vexp-cli — Context Engine for AI Coding Agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex)

Give your AI coding agent the right context, then verify its work — 100% on your machine.

vexp-cli is a local-first MCP server that pre-indexes your codebase into a dependency graph and feeds any AI coding agent only the code that matters for the task, so it stops spending tokens rediscovering your repo before every change. New in 2.5: it also checks the agent's work mechanically when it says it's done, and scans your code for PII and secrets before any model reads them. Your source never leaves your laptop.

npm install -g vexp-cli
vexp setup      # auto-configures Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and 14 agents
vexp index      # builds the local graph — no login, no API key

Why developers install vexp

Your AI agent burns most of its budget exploring your repo before writing a line of code. It reads entire files, floods its context window, and still misses the one function that mattered. vexp fixes the input and the output:

• 📉 Fable-5-level results from Opus 5. At half the token price. On the SWE-bench Pro public set, Claude Code running Claude Opus 5 with vexp resolved 81.7% (597/731). Anthropic reports 80.3% for Claude Fable 5 and 79.2% for Opus 5. $1.52 per task, 95% CI 78.7-84.3, every session published at vexp.dev/benchmark.
• ⚡ One call, not a repo crawl. vexp returns ranked pivot files with exact line ranges and blast radius instead of whole files, and since 3.0 the turn-zero orientation carries up to 3x more evidence, so your agent stops rediscovering the codebase before every change. Everything that could add a turn to your session is opt-in (vexp setup --interventions): by default vexp only subtracts.
• 🔍 Verifies the work (new in 2.5). When your agent declares a task done, verify_done reports what's provably broken or missing — broken imports, parse errors, dependents never updated — each with file and line. No model grades anything; it's git + tree-sitter + the code graph.
• 🛡️ Shield scan (new in 2.5). vexp shield scan shows the emails, API keys, tokens and private keys sitting in your comments and strings that every AI agent currently reads. Local, deterministic, masked.
• 🔒 100% local. Zero network calls, zero cloud indexing, no account, no API key. Your code stays yours.
• 🤝 Works with everything. One vexp setup configures Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, GitHub Copilot, OpenAI Codex, Zed, Cline, Aider, opencode, and more — 14 agents in total.

How it works

vexp parses 34 languages with tree-sitter into a local SQLite dependency graph, then serves your agent through the Model Context Protocol:

• run_pipeline — ranked pivot files + line ranges + blast radius, in one call
• get_skeleton — file structure (signatures, no bodies)
• verify_done — mechanical completion check
• expand_vexp_ref — full symbol bodies on demand

You never call these yourself — vexp setup writes the agent config, and your agent calls them automatically. You don't even mention vexp in your prompts.

Quickstart

# 1. Install
npm install -g vexp-cli

# 2. Configure your agents (auto-detected) + build the graph
cd your-project
vexp setup
vexp index

# 3. Use your agent normally. That's it.
#    Check savings any time:
vexp savings

# 4. See what your code exposes to AI:
vexp shield scan

# 5. Diagnose anything:
vexp doctor

Supported agents

Claude Code · Cursor · Windsurf · GitHub Copilot · OpenAI Codex · Zed · Continue.dev · Cline · Aider · Kiro · Kilo Code · opencode · Augment · Antigravity · ZCode · Friday Code

Supported languages

TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Rust, Go, Java, Kotlin, Scala, C, C++, C#, Ruby, PHP, Swift, Objective-C, Lua, Dart, Elixir, Clojure, Haskell, OCaml, F#, Zig, Bash, SQL, and more — 34 in total.

Links

• 🌐 Website & docs → vexp.dev
• 🧩 VS Code / Cursor extension → Marketplace · Open VSX

Keywords: ai context engine · mcp server · claude code context · cursor context · save tokens · reduce ai coding cost · code context · dependency graph · tree-sitter · local-first · token optimization · ai coding assistant · code intelligence · model context protocol