pi-zvec-grep

Extends pi with zvec-grep (a.k.a. zg) as a native tool + commands — local-first hybrid search across your workspace for humans and agents.

• 🧠 Semantic + exact in one call — hybrid (BM25) + vector retrieval behind zvec_search
• 📍 Ranked, source-linked hits — file, line range, symbols, source
• 🏠 Local-first — index + embeddings on your machine; remote only with your explicit consent
• 🛠️ Agent-native — three tools + two commands, no MCP server required

Install

Requires Node 22+ and the CLI globally:

npm i -g @zvec/zvec-grep

Then install this package into pi:

pi install npm:@luminascale/pi-zvec-grep

Or from git:

pi install git:github.com/MikkelKappelPersson/pi-zvec-grep

Restart pi or run /reload.

Tools

Tool	What it does
zvec_search	Hybrid semantic + keyword search over an indexed workspace. Query groups (query, queries, fts, vector), fuse, globs, file types, symbol focus, modified-after filters, and a root (defaults to cwd).
zvec_index	Create, update, rebuild, or drop a workspace index. Prefers a local embedding model.
zvec_status	Show index presence, coverage, freshness, and the suggested next action. Missing index is a normal state.

Commands

One slash command, /zg, dispatches on a subcommand. All take an optional [path] (workspace root; defaults to the current directory). Bare /zg or /zg help prints usage.

Command	What it does
/zg index [path]	Create or incrementally update the workspace index.
/zg rebuild [path]	Recreate the index from scratch.
/zg drop [path]	Permanently delete the workspace index (runs with --yes; no prompt).
/zg status [path]	Show index presence, coverage, freshness, and the suggested next action.
/zg settings	Open the settings menu (interactive TUI): settings scope, default search limit, auto index on start.
/zg help	Print usage.

Settings

/zg settings opens a scoped settings menu. Two config layers:

Layer	File	Contents
User (default)	~/.pi/agent/pi-zvec-grep/config.json	Values only — the base defaults for every workspace that has NOT activated project scope. Scope flags never apply from this file: a projectScope key here is ignored, and a legacy settingsScope key is ignored and stripped on the next save.
Project	<workspace>/.zvec-grep/config.json (anchored at cwd, no walk-up)	Self-contained — the whole project config as the full values object, plus the boolean activation flag projectScope. true: this file alone is authoritative for this workspace only (values = built-in defaults + its contents, no user values mixed in), so the committed file means the same on every machine — and activating it can never flip any other project. false (or absent in a hand-written file): the values are stored but dormant and the user layer applies. Files the menu manages always carry the flag, so a committed file declares its state explicitly. Fields missing from the file fall back to the built-in defaults. (A legacy settingsScope: "project" string in an old file is still read as true; never written.)

• Settings scope (user | project): where the menu reads its values from and writes its edits to — per workspace, never machine-wide. Activation is the boolean projectScope flag inside the project file: a repo can only ever change the settings of its own workspace. Picking project saves the project file (creating it if missing, Config created at … on first creation) with projectScope: true plus the values — a dormant file's parked values win over your user values, so activating a team file never overwrites it. Picking user sets projectScope: false — stored values stay dormant, the file is never deleted, and this workspace's user values apply again.
• Default search limit (1–50): the --limit used by zvec_search when the tool call passes no explicit limit. An explicit tool-call limit always wins.
• Auto index on start (off by default): on every session_start, the hook runs zg status --check-ready in the working directory and, when the index is missing or stale, builds/updates it in the background (fire-and-forget; never blocks startup or the lifecycle hook). Healthy indices cost one fast guard call per start; only a missing/stale index triggers a build. Enabled in the user file for all workspaces, or in the project file for one workspace. The first build can take a while and may download the local embedding model — hence off by default.

Config files are read fresh on every use (mtime-cached), so hand edits take effect immediately.

Committing project settings to a repo. The file is self-contained, so sharing it via the repo is the intended way to make settings team-wide. Note that .gitignore commonly ignores the whole .zvec-grep/ directory (it holds runtime index artifacts) — and git cannot track files inside an ignored directory, so a bare .zvec-grep/ entry keeps the config out of the repo too. Re-include just the config with:

.zvec-grep/*
!.zvec-grep/config.json

// user: ~/.pi/agent/pi-zvec-grep/config.json (values only — no scope flag)
{
	"defaultLimit": 7,
	"autoIndex": false
}

// project: .zvec-grep/config.json (self-contained — values + boolean flag)
{
	"defaultLimit": 25,
	"autoIndex": true,
	"projectScope": true
}

Quickstart

# index a workspace once (local model auto-downloads, stays on disk)
/zg index

# then just ask the agent — it picks zvec_search on its own

Or, from the CLI directly:

zg index /path/to/workspace --embedding local/potion-code-16m-v2
zg query "how is the token validated"

Design: what it is (and is not)

zvec-grep unifies ripgrep, BM25, and vector search behind one interface. But its own guidance is explicit: keep native rg for exact text. So this package is not a drop-in grep replacement — it's a first-class search layer for the cases rg can't reach:

• meaning / fuzzy / concept-based discovery
• cross-file, call-chain, data-flow, and architectural synthesis
• design-rationale questions where you don't already know the exact identifier

rg stays the workhorse for exact strings, regex, counts (-c), file lists (-l), and anything you pipe. (Managed zg query --rg deliberately rejects output-format flags like -l/-c/--json and normalises its output/exit-codes — that's the boundary.)

The routing rule is baked into the tool descriptions and the promptGuidelines so the model chooses the right tool without extra prompting.

Layout

index.ts                 # entry — registers tools + commands
src/core/
  queries.ts             # buildQueryArgs — zvec_search argv contract
  indexing.ts            # buildIndexArgs — zvec_index argv contract
  workspace.ts           # normalizeRoot + clip
  zg.ts                  # pi.exec wrapper around the global `zg`
src/extension/
  tools.ts               # the pi tool + command surface + auto-index session hook
  config.ts              # two-layer settings: values-only user file + self-contained project file with the boolean activation flag
  settings-ui.ts         # /zg settings menu (SettingsList)
test/
  verify-*.mjs           # plain node --experimental-strip-types harness
  helpers/
    test-utils.mjs       # temp dirs, PASS/FAIL reporter
    fake-zg.mjs          # deterministic fake `zg` on PATH
    pi-harness.mjs       # fake ExtensionAPI with a real child_process exec

Testing

No test framework — Node's type stripping + a fake zg binary (no real zg/index/network needed). Tests run hermetically via a fake pi whose pi.exec is a real child_process.execFile bound to a PATH with the fake zg prepended.

npm test
# or individually:
npm run cli:test        # real `zg` contract (needs zg installed)
npm run surface:test    # tool surface + execute wiring (fake)
npm run queries:test    # buildQueryArgs (pure)
npm run indexing:test   # buildIndexArgs (pure)
npm run errors:test     # normalizeRoot/clip/error shaping (pure)
npm run settings:test   # config layers: per-workspace flag, dormant/legacy files, full writes (pure + tool wiring)
npm run autoindex:test  # session-start auto-index hook: guard, fire-and-forget, in-flight (fake)

verify-cli.mjs shells out to the real zg and will FAIL if @zvec/zvec-grep is not installed — install it first, or rely on the hermetic suites for CI without it.

Publishing

Releases publish to npm via GitHub trusted publishing (OIDC, no static npm token). Tag a release matching the package.json version (e.g. v0.1.0); the workflow verifies the tag, runs the test suite, and publishes with provenance. See .github/workflows/publish.yml.

License

Apache-2.0. pi-zvec-grep is a thin integration layer over the separately-licensed @zvec/zvec-grep CLI and the zvec engine it ships.