get paths from search and then read files directly for latest content.

chat.py — Chat with Codebase

Sends your question to an AI consultant that has full context of the indexed codebase. Returns synthesized, ready-to-use answers. Supports conversation continuity for follow-ups.

This is more expensive than search because it runs an LLM inference on the server side. Prefer search when you just need to locate code. Use chat when you need explanations, comparisons, or architectural analysis.

python scripts/chat.py <question> <data_sources...> [options]

Conversation continuity: Every response includes a conversation_id. Pass it with --continue for follow-up questions — this preserves context and is cheaper than starting fresh.

explore.py — Smart Exploration

Combines search and chat-with-codebase in multi-step workflows. Useful for complex investigations.

python scripts/explore.py <mode:query> <data_sources...>

Data Sources

Repository — single codebase, for targeted searches:

python scripts/search.py "query" my-backend-api

Workspace — multiple repos, for cross-project patterns:

python scripts/search.py "query" workspace:backend-team

Multiple repositories:

python scripts/search.py "query" repo-a repo-b repo-c

Configuration

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+ (no third-party packages required — uses only stdlib)

API Key Setup

The skill needs a CodeAlive API key. Resolution order:

1. CODEALIVE_API_KEY environment variable
2. OS credential store (macOS Keychain / Linux secret-tool / Windows Credential Manager)

Environment variable (all platforms):

export CODEALIVE_API_KEY="your_key_here"

macOS Keychain:

security add-generic-password -a "$USER" -s "codealive-api-key" -w "YOUR_API_KEY"

Linux (freedesktop secret-tool):

secret-tool store --label="CodeAlive API Key" service codealive-api-key

Windows Credential Manager:

cmdkey /generic:codealive-api-key /user:codealive /pass:"YOUR_API_KEY"

Base URL (optional, defaults to https://app.codealive.ai):

export CODEALIVE_BASE_URL="https://your-instance.example.com"

Get API keys at: https://app.codealive.ai/settings/api-keys

Detailed Guides

For advanced usage, see reference files:

• Query Patterns — effective query writing, anti-patterns, language-specific examples
• Workflows — step-by-step workflows for onboarding, debugging, feature planning, and more