Localnest

LocalNest MCP

Code Intelligence + Knowledge Graph + AI Memory — One Local MCP Server

The only MCP server that unifies semantic code search, a temporal knowledge graph, and persistent AI memory in a single local-first package. 74 tools. Zero cloud. Pure SQLite.

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Why LocalNest?

Every other MCP server forces you to choose: memory or code intelligence. Never both.

LocalNest is the first to combine all three pillars into one server that runs entirely on your machine:

| Pillar | What it does | Why it matters | |:---|:---|:---| | Code Intelligence | Hybrid BM25+vector search, AST-aware chunking, symbol finding (defs/usages/callers) | Your AI understands code structure, not just text | | Knowledge Graph | Temporal entity-triple store with multi-hop traversal and as_of time-travel queries | Architectural decisions, dependencies, and facts — versioned over time | | Persistent Memory | Cross-session recall, semantic dedup, agent-scoped isolation, conversation ingestion | Your AI remembers what you taught it — forever |

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How LocalNest Compares

No other MCP server covers all three pillars. Here's how the landscape breaks down:

vs Memory-Only Servers

| | LocalNest | Mem0 | Basic Memory | MCP Memory Service | AgentMemory | |:---|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:| | Persistent AI memory | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Knowledge graph | Yes | No | No | No | No | | Semantic code search | Yes | No | No | No | No | | Symbol finding (defs/usages) | Yes | No | No | No | No | | AST-aware chunking | Yes | No | No | No | No | | Local-first / no cloud | Yes | Hybrid | Yes | Yes | Yes | | MCP tools | 74 | 8 | ~10 | 24 | 43 |

> Mem0 has 41k stars and $24M in funding — but it's memory-only with no code intelligence. Basic Memory integrates with Obsidian but can't search code. AgentMemory has auto-capture hooks but zero code features.

vs Code Intelligence Servers

| | LocalNest | GitNexus | claude-context | codebase-memory-mcp | CodeGraphContext | |:---|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:| | Semantic code search | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Knowledge graph | Yes | Code-only | No | Code-only | Yes | | Persistent AI memory | Yes | No | No | No | No | | Cross-session recall | Yes | No | No | No | No | | Symbol finding | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | | Temporal time-travel queries | Yes | No | No | No | No | | Conversation ingestion | Yes | No | No | No | No | | Local-first / no cloud | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | | MCP tools | 74 | 16 | ~5 | 14 | ~10 |

> GitNexus (27k stars) has strong code search but no memory. claude-context (Zilliz, 5.9k stars) is Milvus-backed with no KG or memory. codebase-memory-mcp (DeusData) is the closest competitor — code + KG in a single binary — but has no AI memory layer.

Full Feature Matrix

| Feature | LocalNest | codebase-memory-mcp | GitNexus | claude-context | Basic Memory | Mem0 | |:---|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:|:---:| | Semantic code search (hybrid BM25+vec) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | | Knowledge graph (entities + triples) | Yes | Code-only | Code-only | No | No | No | | Persistent AI memory | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | | Symbol finding (defs/usages/callers) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | | AST-aware chunking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | | Temporal time-travel queries | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | | Multi-hop graph traversal | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | | Conversation ingestion | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | | Agent-scoped isolation | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | | Semantic dedup | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | | Hooks system (pre/post callbacks) | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | | Interactive TUI dashboard | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | | Local-first / no cloud | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Hybrid | | MCP tools | 74 | 14 | 16 | ~5 | ~10 | 8 | | Zero external deps | No (Node.js) | Yes (binary) | No | No | No | No |

LocalNest is the only server that checks every box in the first three rows.

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Quick Start

# Install
npm install -g localnest-mcp

# Setup workspace + embeddings
localnest setup

# Verify
localnest doctor

Interactive dashboard:

localnest dashboard

MCP Client Config

After setup, add this to your AI client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "localnest": {
      "command": "localnest-mcp",
      "startup_timeout_sec": 30,
      "env": {
        "MCP_MODE": "stdio",
        "LOCALNEST_CONFIG": "~/.localnest/config/localnest.config.json",
        "LOCALNEST_INDEX_BACKEND": "sqlite-vec",
        "LOCALNEST_MEMORY_ENABLED": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Cline, Continue, Gemini CLI, and any MCP-compatible client.

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Tool Suites

LocalNest exposes 74 specialized MCP tools, organized into focused suites:

Workspace & Discovery — file navigation, project summaries, scoped reads projecttree, readfile, filechanged, listprojects, listroots, summarizeproject

Search & Code Intelligence — hybrid search, symbols, AST-aware queries searchhybrid, searchcode, searchfiles, find, finddefinition, findusages, findcallers, findimplementations, getsymbol, rename_preview

Memory & Recall — persistent cross-session memory with semantic dedup memorystore, memoryrecall, memoryget, memoryupdate, memorydelete, memorylist, memorystorebatch, memorydeletebatch, memoryrelated, memorysuggestrelations, memoryaddrelation, memoryremoverelation, memorycaptureevent, memoryevents, memorystatus, memorycheck_duplicate

Knowledge Graph — temporal triples, time-travel, multi-hop traversal kgaddentity, kgaddtriple, kgquery, kginvalidate, kgasof, kgtimeline, kgstats, kgaddentitiesbatch, kgaddtriplesbatch, kgbackfilllinks, graphtraverse, graphbridges

Organization — nests, branches, agent isolation, diary nestlist, nestbranches, nesttree, diarywrite, diary_read

Ingestion & Hooks — conversation import, lifecycle callbacks ingestmarkdown, ingestjson, hooksstats, hookslist_events

Agent Context — priming, teaching, outcomes, task context agentprime, teach, captureoutcome, taskcontext, whatsnew

System — health, indexing, updates, embedding status health, serverstatus, indexproject, indexstatus, embedstatus, updateself, updatestatus, audit, backup, restore, help, usage_guide

Full parameter reference: Tool Documentation

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Agentic Workflows

LocalNest is designed as the foundational context layer for AI coding agents:

• Cold start — agent_prime instantly hydrates the context window with relevant memories, recent changes, and project state.
• Deep investigation — find runs fused search across code fragments and historical design decisions in a single call.
• Continuous learning — teach saves architectural rules that persist across sessions, ensuring agents never repeat mistakes.
• Outcome capture — capture_outcome records what worked and what didn't, building an experience base over time.

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Enterprise-Grade Quality

• OIDC Trusted Publishing for verifiable npm provenance
• Continuous CodeQL static analysis on all branches
• OpenSSF Scorecard monitoring and proactive Dependabot updates

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Troubleshooting

Installing from GitHub fails

Direct npm install -g git+https://... may fail with TAR_ENTRY_ERRORS. This is a known npm limitation.

Fix: clone, pack, install

git clone https://github.com/wmt-mobile/localnest.git
cd localnest && npm pack
npm install -g ./localnest-mcp-*.tgz

Semantic search not working

cd $(npm root -g)/localnest-mcp && npm install --no-save @huggingface/transformers
localnest doctor

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Resources

• Documentation — Full tool reference, architecture, and guides
• Comparison — Detailed competitive analysis
• Architecture — Retrieval pipeline and memory graph internals
• [Changelog](./CHANGELOG.md) — Release history
• [Security](./SECURITY.md) — Vulnerability disclosure policy

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Code intelligence. Knowledge graph. AI memory. One server. Your machine.

Source & license

This open-source MCP server is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: wmt-mobile
• Source: wmt-mobile/localnest
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://wmt-mobile.github.io/localnest/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.