Livegrep vs Shebe
Livegrep
livegrep.comShebe
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Livegrep | Shebe |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Code Search Tools | 7.1 (#26) | 7.8 (#12) |
| Intended users | The project describes itself as a tool for interactively searching source code, including large repositories. | The project positions Shebe for developers and AI coding agents working with large codebases and says it complements structural tools such as Serena MCP. |
| Purpose | Livegrep is an open-source tool for interactive regex search of source repositories around gigabyte scale. | Shebe is a local code-search tool that uses BM25 full-text search for code repositories. |
| Support | The about page lists [email protected] as the feedback contact. | The project provides installation, configuration, troubleshooting, and MCP setup guides in its repository. |
Plans
In their own words
Shebe
Shebe is a local code-search tool that uses BM25 full-text search across code repositories. It ranks results and supports phrase searches, Boolean queries, and literal matching. Fourteen MCP tools serve coding agents with functions including search, repository indexing, file reading, and reference finding. Shebe runs without embeddings, a GPU, or a cloud service, but repositories must be cloned locally before indexing; remote repository URLs are not supported. Its text-based search does not provide semantic similarity, so related words such as “login” and “authenticate” may not match. Prebuilt binaries are listed for Linux x86_64 and macOS on Apple Silicon and Intel; Linux ARM64 is planned. Windows users need to build it from source. The installation guide covers MCP setup and Zed configuration and points to the organization for VS Code and other editor extensions. Shebe is free and licensed under Apache-2.0. The README reports 2 ms query latency and indexing rates from 1,928 to 11,210 files per second in its listed benchmarks.